Vatsy-Speaks

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Thodi Khusi aur Thoda Gam...

A lot has been already said about the dismal performance of the Indian Cricket Team at the world cup. The drift between the coach and the players, the divide between senior players and junior players, the sponsorship deals, the match fixing issue and what not. But the bottom line is that We're out of the world cup. I had not thought of this even in the wildest of my dreams. I was expecting us to reach atleast semi-finals and may be win the cup also. But anyways its a forgotten story now and will have to wait for another 4 years for this dream to get shattered again. But about one thing I'm sure , it doesn't matter how do we play over next 4 years, The hope, the craziness and dreams of winning the Cup will again reach its zenith when the next cup starts.

Anyways I was just wondering if winners can be good teachers. Greg Chappell was in doubt a great player but the way the team has performed under his coaching, i don't think it has been as good as it was when John Wright was the coach.
May be its not Chappell's fault, but the truth is there is no positives to take out from his coaching. The team is no longer United. Atleast media is making you feel so.Srikanth made a very good point that during Chappell's stint as coach, three key players have gone down below par as far as their performance is concerned. Sehwag, Harbhajan and Pathan. The most of the wins that India had during recent past when they were going through a dream phase can mostly be attributed to the fact that Pathan was taking early wickets and was also scoring runs. It gave India an edge over other teams.

Anyways.. I just had one doubt. Who makes a better teacher/coach. A proven winner or a Looser. A person who has been winning all his life will tell you what are the things that you should do to win. What are the things you should do to achieve your goals.But a person who has not been winning all his life and has ended up on the lossing side more often than not, will tell you what not to do if you want to win.In my opinion both are equally important. And that's why I think that a person who has a mixed life, had some succeses and some loss also to his credit can become a better mentor and a better teacher.That is why in my opinion Dav Whatmore will be a much better coach than Greg Chappell is and John Wright was a much better coach. And that is why Kapil Dev was not as successful as a Coach as he was as a cricketer. I can give so many examples. John Buchanan the Australian coach was never a great cricketer but he has been a very successful coach.

Thing is you got to have the right balance of everything in life. Remember if you want it to be the best always go for a mixed bag. Otherwise life will get too monotonous.


And that is why always order a Tandoori Platter as starter ;-)