Indian cricket's Mr "Wright" starts on wrong foot
John Wright took charge as Indian cricket's first foreign coach on Thursday, diving head on into unchartered territory that resembles a snakepit.
The former New Zealand captain will not only have to contend with a mediocre national team, but also ensure quick results to tide over anger among former players over a foreigner usurping the job that was, till now, theirs by right.
With the game clouded by match-fixing sleaze, Wright could not have hoped for a worse time to start his stint with an administration that is known to lose patience with coaches very quickly.
As many as five Indian coaches have been dumped in the last five years as the team stuttered from one defeat to another, and remained without a Test win outside the sub-continent since the England tour in 1986.
The procession began with Ajit Wadekar's ouster after the World Cup in 1996, followed by Sandeep Patil, Madan Lal, Anshuman Gaekwad and Kapil Dev in quick succession.
Wright starts an initial one-year term with the two-Test series against Zimbabwe from Saturday, but his big test comes next February when Australia undetake a six-week tour.
The genial 46-year-old said his primary task was to instill a sense of pride in the players.
"Incorporating the pride of playing for the country will be my prime agenda," Wright said during his first training session with the Indians ahead of Saturday's first Test.
"It's not that the players do not have pride now, but I expect some changes in the days to come.
"I am honoured and delighted to get the assignment. I am here to give my best. The rest is up to the people to decide," he said.
The New Zealander, coach of Indian Test star Rahul Dravid's English county side Kent, was reportedly backed by senior players like captain Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar.
But not many ex-players. including former captain Bishan Bedi, are convinced he is the solution to India's problems.
"We are not a novice cricketing nation to expect a foreign coach to come and improve our standards," Bedi, one of the game's outstanding left-arm spinners and himself the Indian coach in 1990, said.
Former Test opener Arun Lal, a respected critic of the game, was even more forthcoming.
"I can't think of what John Wright can do that Gaekwad or the others can't," he said. "A foreign coach would have little idea of our habits, eating, tradition, language and customs.
"We are not creating cricket. Instead of getting a foreign coach, the officials should have concentrated on improving domestic cricket."
Wright was hired for an undisclosed amount, which Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president A.C. Muthiah said "was more or less the same as the players."
The perils that await Wright can be guaged by the fact that even as he took over, the BCCI indicated it would have preferred former Australian coach Geoff Marsh for the job.
Former BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur, who was on the four-man selection panel to pick the new coach, said "our jaws dropped when Marsh expressed his inability to coach the team."
"We wanted Marsh, but he himself backed out after looking at our packed schedule," Dungarpur said. "And Greg Chappell sounded as if he was making a great sacrifice coming to India.
"At least Wright was sincere he wanted to prove himself. But we have taken on Marsh as a consultant, who will guide us in restructuring our domestic cricket," he said.
The 46-year-old Wright played 82 Tests for New Zealand, scoring 5,334 runs at an average of 37.82.
Mail Cricket Editor
