Looking at India's 5 previous coaches and rummaging through their tenures
Ever since the Board of Control for Cricket in India has advertised for the post of Indian head coach, there have been widespread speculations over the next appointment. The high-profile post is up for grabs and the ball is now in the court of the board and the technical committee.
Apart from the 57 applicants, there are other names that have been doing the rounds. Although it may be argued that the position of a coach in cricket is not very important, this is not very true in the Indian context. Owing to the mercurial nature of Indian cricket, the position the coach assumes all the more prominence. True the captain is the leader of the pack, the coach is the one who remains in the background and does the brainwork.
Not surprising, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the limited overs skipper stressed on having a coach who can understand the Indian culture that has players from different parts of the country.
Over the years, Indian cricket has had its run in with different personalities as their head coach. Apart from all the successes and failure, there have been many moments which remain etched in the memories of the Indian fans.
#1 Kapil Dev (1999-2000)
So much was expected of the Indian team with Sachin Tendulkar as the skipper and Kapil Dev as the coach. But, things went south for the Indian team, as they lost to Australia 3-0. In Test Matches, India lost its first home Test Series in 13 years.
In ODI's too, India performed badly in away matches and managed just 3 victories in 15 games.
Sachin Tendulkar in his autobiography criticised the ways and means of Kapil Dev as the head coach.
In the chapter titled, Tumultuous Times in his autobiography Sachin wrote that he had high expectations from Kapil.
"During my second stint as captain, we had Kapil Dev as our coach. He is one of the finest cricketers to have played for India and one of the best all-rounders of all time, and I had great expectations of him in Australia. However, his method of involvement and his thought process was limited to leaving the running of the team to the captain, and hence he did not involve himself in strategic discussions that would help us on the field," Sachin wrote.
This statement pretty much sums up the career of Kapil Dev as the Indian coach.