Fielding a difficult question

Clayton Murzello

• Last Updated: October 27. 2009 10:04PM UAE / October 27. 2009 6:04PM GMT

Ashish Nehra fails to catch a six from Australia’s Ricky Ponting during the first one-dayer. Arko Datta / India Sport Cricket

Coaches do not have a great deal of control of what happens on the pitch, but Indian cricket became a laughing stock after their bowling and fielding floundered at a time when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to do away with the services of fielding coach Robin Singh and bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad.

India’s errors in these crucial departments were plain to see on Sunday in the first one-dayer against Australia at Vadodara. India lost by four runs.

The Board may have had their reasons to give Prasad and Robin the boot, but it was funny to see clips of pace bowler Ashish Nehra giving fielding tips to his teammates in the lead-up to the series.

The sacked coaches are looking for answers as to what led to their exits, but in Indian cricket there are usually no proper answers. It is believed that the BCCI sent out a brief e-mail to the coaches that their services would not longer be required. The media release simply stated: “The BCCI has decided to discontinue the services of bowling coach Mr Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Mr Robin Singh, with immediate effect.”

This is nothing new in Indian cricket. Srinivas Venkatraghavan, who led India in the first two World Cups, learned about his sacking in 1979 when the captain on a London-Mumbai flight congratulated his replacement Sunil Gavaskar on the address system.

Cruel administration prevails on the domestic scene, too. A former India player told me he was sacked as chairman of his state’s selection committee via a text message.

“And then, they wonder why former cricketers are not coming forward to be part of their administrative bodies. It’s fiefdom all the way,” he said in frustration.

Rumour has it that the coach Gary Kirsten had a hand in Prasad and Robin’s removals. Fair enough. As chief coach he has to do what is best for the team. However, the manner in which these two workhorses were ejected was sad. They could have been spoken to before the official announcement. It would have eased the blow for two men who, after all, served Indian cricket well as players too.

Fast bowler Prasad was the World No 1 after his exploits in 1996-97 and Robin never failed to use all of his ability as an all-rounder.

Robin has every reason to criticise the board, but that is not his style. Even when he believed he was underpaid as fielding coach he kept his cool. He probably does not want a repeat of what he went through after the 1999 World Cup.

On his return to India he told a gathering of journalists that the team members were not told about a certain aspect of the points system for the tournament. A few newspapers misreported that Robin had criticised the team management. This got him on the wrong side of the administrators and there was a good chance he would be omitted from the squad for India’s next series in Sri Lanka.

Luckily for Robin, I had recorded his views and could tell the selectors that he did not criticise the team management. I made copies of the tape and organised for them to be sent to the selection committee meeting in Baroda. The selectors cleared Robin and he was part of the squad.

The Board has not made its intentions clear about hiring another bowling and fielding coach.

Rumour has it that mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton will indulge in some multi-tasking.

Talking about Upton, I wonder whether the board scrutinised his role enough. His fitness training duties only ended with the appointment of a fitness trainer recently. So he did a bit of fitness-related activity during Prasad and Robin’s term. Isn’t fitness related to fielding? Another key question to be asked is are the players fit enough? If they aren’t, then you could employ a dozen Jonty Rhodes and still give fielding a bad name.

It would be interesting to know what the Board did about Upton’s Champions Trophy document in which he encouraged sexual activity. Didn’t he deserve to be ticked off? Not because he mentioned sex but because he put it out at a time when nothing is leak-proof?

It would only be fair that a committee decides on the fate of the coach and staff just like it does when it comes to the coach’s appointment. A neutral view is critical.

Probably the BCCI has forgotten the mess Indian cricket was in when the team crashed out of the 2007 World Cup. The then president Sharad Pawar held a meeting that had the best names in Indian cricket discussing India’s road to redemption. Prasad and Robin were appointed afterwards to witness India’s rise. Yet, the cricketing bosses felt they fell short.

Scrutiny is not a bad thing, but I hope they are right.

Clayton Murzello is the Group Sports Editor of the Indian newspaper MiD DAY



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