Published: Aug 28, 2018, 04:09 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 28, 2018, 04:09 PM (IST)
Former India spinner Dilip Doshi feels that cricketers at international stage should not require much guidance and that coaches are unnecessary at this level.
Doshi, who played 33 Tests for India taking 114 wickets, gives the example of the teams of yesteryear which were without a designated coach but still went on to taste success.
“I believe there is no coach needed for international cricket,” he was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times on Tuesday. “Ravi Shastri [India coach] was himself a player, so he is more of a manager. Having been a successful cricketer, he knows what to say in the dressing room.”
He opines that at Test level, there should just be a team manager. “But no great team – Don Bradman’s, Steve Waugh’s, the great West Indies teams, none had coaches. Our Indian team didn’t have one, we helped each other. At Test level, you only need managers,” he said.
He is also against the practice of employing specialists for various roles, saying the involvement of too many people in the running of game is detrimental.
“Today we have too many people running the game, too many involved in management. There is abundance of money, so we have positions; jobs have been created to spend the money,” he said.
He believes if someone who is qualified to play at international level still needs a guiding hand then it is hard to justify their presence and it only makes them lazy. “You may need a fielding coach, a masseur, but if I have to guide a player, he shouldn’t be there (in the team) at all. They should come in ready. You don’t need an analyst to tell you where to hit, or where a bowler has been hit. That makes the player lazy. What happens if the planning goes wrong?” he observed.
