What the experts are saying about India's next coach

[JUGRAJ SINGH]

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Sunil Gavaskar (PTI)

You need somebody like a mentor. At the international level you need something like that. You need the coach at the junior level when you are getting up and looking for a career (in cricket). That is to correct the technical faults and stuff like that. Team India needs a mentor. At the highest level you need someone who puts his arm around you and tells you this is the way to do this.

Mohammad Azharuddin (In an interview to DNA)

Indian coaches are good. We have won matches with Indian coaches. We must promote our Indian players who can be coaches. The Board of Control for Cricket in India should look into it. Duncan Fletcher's contract ended after World Cup 2015. He had a roller-coaster four-year ride as India coach and was often criticised for India's poor record overseas in recent years. There are so many players who have represented India and should be able to give their expertise. You should have a professional coach who has practical knowledge of the game. Anybody can be strong on theory. Players who have played over 40-50 Tests can be good at guiding the youngsters.

Brett Lee (PTI)

I think Sourav Ganguly would do a great job because he's got a great wealth of knowledge behind him with so many games of Test match cricket, one-day cricket and Twenty20 cricket. He's been there and done it all. Will that make him a good coach? I don't know. If he's hungry for it, with his wealth of knowledge he could definitely pass it on. Having the right balance as a coach is the most important thing. (Like) people being able to play their natural role, and that all started with Trevor Bayliss. He's the guy that will allow any player in the team to play their natural role. If Sourav Ganguly can give these (Indian) players confidence, I think he'd do a good job if he got it.

Anshuman Gaekward (In an interview to International Business Times)

Surely, he can do a great job as coach of the Indian team. He is very expressive and does not keep quiet about things, which is an important character of a coach. Along with it, he is a very experienced cricketer, which will help him even more. But, Ganguly needs to manage players well from the man-management point of view. Rahul Dravid is different if one draws comparison with Sourav Ganguly, as the former is someone, who always goes by the book. This is what made Rahul successful in his playing days as well. Hence, he might use the same approach while coaching also.

Kapil Dev (IBNLive)

I would not like to see so many former cricketers get involved with one team. Yes, you need a good captain and you need one former cricketer, who is not a coach but manages the team. I think when you have such a high-profile team, where cricketers are superstars and rockstars, it's very important to manage them. So you need a person who can manage the players. That's very important. I think in this era, you don't need a coach. You need a colleague who can help you out if you are down and out.
 
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