Dun "Can't" Fletcher - But who next?

After quite a few disappointing performances, Indian cricket finally sprang back to life. Though they couldn’t inflict a whitewash, the Men in Blue stepped up their game by quite a few notches than their white flannel version. After the disappointment of the Test series, the Indian team salvaged some pride by winning the ODI series by the slimmest margin. Though the scoreline displayed a hard fought series but in reality, India outperformed England after the Christmas break. It was a series that surprisingly highlighted more positives than issues to be pondered over. India got back to winning ways, MS Dhoni led from the front, Suresh Raina took his game to the next level, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja revolted against their normal form, the bowling came good and Indian cricket travelled across the most exotic locales in the country.

However, a few question still remained unanswered. The opening opera continued, so did the concerns with Yuvraj Singh‘s fitness and form. Ashwin’s loss of mystery baffled one and many, while Virat Kohli hit the rougher terrains. Indian team’s biggest concern however isn’t the players, but the short, chubby, silver-maned, expressionless man sitting in the dressing room – Duncan Fletcher. Winning and losing has always been part of the game but when the coach of a side looks to be at his wits’ end, it doesn’t augur too well for the future of the team. Duncan Fletcher’s future certainly looks darker than his pitch black glasses.

Just after the series ended, the cry for replacing Fletcher has become even louder. The clamour for someone like Saurav Ganguly has gained voice and Fletcher has indeed reached the end of the cliff. However, Duncan Fletcher arrived in India with an impressive CV and strong recommendations from two of the most astute minds in cricket – Gary Kirsten and Nasser Hussain. If he mentored Kirsten as a coach, Nasser Hussain was his partner in crime during his tenure as the English coach. His record too spoke volumes about his calibre as a coach. As the England coach, he tasted success in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa but he reached the zenith of his achievements when England reconquered the Ashes in 2005 after 18 years.

When he took over, the Indian team was at the peak of their cricketing excellence. World Cup winners, numero uno in Test – it was a dream job and everyone wanted to be at the helm. But then it happened. Indian Cricket hit a downward vortex, hit rock bottom with a thud and Fletcher’s dream job turned into his worst nightmare. He not only failed to arrest the fall, but also had no plan for staging a comeback. Managing a successful team is a tricky job. Getting to the top spot is tough, but sustaining it is even tougher. However, it can be done if one has a plan and an eye for the future. When managing a well oiled machine, one has to keep a check on the finer details, phase out the older parts, install new ones and smooth out the rough and rusty edges. But over the last 18 months, Fletcher has failed in every respect. He couldn’t phase out the seniors smoothly and he failed in inspiring the youngsters to up the ante.

There have been many theories going around about why Duncan Fletcher failed. Some suggest he didn’t have a plan, while others cite that he wasn’t really up for it. But the biggest faux pas of Fletcher has been his lack of communication. Even though one didn’t want him to do a Greg Chappell, Duncan Fletcher has been strikingly similar to the Prime Minister of our country. He hasn’t owned up to any of the failures and has let MS Dhoni take the fall for all the mishaps. He didn’t come forward after the whitewashes abroad and was surprisingly silent after getting beaten on home soil. Even with the players, the “Gary Kirsten” chemistry has been missing. Neither has he come up with any master plan nor has anyone heard him delivering dossiers to the struggling players. Even though the players keep harping about his technical prowess, Suresh Raina still struggles with the short ball and Gautam Gambhir keeps hanging his bat out tamely, dragging it onto his stumps or edging it to the slip cordon.

The ODI series victory might have been his “Theek hai” moment but even if India beat the Aussies to a pulp, a contract renewal looks very well out of the question! But then, WHO next? Sourav Ganguly, along with Anil Kumble seems to be a frontrunner as of now, but will it be the correct move?

It will be a gamble, a very big one. The toughest part of being the Indian cricket team’s coach is the “Ego” management. As Indians, we have super bloated egos and the Indian Team is no exception to it. It’s a side filled with superstars and managing their egos is perhaps the biggest challenge for any coach. Appointing an Indian coach sounds sane but it can go either way. He can take the Ajit Wadekar route and please everyone or he can go the Anshuman Gaikwad way and be humiliated. There’s no doubting Ganguly’s or Kumble’s credentials but they have been superstars in their heydays. Will they be willing to do a Gary Kirsten and work behind the scenes? Will the media spare them and not fault them at every step? Will the upcoming superstars be able to come out of the aura of a superstar coach?

Selecting a coach for a cricket team is not easy because in cricket, the captain is the boss. While an Arsene Wenger or a Sir Alex demands constant spotlight, a cricket coach must keep himself in the shadows of the captain. They need to compliment each other because at an international level, it’s more about personnel management rather than skills management. Ganguly had a Wright, Dhoni got a Kirsten. Both of them kept away from the limelight and let the captain take charge. They were silent yet firm. They brought a sense of calm, didn’t let the dressing room polarise and made it a happier place. They had a low key presence outside the dressing room but had a grip on the team without terrorising the players. So, bringing in a former star as the next coach may not be the correct answer and the selectors will do well to keep in mind who the next captain will be, because…

“Ek team mein ek hi gunda hota hai….”