5 points from Ravi Shastri’s book of cricket coaching
When Ravi Shastri was appointed the coach of the Indian cricket team last year, there was hardly anyone advocating the Cricket Advisory Committee’s decision.
How could they? The CAC had picked a man to fill the boots of another man (Anil Kumble) who was far superior to him as a “cricketer”, and the cliché says that the playing abilities of a person are directly proportional to his coaching abilities, that great players necessarily make great coaches and average players can’t.
Apart from clichés, we, the fans are also obsessed with numbers. Not that I personally see cricket in the light of numbers, but India’s results in various series across formats since Shastri has taken over as full-time coach have been 3-0, 5-0, 1-0 (Sri Lanka), 4-1, 1-1 (Australia), 2-1, 2-1 (New Zealand), 1-0, 2-1, 3-0 (Sri Lanka), 1-2, 5-1, 2-1 (South Africa) and 4-1 (Nidahas Trophy).
Shastri is not one of those coaches who is in fashion in this day and age. He doesn’t carry a notebook which is perhaps the only way of making people believe that the coach is having a close look at the affairs. He doesn’t animatedly wave at his players from the sidelines or the dressing room, he doesn’t send too many messages to the captain on the field either, yet he is in complete control and his team is playing exactly the way he wants to. Why and how?
Here are 5 points from Ravi Shastri’s book of cricket coaching:
#1 No opposition is big enough, no opposition is small enough
Complacency and panic are the two things which might affect your morale even before you step onto the field. Complacency creeps in when you take your opposition for granted and panic creeps in when you overhype your opposition.
Shastri has made sure the quality of the opposition is not a topic of discussion in the Indian dressing room. The mantra is simple – We will play whoever comes across and beat whoever comes across. Both, Bangladesh and South Africa, are in the same bracket in Shastri’s book regardless of whatever their actual qualities might be.