Why Sourav Ganguly can't be a good coach

I have interest in coaching but only time will tell what can happen in future. If the BCCI feels that I can be a good coach, I will be ready. I feel I can create a difference in terms of the ability of the players, their form and their development. That will be one way of my repaying the game.

India’s most successful cricket captain Sourav Ganguly made his intentions clear in no uncertain terms while speaking to a Hindi news channel. The man who revolutionized Indian cricket is open to the idea of taking up the job of the coach of Team India if given a chance. But will he make a good coach? Despite being a huge fan of Sourav ‘Dada’ Ganguly, I am not sure if he can be a successful coach.

Let me explain why I feel that Sourav Ganguly will not make a good coach.

Ganguly, the coach, will threaten the system in which Ganguly, the captain, flourished

If you take the examples of some of the most successful teams in the cricket history, you can notice one peculiar similarity in all of them. Almost all successful cricket teams in the past had a proactive leader as their captain and the coaches often took the backseat and restricted themselves strictly to planning and making strategies for the team. Steve Waugh was on the front and received most of the credit for making Australia a team to beat while coach John Buchanan played his role from the backstage. Hansie Cronje and Bob Woolmer had a similar setup for the South African team in the late 90s. Woolmer deliberately let Cronje, a young captain then, take the limelight while he himself remained out of the focus. Sourav Ganguly too flourished as a captain in a similar system. John Wright played the role of a supporting actor to Ganguly who created a revolution in Indian cricket with his unique way of leadership.

At the senior level professional cricket, coaches do not really add much value on technical front. Basically coaches provide a broad plan, well thought out according to a team’s needs and abilities, to the captains who then lead the players on the field with that plan in mind. The captain tries to act as per the coach’s plan but takes decision on the field according to the situation depending on his wisdom, understanding of the game and (sometimes) guts. This setup works smoothly if the coach remains in the backstage away from the limelight. But with Sourav Ganguly, controversy’s favorite child, as the coach of Indian team, this setting can not be established.

A legend of the game, Sourav doesn’t know how to remain away from the media focus. When given a responsibility, he demands all the power for him to achieve his target. He is not used to be an unsung hero. Every statement of his has the potential to make controversial headline in the next day’s newspaper. With such a personality, Ganguly can cause more harm than good to the team when wavelength of his ideas doesn’t match with that of the captain or a senior player. There are high chances of ego clashes when the coach wields more power than anyone else in the team. After all, Ganguly himself became the victim when Greg Chappell was made the coach and provided with a lot of powers by the board. No wonder, that spectacular ego clash affected the health of team India in the worst way possible.

To Ganguly’s credit, he has already reiterated the fact that the captain is the most important person in the team and not the coach. In the same program, he said, “I have always maintained that the captain is the most important link in the team and he has to take certain on-field decisions. When I was captain for 5-6 years, there were many occasions when I had to reverse whatever we had decided in the team meetings according to situations. The coach is just there to help the captain.” But if we judge simply by the past instances and dada’s personality, can we trust him to be a coach ‘just to help’ the captain?

Instead of trying hands at coaching, Ganguly can repay Indian cricket in a lot of other ways. Using his vast experience and understanding of the game, his thoughtful suggestions can improve the level of the game in a time when the popularity of the game is on decline. The ‘Maharaja of cricket’ is already heading the BCCI’s technical committee and has made some radical suggestions to improve the standard of the domestic cricket in India. A rabble-rouser that he is, Sourav Ganguly can help Indian cricket by entering cricket administration and revolutionize the governing of the game. Like the way he had once added new life to the Indian team after the match fixing scandal. Indian cricket needs its dada, not as a coach but as a sports administrator.