Terming the seven years spent in the Indian dressing room as the “best moment of his life”, former fielding coach R Sridhar said the team’s “bad performance” during coaching is indeed a “wonderful opportunity for coaching”. Sridhar was an integral part of the Ravi Shastri-headed Indian team India’s coaching system.
The coach, who was instrumental in improving the team’s fielding level, said of the poor performances in Adelaide (all out for 36 against Australia) and Leeds (all out for 78), “It was a great learning opportunity.” As a coach, a bad day is a great coaching opportunity for me.
“By coaching opportunities, I mean understanding the players, building good relationships with them, giving them the opportunity to train technically and mentally when needed. This gives you an idea about the player and the team. Basically your behavior on bad days tells your personality.’
When asked whether he had differences with the then head coach Ravi Shastri and bowling coach Bharat Arun, Sridhar said differences are necessary for the best outcome or decision. The player, who was the fielding coach of the Indian team for seven years, said, ‘I believe that there is a difference of opinion among all the coaches to reach the best conclusion. We always had differences whether it was me, Ravi Bhai (Shastri), Bharat sir, or first Sanjay (Bangad) and then Vikram (Rathod). But we were all working towards the same goal. Sometimes two people agree in this, sometimes it doesn’t. We take the same decisions after discussing different points of view on the issue which is best for Indian cricket. We never felt that our ideas were rejected.
Praising head coach Shastri, he said, “You can give suggestions related to the game to Ravi bhai (Shastri) anytime and he will not reject it.” He has leadership qualities and excellent human management skills. He has the ability to get the board to take any decision in the interest of the team. His stature was huge and he understood the mentality of the players very well.
On adjusting to the big players of the team, he said, “For me all players are the same. None of our players have arrogance and are simple, grounded people. If you communicate with them then there will be no problem. They welcome suggestions and want to discuss the strategy of the game.
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