It’s one thing to handle a bunch of cricketers of the same nationality, culture and language. It’s quite another when you have an assortment of players from different countries, and cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Seldom has the man-management skills of a coach or a captain been put to such severe test in cricket as in the on-going Indian Premier League.

The Bangalore Royal Challengers have players from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan and Bangladesh teaming up with top-class Indian internationals and domestic players. Language per se may not be a big hindrance, but how do you overcome the barrier of different cultural backgrounds and more importantly, different cricketing mindsets?

“It’s quite challenging in that sense,” admitted Challengers’ coach Venkatesh Prasad.  In his roles as Karnataka coach and then as India’s bowling coach, Prasad has had great success.

The former Indian paceman felt his newest assignment with the Challengers was more demanding as his role is not restricted to just looking after the bowling department.

"We basically have no more than five people as support staff for 23 players while with the Indian team, we have 10 people organising things for 16 players. Each one has his specific task in the national side and things are more organised. But here it's a bit taxing on everyone, but nevertheless an exciting job," explained Prasad.

Prasad has a good number of coaches in the IPL giving him company. While Australians John Buchanan (Knight Riders Kolkata) and Tom Moody (Kings XI Punjab) can consider themselves lucky in the sense that from within their squads, they know a few Indians and other internationals on a personal level, their compatriot and Delhi Daredevils coach Greg Shipperd has no such luxury. Shipperd, a virtual unknown entity here, had the unenviable task of rallying his wards in very little time. With the Daredevils having scored two wins in as many outings, the Australian seems to have struck the right chord immediately.