Road Ahead for Duncan Fletcher

[cricketlover]

What do you guys think he will have to do to be judged a success? Can he ever be called a success? I think its very brave of him to take this challenge and could only be a lose-lose situation for him.. Damned if he does well and damned if he messes up The team is no.1 in tests and World champs in odi's whic his really the pinnacle. If he mantains this people might dismiss it like they dismiss John Buchannan's achievements and say that he took a team already at the top And If India do not mantain these position then fans might call for his head. The only format which he can possibly improve on is T20's which frankly he doesnt care about much. So what criterion do you guys think should be used to term Fletcher a success!

[cowboysfan]

only one criteria in my book-to be at top at test cricket and oversee of the transition of the old guard smoothly without rocking the boat too much.We are good at Odis and have been for some time and will continue to be good.

[vvvslaxman]

we want white washes

[Sachin=GOD]

There are many areas where the Indian team can improve in both Tests and ODIs. Take our fielding for starters - if he can improve it then it would be almost a miracle. Then there's the attitude of some of our players that really needs to be changed - the likes of Sreesanth, Munaf, Nehra etc. Then there's the fact that we've got some seniors who are going to retire from Tests in the next few months. That will be a very, very crucial period in Indian cricket and Duncan Fletcher's success as a coach will depend a lot on how he manages that situation and whom does he find good enough to replace the likes of Goddy, Dravid, Laxman etc. Then there's the biggest problem - fast bowlers who seem to make an outstanding start to their career and then loose all steam in a couple of years and turn into trundlers.

[J P K]

Duncan Fletcher, will need a stretcher.. After dealing with the Indian Media! by mandira bedi on twitter

[Karan114]

Apart from the transitioning to a new era, which is the most important thing, in terms of series, he will be judged by both the England and Australia Tests. England as they are a vastly improved Test side and a real threat to our no.1 spot, and Australia because we have never won a Test series there.

[cricketlover]

yeah.. how he handles the transition is important. Dravid, Laxman will retire in his time. Tendulkar you never know.

[VRV Singh]

Transition is absolutely the main thing. Series victories too but in transition he will be laying down the long-term platform for any successors in both formats so that integration of new players needs to be as seamless as possible, and get the best out of them

[Sir_Afridi]

we want white washes

For that you need fast bowlers who averages below 25

[satyam1729]

For that you need fast bowlers who averages below 25

We don't want to be whitewashed. Remember Pakistan's 4 consecutive whitewashing by Australia. And bowlers under 25 average appeared in Pakistan's team in every series of those.

[cricketlover]

We don't want to be whitewashed. Remember Pakistan's 4 consecutive whitewashing by Australia. And bowlers under 25 average appeared in Pakistan's team in every series of those.

oh bhai tera masla kya hai. har thread mai ajata hai apnay anti pakistan agenda keh saath kya bachpan ne kissee pakistani ne tujhay peeta tha

[satyam1729]

oh bhai tera masla kya hai. har thread mai ajata hai apnay anti pakistan agenda keh saath kya bachpan ne kissee pakistani ne tujhay peeta tha

Then what was his need to bring bowling average of under-25 ?

[satyam1729]

Furious Fletcher keen to settle scores Fletcher is still angry at being made a scapegoat for the 5-0 Ashes humiliation that went some way towards spoiling his earlier fabled triumph over Australia in 2005. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-1381252/Duncan-Fletcher-return-England-India-coach.html This England series will be interesting.

[CoverDrive]

Appointment of Duncan Fletcher : Impressed with BCCI Duncan fletcher may or may not turn out to be a success but he is definitely capable. but more than that I have been impressed by the professional manner in which the whole coaching appoint process was handled compared to fiascos that used to happen earlier. * they trusted Gary Kirsten's judgment a lot and I think that is fair to the man who has given so much to indian cricket. *they did not went through circus of people giving presentations where likes of Chappell impressed with thier fancy three hat theory and what not *they have defined the role very clearly which suits both the players as well as the new coach. *they have kept this quiet without any rumors floating around *finally the whole process has been timely and there are no big periods of uncertainty. I hope BCCI continues to show good show good sense in all other issues like selections, developing domestic players etc.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Most of it happened before they hired Chappel too. - They trusted the players opinions esp. Ganguly, who had worked with Chappel for a brief time. Dont remember if Wright had a say. - BCCI kept quiet and went on about its job. The only chatter were from the media.

