The Indian cricket team has had the good fortune to have a number of talented coaches throughout the years, including John Wright and Ravi Shastri, as well as some less than stellar ones like Greg Chappell and Kapil Dev. One of the most well-known jobs is that of the head coach of the Indian cricket team. With 1.4 billion people living in a cricket-obsessed nation, the expectations are extremely high. But mentoring a squad with a lot of famous players also makes the job challenging. However, the initial experience was a little challenging for former India head coach Gary Kirsten. When he joined the team in late 2007, the year after India’s humbling ODI World Cup elimination, he noticed a sense of “unhappiness” in the locker room. He then explained why MS Dhoni, among the other players, stood out to him and compared the former India captain to the illustrious Sachin Tendulkar.
Speaking to Adam Collins on the “The Final Word cricket podcast” broadcast on YouTube, Kirsten recalled that he noticed a “lot of scarring” and “unhappiness” in the team when he was appointed as the Indian team’s head coach in December 2007. The legendary South African batsman noted that Sachin Tendulkar was “very unhappy” and thinking about retiring at the time. The rumour that Tendulkar planned to retire following the World Cup in the West Indies is well-known, so Kirsten’s admission that he had retained such thoughts despite dominating the second half of 2007 comes as a bit of a shock.
“The thing that stood out to me then was what sort of leadership was needed to take this incredibly talented club and make it into a team that could beat any team in the world. Any coach entering that circumstance had that dilemma. There was undoubtedly a lot of fear among the team when I took over. There was a lot of sadness, so I believed it was more crucial to comprehend each person and how they saw themselves fitting into the squad, as well as what would motivate them to play cricket for fun “said Kirsten.
“The reason Sachin stood out to me so much was that he was extremely dissatisfied at the time I joined the team. He believed he had plenty to give, but he wasn’t having fun playing cricket, and he was at a point in his career where he thought he might as well call it quits. It was crucial for me to establish a connection with him and give him the impression that he had a significant contribution to offer to the team—one that went above and beyond what was required of him.”
The Kirsten-Dhoni partnership will always be remembered as the one that made Indian cricket’s long-awaited World Cup dream a reality. In front of their home fans, Team India won the international cricket championship, capping an association that started in 2008. Kirsten acknowledged that because of India’s “superstar” mentality, cricketers often fail to remember that their role is to contribute to the team, not reach personal milestones and that Dhoni distinguished himself from rivals like Tendulkar in this regard.
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“Any coach would want a team of athletes to compete for the name on the shorts rather than the name on the back of the shirt. India is a challenging country because there is a lot of hype surrounding particular superstars, and you frequently lose sight of your requirements. Dhoni, on the other hand, stood out as a leader because he was so committed to the success of the team and open about his desire to win trophies and have great success. And as a result, a number of other guys followed suit, and Sachin simply began to enjoy the sport of cricket “He clarified.
In an international game, “MS and I developed the most unusual captain-coach combo you would ever conceive, and we end up having this great trip together.”
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