Australian spin wizard Shane Warne believes Rahul Dravid will bring “a lot of steel” to the current Indian team and that his role will be more of a ‘man manager’ rather than a traditional coach, an obsolete concept. During his playing days, Warne had some great on-field fights with Dravid. The leg-spinner has immense respect for the new Indian head coach, but as has been his stance for almost three decades, he does not believe in “terminology” at the elite level.
“Rahul Dravid will bring a lot to the table. Brilliant cricketer, great man. I think he will bring a lot of steel, a lot of strength to the group,” Warne told PTI in an exclusive interview given by BookMyShow.
His documentary ‘Shane’ has already appeared on ‘BookMyShow Stream’.
“I think he will bring in a lot of tactical stuff which will be good. Rahul is fantastic for Indian cricket,” he added.
However, Warne then explained what he feels about the concept at the international level.
Warne explained, “Coach, that’s the terminology I don’t like in international cricket. In domestic cricket, coaches are really important, but in international cricket, they should be called managers, not coaches.”
Elaborating further, he said, “It is not necessary internationally to propel the elbows and train them like children.”
“You do this for kids at the age-group level, the first-class level, where you are taught how to play the game and trained to be ready for international cricket.” At the highest level, the emphasis is on the mental and tactical side of the game and that is not the job of a traditional coach.”
“It’s about the mental side and the tactical side and that’s where man management comes in. By the time you go into international cricket, you know how to play.
“Sometimes you just forget to play and make things too complicated and that’s why you’re not trained at the international level. You manage. Does that make sense?” The flamboyant cricketer asked.
‘Lack of wrist spinners in Tests also a reason for poor captaincy’
In the 90s and till the mid-2000s, Australia had Warne while India had Anil Kumble and Pakistan had Mushtaq Ahmed as the world’s leading wrist spinner. This art has not been used much in the last one and a half decades, with the only name to shine through the ranks is Yasir Shah of Pakistan.
Don’t we get good leg break bowlers because of poor captaincy at Test level? “Yes, it’s true,” quipped Warne. “You need someone who understands spin bowling, thoughtfulness and you need to show empathy, and bowling to leg spinners is not easy.
“It’s a hard skill and a difficult art and that’s why you need encouragement from captains and coaches and everyone involved in the game. Field settings are so important because I can’t even express to you how important they are and so many captains.” misunderstand it,” he argued.
‘Modern batsmen don’t face much spin in Tests’
Warne didn’t want to delve into right and wrong, but believes batsmen of this generation are playing less and good quality spin bowling.
“If you look at the world game at the moment, some batsmen will get through to fast bowlers and a lot of spinners, they will go through after that. When you compare the batsmen of the 90s, they had a lot The spinners have to cross.
“So it’s interesting to watch modern-day batsmen and I’m not saying they are any worse or better. I’m just saying it’s a different sport. We see a lot of people in T20 cricket. They are doing well, hopefully we will see some of them doing well. In Test cricket as well.”
‘I was not anti-incumbency, but I asked tough questions’
Shane Warne has faced many problems on and off the field but will he call himself an anti-incumbency man? “No” she said aloud.
“Absolutely not. I was never an anti-incumbency. If I disagreed with something, I would challenge that person. In the case of coach John Buchanan, I challenged him and I wasn’t afraid to challenge anyone.” .
“If I challenged John Buchanan about the tactical aspects of the game, it was about the captain as well. I would challenge anyone else on our team and I would expect to be challenged as well.
“If someone wanted a different game plan, I was always open to suggestions. No matter what, I always try something new. If I disagree with the strategy or training method, I’ll challenge it.” It was not anti-establishment but just the way I thought of the game,” Warne said.
‘I made mistakes but I was very strong mentally’
It’s only human to make mistakes, but these are tough times in which a person’s character comes into play and this is one aspect where Warne feels his mental toughness has worked wonders.
“It’s easy to move on in life if all goes well but it’s about how you handle tough times. And I’m very proud of how I’ve responded to tough times, be it cricket when We lost to West Indies by one run. Be it in a Test match or in personal life.” “You never know when people will be going through some real tough times but you still have to go out there and perform. I had to do that too and it was pretty tough at times and that’s where the mental side of the game comes in.” Warne said that he was mentally strong.
“I was very strong and tough mentally, and I was able to split and focus on my cricket with whatever was going on in my life,” he said.
‘To describe me in one word? Down to Earth, super-competitive
publicized
Was Shane Warne a flawed genius? He starts laughing. “There are a lot of positives about my life, a lot of positives and negatives about my personality but isn’t that true for everyone?” If I had to reconcile myself, I would call myself “down to earth”. Honest, and super competitive, and I showed that on the cricket field,” he concluded.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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