What we need in the backroom is not cricket people who understand statistics, but statisticians who know cricket
Now is the time for India to start taking T20 cricket seriously. It might be a strange thing to say about a country that won the inaugural World Cup in 2007 and changed the face of the game the following year with the IPL which remains the top tournament in the T20 world.
But things change fast in T20 and I don’t mean just during the match or the innings. What was important yesterday – the experience of a Test match for example – often turns out to be a hindrance. What works for one team does not need to work for another team.
Since this is a new format, less than two decades old, almost every match, every change, every detail is recorded. Patterns can be seen. Sometimes change can be expected.
There are certain things happening in T20 tournaments across the world which need to be understood or at least accepted.
It doesn’t matter that Indian cricketers are not allowed to play in them, but we need a team that analyzes the threads and examines how these changes apply to India. This is a full time job, and needs a full time team of analysts who don’t focus on anything else.
significant difference
What we need in the backroom is not cricket people who understand statistics, but statisticians who know cricket. The difference is not subtle, and it can be significant.
One of the features of the T20 format is that it can turn the basics of the long game on its head – that’s to be expected, in fact. You don’t keep your eye as a batsman, you don’t mix caution with aggression, you don’t rely on singles to break the bowler’s rhythm, a dot-ball is more precious than a perfect delivery that is for four; Some are clichés in the long game.
A bowler has 24 balls to make his mark, a batsman sometimes even less. Conversely, the wicket does not matter to a batsman and neither do the boundaries matter to a bowler.
By all accounts, the nation has heaved a sigh of relief that a player and personality of Rahul Dravid’s stature has been persuaded to take over as the national coach. He has known many players from their under-19 days, and understands the game the best. Coaching the national team would come with its own set of challenges – the same players who watched him as teenagers would develop an ego big enough to fill a room in! This is a lesson Anil Kumble learned of his worth when he had to step down due to his displeasure with the captain.
specific game
In a previous column, I had made the point that India should look at T20 as a different form of the game and pick a captain for whom it was there even when he was growing up. India have been conservative in their approach to the format, and need to think outside the box. Having a young captain like Rishabh could be the way to go.
Another – and this is also important – will be to divide not only the teams and the captaincy but the coaches as well. And this is where Mahendra Singh Dhoni will come in. Perhaps India can go a step further and appoint him as not only the T20 coach but also the sole selector.
He has the experience, he is one of the greats in this format and will do the best job when given a free hand. It’s a big job, taking full responsibility, as has been discovered by football coaches around the world.
But at least the lines of communication are clear.
I am not sure about what Dhoni was doing in the recent World T20 in UAE; International players don’t need ‘mentors’ to look after them. He needs decision makers, and Dhoni has been one of the best in the business.
This would leave Dravid free to focus on Test cricket and One Day Internationals; He was a master of both, with over 10,000 runs in each format. T20 is becoming increasingly specialized, and requires a specialist coach and selector, and Dhoni fits the bill quite well.
Ain’t no time for ‘if only’
Making excuses for the Indian defeat in the UAE will only perpetuate the mistakes committed by the team. We can’t wallow in a series of “if only”. I wish India had won the toss in the matches they lost. I wish he didn’t meet Shaheen Afridi so early in the tournament. I wish they were courageous in their selection. If only, if only…
It is time to forget the tournament as a nightmare and make a fresh start with a new captain, a new coach and a team of T20 players who love to play this format. It is ironic that IPL is the ideal preparation for all teams except India (definitely not Pakistan)!
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