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You can't compare coaching of Chappell and Shastri: Dravid


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Indian skipper Rahul Dravid praised new cricket manager Ravi Shastri but said it was not proper to compare him with Greg Chappell and expect tangible differences from the new coaching staff in a short span. "You can't go around comparing. People expect that in one-two days there will be tangible differences and we will be able to do a markedly different thing. I don't think it changes," Dravid told newspersons. India looking for clean sweep | More news "At the end of the day it is preparing people to play well. Earlier, Greg and his staff also tried to prepare us to play the game to the best of our ability. They tried to prepare us to play good cricket. That's what this coaching staff is also doing," Dravid said. Shastri was appointed as stop-gap cricket manager after Greg Chappell quit as coach following India's dismal show in the World Cup. The lanky former allrounder took over the reins of the team at a five-day conditioning camp in Kolkata before the Indian players flew to Bangladesh for the ODI and Test engagements. To assist Shastri, Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh have been named as bowling and fielding coaches respectively. Dravid said there were varying theories and ways of playing the game, but they take time to evolve.

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Re: You can't compare coaching of Chappell and Shastri: Dravid http://telegraphindia.com/archives/archive.html COACH WITHOUT WHEELS The Indian team?s net sessions in Calcutta under Ravi Shastri did not suggest any significant break from the past, feels Raju Mukherji Recently I read in a vernacular daily that the current India cricket manager Ravi Shastri was following Greg Chappell?s method of coaching. The prime reason mentioned was that the players were practising on the centre pitch at the Eden Gardens. Frankly, I found the observation quite amusing. If the idea of Shastri following Chappell emanated from centre-wicket practice, then I can only say that even 50 years ago, we had the opportunity to see Pankaj Roy and Dattu Phadkar practise in the middle. This is not a novelty by a long chalk. Even the Bengal Schools team of the mid-Sixties would practise right on the centre of the ground under the observant eyes of the veteran coach, Jiten Banerjee. Banerjee happened to be a member of Tom Longfield?s Ranji-Trophy-winning Bengal side of 1938-39. In fact, earlier in the same season, he became the first Indian to lead Bengal in a Ranji Trophy tie (Bengal versus Bihar at the Ranger?s Club ground in Calcutta). He advocated centre-pitch practice without nets so that the players could be involved in fielding throughout the session. This was the pragmatic way to spend time at practice sessions. The Indian team?s practice sessions under Ravi Shastri seemed to be nothing different from the general pattern followed by almost every coach in recent years. The boys went through the usual drills of stretching, long-distance running, short sprints and various exercises in the gymnasium under the watchful eyes of physical trainers. Then there was swimming and yoga to help the mind and the body relax. During the course of fielding practice, the players held high skiers in the deep, took sharp catches in the slips and, those who could, dived and slid on the manicured green of the Eden Gardens. Only a few of them were outstanding, most were just average. In the past, too, we had heard of the tremendous efforts of C.K. Nayudu, Lal Singh, Mushtaq Ali, Gul Mohammed, Hemu Adhikari and Madhav Apte, and had seen Polly Umrigar, Russi Surti, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Kapil Dev and Mohammed Azharuddin going through strenuous motions. Every Indian team always seemed to have two outstanding fielders, and seven average and two below-average ones. So it is with this squad. Nothing seems to have changed in the last 75 years. The players braved well the extreme heat and the high humidity, which normally prevail in the city at this time of the year. The bowlers went flat out, so did the batsmen. The young Manoj Tiwary and the not-so-young Rajesh Pawar made full use of the opportunity. Pace bowler Ranadeb Bose, who may be a peripheral player now but is a likely candidate for the tour of England, bent his back and impressed with his length, line and movement. Nothing appeared to be any different from the eras of Vijay Merchant, Subhash Gupte, Chandu Borde and Sunil Gavaskar. Ravi Shastri is intelligent enough to follow the classical approach to cricket coaching. He has judiciously avoided copying any fancy, populist models of coaching where the emphasis is mainly on physical exertions. Instead, he has concentrated primarily on improving the actual cricket skills of the players and creating a relaxed ambience, as opposed to the claustrophobic one that he inherited. One change from the past has been the advent of coaches with varying titles. Ravi Shastri should have been on his own as coach, but instead, there were others, like Venkatesh Prasad as bowling coach and Robin Singh as fielding coach, to aid and assist him. Here, of course, one is free to ask, if there are specialists for every department, why is it that the wicket-keepers have been ignored? For that matter, should there have been separate coaches for spinners? Another novelty that surfaced was that the media and the cricket-lovers were not allowed to watch the players at the nets. This harks back to the days of Soviet and East German athletes practising in utmost secrecy behind closed doors. Never before have we seen anything similar at the Eden Gardens. Even the top coaches of Brazilian football teams do not mind spectators and the media watching the players at practice sessions. It was supposedly the Indian team management that did not want any disturbance to the concentration and momentum of the players. It is indeed difficult to see how this system would benefit the team. Would it not have been better if thousands of keen youngsters had the opportunity to watch their heroes from close quarters? Would it not have been an education for them to watch the techniques of Tendulkar, Kumble, Ganguly and Dravid at first hand? Would it not have been beneficial for club and school coaches to observe the methodology that Shastri, Prasad and Singh use to help improve the abilities of their wards? Thankfully, the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, Prasun Mukherjee, was quick to realize that banning the media would not serve any purpose other than spreading misinformation. He took the initiative to allow the media the space they deserved. However the damage had already been done. Many of those denied entry will surely play for Bengal and India one day. These are true cricket-lovers to whom administrators owe responsibility. If we disregard their demands today, ultimately the game in the state would suffer. Cricket coaching has undergone as much evolution as the game itself. Over the years, many great players have put forward their views on the coaching of cricketing skills. Hammond, Mailey, Grimmett were followed by Hutton, Bedser, Mankad, Benaud, Sobers, right down to the moderns like Imran Khan, Mohinder Amarnath, Vivian Richards, Richard Hadlee and others. But none of their books could match the stupendous work of Donald Bradman, The Art Of Cricket. This is one book which is still rated as the Bible for cricketers. Mike Brearley?s treatise on captaincy too is worth a mention because of its specialized focus. Similarly, cricketers have also been involved with active coaching. Just as the Faulkners and the Govers had their own cricket schools, so have top-quality former cricketers come into cricket coaching in the last 20 years. Former greats like Kapil Dev, Greg Chappell, Javed Miandad, Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards have been coaches to national teams. Although the former greats have been splendid in theory in their books, they have been remarkably mediocre as active coaches. They have not been able to match the success achieved by former players of comparatively less ability. Men like Bob Simpson, Geoff Marsh, Intikhab Alam, Dav Whatmore and non-test player John Buchanan have achieved far more in terms of success and accountability. A common feature of these successful coaches is the ability to create an ambience of trust and fellowship among the players. Would the advent of Ravi Shastri, a modest performer in comparison to Greg Chappell, similarly help Indian cricket? Only time can tell.

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Re: You can't compare coaching of Chappell and Shastri: Dravid

Would the advent of Ravi Shastri, a modest performer in comparison to Greg Chappell, similarly help Indian cricket? Only time can tell.
More like the next few weeks DUH! The guy has agreed to coach just this series AFAIK.
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