Ravi Shastri has, it would seem, been the eternal crisis man of Indian cricket. At 19, he was summoned out of the blue to New Zealand in 1981 as replacement for the injured Dilip Doshi, and picked up 15 wickets in three Tests with left-arm spin.
When India were desperately in need of a quality opener in the mid-80s, Shastri was pitchforked to that position and acquitted himself with aplomb, making Test hundreds in the West Indies, England and Pakistan, and becoming the first Indian to score a double ton in Australia. He provided the balance the team needed with his gutsy right-handed batting and intelligent left-arm spin, before a knee injury prevented him from bringing a logical end to his playing career. Along the way, he flirted once -- and successfully -- with the Test captaincy against the West Indies in 1988 following an injury to Dilip Vengsarkar.
Firmly entrenched as a television commentator, Shastri pitched in as the players' representative in the stand-off with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over the Player Terms for the 2002 Champions Trophy. Earlier this year, with the team minus a coach, Shastri came aboard as the cricket manager for the tour of Bangladesh; now, with Kapil Dev shown the door after aligning with the Indian Cricket League, Shastri has replaced his one-time captain as the chairman of the National Cricket Academy.
The one thing that has stood out throughout Shastri's 27-year association with Indian cricket has been his commitment. As a cricketer, he wasn't the most talented, but he maximised his talent through sheer determination and the attitude of a winner. He has never shied away from responsibility, and has done total justice to whatever task he has taken on. His appointment as the NCA chairman has to go down as a masterstroke. Already, it is evident that the Mumbaikar means business; the NCA is in safe hands, that's for sure. "The Academy has to necessarily be the feeder route to the national team," Shastri told Deccan Herald. "We must have the best 25 guys apart from those playing for the country at the Academy, fine-tuning their skills under professional guidance and being ready to fit seamlessly into the Indian team as and when the call-up comes."
One of Shastri's first moves has been to fast-tack the appointment of a Director of Operations. Australian Dav Whatmore will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the NCA. "As chairman, my role will be to facilitate things," Shastri went on. "I can't be hands-on all the time, it is about delegating responsibility and overseeing things. Hence the need for someone who will handle the cricketing aspects. Dav's credentials are well known. He will bring his own team with him, and once the State academies take shape, they can send their personnel to the NCA to pick up what the NCA is doing.
"They can then go back to their respective associations and implement the same things with regard to physical training, injury prevention and treatment, and coaching methods so that there is standardisation," Shastri pointed out. "Also, the NCA will only be for the creme de la creme. There will be no compromise on quality in any sphere."
It's towards that end that Shastri is planning to snare Daljeet Singh, the former Karnataka coach and curator at the PCA stadium in Mohali. "Daljeet is one of the more experienced curators in the country, he has produced excellent tracks in Mohali," said the Champion of Champions at the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985. "We need surfaces with pace, bounce and seam so that not only the bowlers but also the batsmen learn to cope with tracks of this nature that will be on offer when we travel overseas. Daljeet is a thorough professional; professionalism will be the mantra at the NCA and in that sense, this is a logical union."
Functioning unit
Unlike now when the activities at the NCA are restricted to a few months, Shastri intends to make it a functioning unit right through the year. "As things stand now, beyond January or so, most of the talent in the country is idle unless they have made the knockouts of the Ranji Trophy. If the NCA is functional during that period, the lads can come over there, work on their games in the presence of Dav and his own team -- which will also include a bowling coach and a fielding coach, among others -- and stay on top of their games. "Maybe it won't be a bad idea to have the NCA side play as the India 'A' team, considering the best outside of those in the national team will be with the Academy. That's something we will have to look into."
Shastri also explained his reasons behind wanting the NCA to move to Chandigarh for a couple of months every year. "It will be good for the boys if, for two months during winter, they can be based in Chandigarh. It will be cold there, there will be juice in the tracks, it will help in adaptability. Bangalore will, however, continue to be the mother centre," Shastri said.
Among other firsts Shastri is planning at the NCA are character and confidence-building courses, education on how to cope with pressure and lessons on dealing with the media. In the Indian context, these might appear grandiose plans. The fact of the matter is that these are essential in modern cricket. Someone had to bell the cat; who better, really, than the perennial crisis man?!
