What goes through the mind of a fielding coach when a catch is dropped

The game of cricket once used to be a two-dimensional sport where batting and bowling were the only areas which the players concentrated on. If you had expertise in one of these, you were good enough to make it to the side.

But gone are those days when your poor fielding could be ignored. Players like Jonty Rhodes revolutionised the game with the acrobatics in the outfield. Increasingly there has been a focus on this aspect of the game. Players go through several catching drills along with their regular net sessions of batting and bowling.

Fielding coach is also an integral part of every side these days and specialists are being brought in to make the players agiler. Still, on several occasions, a fielder drops a catch or two and no one can understand the agony that the fielding coach goes through.

Here are the five thoughts that might flow through the mind of a fielding coach when that happens.

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#5 Oh gosh! All the catching practice went in vain

Catches can come at any height or any angle and the fielder has to be ready at all the times to cling onto any possible opportunity. As they say “catches win matches”, the batsman can make the fielding side pay heavily for the slightest of mishap in the field.

Fielding coaches make the fielders practice all sorts of catching these days that includes slip catching, close-in catching, outfield catching or even catches close to the boundary. They even place two fielders near the boundary to practice one fielder throwing the ball to the other to complete the catch while the former going past the line.

If the drop chance was difficult, the coach might appreciate the effort but if it was a dolly, he must be filled with disgust and ready to bang his head on the first wall that he sees.

#4 I’ll make him run 10 rounds of the ground

Like it happens in school cricket, a coach punishes the young players for every bad performance, be it a rash shot, a wayward delivery or a poor effort in the field. Many cricketers have revealed the stories of their childhood coaches about how they used to make them run around the park with a bat held in the air.

The coach at the international level does not have the luxury to do that as the players are no longer the kids that would oblige to the punishments, yet it is natural for a human being to think of making someone pay if he does not pay attention.

#3 Oh no! I am being judged for the drop catch as well

If a fielder drops a catch, people blame him immediately but the focus certainly shifts slightly towards the fielding coach too. Often the cameras turn towards the coach to catch his reactions and commentators too make judgements about his coaching style.

These days, even the coaches are heavily paid and it is quite obvious that a fielding coach would be evaluated on the basis of the performances of the side on the outfield. If the fielders commit too many errors, there are chances that the management might even sack the coach and plan to bring in a new one.

#2 A spectator would have done a better job at that

With the rise in the viewership of the game of cricket, it has witnessed a tremendous rise in the number of the people turning up to watch the games live in the stadiums. As the batsmen send the ball sailing over the field, the ball goes into the crowd and some spectacular catches have been witnessed by the viewers, in the stand too.

Some grounds offer prizes if someone in the crowd takes a catch, something we had seen in the 2015 ODI World Cup in the games that were played in New Zealand. Seeing a dropped catch, a coach might even think of hiring spectators to field in place of the lesser acrobats in the team. He might also come across the idea of sending in a substitute fielder in place of him during the crucial stages in a match.

#1 Why on earth did the captain put him there?

As the players go on developing their skills, they tend to build their expertise of fielding in certain parts of the ground. We have seen slip-catching experts like Rahul Dravid and Mark Waugh, backward-point masters like Jonty Rhodes and Ricky Ponting etc. When the players build a liking towards a specific region of the field, they might feel awkward if asked to guard some other area.

The captain might make mistakes of placing weaker fielders in crucial positions like covers or point, the poor guys not having the flexibility like others can end up grassing easy ones. With the evolution of T20s, the better fielders are placed inside the circle during the fielding restrictions and on the boundaries during the slog overs. A slight mistake in captain’s calculation might lead to huge lapses.