Duncan Fletcher
Sanjay Manjrekar was in the ICC Radio Show this week and spoke about the new appointment of the Indian coach.
On being asked if an Indian coach would have been a better choice compared to Duncan Fletcher, as has been suggested by some former Indian players, he said, “That is something that has not really crossed my mind. I completely support the appointment of the coach. There is sometime before we start looking at an Indian coach. The most important thing is that the players are very comfortable when they have an outsider along with them… so why should the board go against the wishes of the team?”
Manjrekar was also skeptical of the media putting too much pressure on the new coach. He says , “It would be so unfair if that[comparison between the Gary and Fletcher happens because the results are so out of reach of the coaches. If God forbid India doesn’t play well in the next series…it would be so unfair to point fingers at Duncan Fletcher.”
He also believes that once the team begins to play well, the kind of shy person that Fletcher is, it would only be a matter of time that the media loses interest in him and the captain or the players take the centre stage.
Speaking about the other contenders for the job Manjrekar said, “I have absolutely no issues with Duncan Fletcher being the coach. He is a man with great stature. May be as a player he doesn’t have that much of credentials…like Gary Kirsten, John Wright and Greg Chappell….but he is an experienced coach, has seen success and failure. So he is very much a man who has the stature to coach a team like India.”
Manjrekar also feels that Stephen Fleming could have been an interesting option given the way he handles the Chennai Super Kings. However he doesn’t blame the BCCI “as they could appoint only someone who was available”.
Finally on being asked if it was a good option to have Indian coaches trained under foreign coaches Manjrekar said, “I’m not sure that the Indian coaches lack quality. It’s just being Indian is perhaps their weakness. It’s not that Venkatesh Prasad or Robin Singh can learn something great under Gary Kirsten or Fletcher. But it’s time that the Indian Board should thing about grooming Indian coaches for the future. It would be a shame that such a high profile job keeps going to outsiders. So that should be where we should eventually head.”
Tags: BCCI, Cricket, Duncan Fletcher, Gary Kirsten, ICC Radio Show, Indian Coach, Robin Singh, Sanjay Manjrekar, Venkatesh Prasad