[Chandan]

This is how BCCI hired Fletcher, without any interview: Link Duncan Fletcher lands India coaching job tailored to his strengths • Zimbabwean agrees two-year deal with BCCI • Coach is an admirer of MS Dhoni, the captain Andy Bull guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 April 2011 Duncan Fletcher has been headhunted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to become their new national coach. Fletcher was called by his predecessor in the job, Gary Kirsten, during the recent World Cup and told that the board was interested in employing him as a replacement and that he would not have to interview for a role that has been tailored to suit his skills. When Fletcher flew there for negotiations shortly after the tournament, he found that a contract was ready and waiting for him to sign. Fletcher has been employed to work as a head coach, not a manager. He will not act as a team selector and he will be working alongside a team manager who will be in charge of disciplinary matters. A clause has also been included in his contract stating that he will not necessarily have to talk to reporters in an official capacity or attend press conferences, though it gives him the option of doing so if he wants to. Given how fractious and distracting his relations with the press became in England – media-management was not one of his strong-points – he saw this as another sign that he would be allowed to get on with what he is good at. During his eight years in charge of England Fletcher took control of almost every aspect of the team's management, to the point where he was even helping to arrange and rearrange flights for his support staff. By the end of his days in the post he felt that this wider workload was distracting him from his strengths, which he sees as man-management and technical analysis of his own players and the opposition. The BCCI has designed a job in which he will concentrate almost entirely on those aspects. England, Fletcher felt, became too big a ship for him to keep control of. The narrower parameters of his role with India mean that he is taking on the new job with far fewer reservations than he would have otherwise had. Fletcher, 62, had been in the running for the vacant post as head coach of South Africa but was persuaded to take this one on a two-year contract because he did not want to go through a protracted interview process, and the BCCI had drawn up a clear and appealing job description with his skills in mind. Fletcher was one of a group of candidates for the South Africa role whereas the Indian board made it clear that its job was his if he wanted it. It sees him as being the closest equivalent to a like-for-like replacement for Kirsten, with whom he has a great affinity. Fletcher, like Kirsten, will take a very different approach from the adversarial Greg Chappell, who did the job between 2005 and 2007. And the new man is a fan of MS Dhoni, whose proactive captaincy but relaxed leadership reminds him of England's Michael Vaughan, with whom he had an excellent working relationship. Fletcher received emphatic recommendation to the BCCI from Kirsten. Fletcher had coached him at the University of Cape Town and at Western Province and has been something of a mentor to the younger man during his two years in charge of India. Kirsten identified Fletcher as someone who would be able to continue in a similar style to his own, working closely with the players behind the scenes and staying out of the limelight. India's bowling coach, Eric Simons, will be staying on to work with Fletcher. He was the captain of Western Province when Fletcher was in charge and the two have a close relationship. By appointing the Zimbabwean, India's board is trying to get as much continuity as it can from Kirsten's time in charge. The two will meet next week to swap notes on those experiences. Before that Fletcher will speak to N Srinivasan, secretary of the BCCI, to discuss how best to make a formal introduction to the Indian media. Fletcher has been impressed with what he saw of the way India's cricket is run during his recent spells in the country working as an adviser with the New Zealand and South Africa teams, reckoning that the administration had been modernised since he first toured there with England at the start of the last decade. And in an intriguing twist of fate his first task will be overseeing their tour of England, which starts in July. India visit the West Indies before then but Fletcher has other commitments to wrap up first. ------------------------------- So all he has to do is look after player's games and prepare them for tests or ODIs or any coming series/situaton. For everuthing else, there are other people to take care of. Not bad. I hope players like him, trust him just like they did Gary or Wright and hope things move forward positively. One thing we must remember: He has not been given any hand in team selection!

[Sooda]

^ I read that in the paper this morning and was going to post it, it is impressive in its briskness yes. He does like more of a hand in team seleciton dosent he? Do you think its a good thing or not that he will not have a say?

[Sachin=GOD]

For that you need fast bowlers who averages below 25

what exactly has Pakistan achieved in the last few years with their bowlers who average below 25 :hmmm:

[Zap_Brannigan]

^ I read that in the paper this morning and was going to post it, it is impressive in its briskness yes. He does like more of a hand in team seleciton dosent he? Do you think its a good thing or not that he will not have a say?

Ghost of Coaches past! Remember chappel and how he wanted to dramatically alter the Indian team. So does the BCCI. Normally i would like the coach to have a hand in squad selection but we have pretty competent selectors to do that job.

[putrevus]

Pakistani fans seem to have no understanding on difference the pitches prepared for them and pitches prepared for India. Indian batsmen are not lalloos and useless players like Pakistani players in bouncy and swinging conditions and can deal better than most of them in world. Just for example England if their prepare a juicy pitch on which Pakistan bowlers can bowl say england under 150 runs in bowler friendly conditions on their good day but England know for sure their bowlers will knock Pakistan over under 75 runs and there by win the match very easily.which happened a lot in past and will continue to happen in future too. The same England team cannot take a chance of preparing the same juicy pitch when facing Indian team as they know very well not only Indian batsmen can adapt very well on those pitches and score runs as much as home team or lot better but Indian bowling which is weak will have spring in its step and has every chance of knocking over England under 150 runs then they stand no chance of winning against India on juicy pitches. Pakistan can harp all they want of their so called fast bowlers but it is mainly due to the product of their useless batsmen they get to play on juicy pitches and have under 25 avgs.