Challenge unlimited

The surprise lay in the timing, rather than the very fact, of Duncan Fletcher’s appointment as the coach of the Indian cricket team. The Board of Control for Cricket in India had left no stone unturned in its bid to deflect attention from its exercises to quickly find a successor for the incomparable Gary Kirsten. More than enough hints were thrown that there was no immediate rush to identify, approach and name the next coach when, almost out of the blue, at its Working Committee meeting last week, Fletcher was hand-picked, ratified and appointed as the man entrusted with the responsibility of carrying forward the exceptional work of the Kirsten era.

It was no arbitrary decision, though unlike in the past when a task force was entrusted with the responsibility of short-listing individuals, this was entirely a Board enterprise. Needless to say, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, his deputy Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar were kept in the loop and asked for their inputs, because after all, these are the men that will interact with the coach on a regular, personal basis with such high stakes involved and so much hinging on the end result.

At 62, Fletcher is easily the oldest coach in international cricket. Whether that is an asset, or a liability, in the modern era of hustle and bustle is something only time will tell, but there is no denying that plenty of thought and rationale has gone behind his appointment.

The hush-hush overtures have to be viewed as the BCCI’s desperate desire to avoid a repeat of the Graham Ford fiasco in 2007. It was only after getting Ford’s consent that the Indian Board named him to replace Greg Chappell, but Ford left officialdom red-faced by reneging on his word and leaving the BCCI in the lurch.

On hindsight, that was perhaps the best thing that happened because had Ford taken over, Kirsten would forever have been lost to Indian cricket. Would the team have gone on to climb the Test summit? Or indeed have won the World Cup? Who knows?!

The unanimous opinion amongst those that have played under Fletcher, and those who have interacted with the former Zimbabwean captain, is that he is a no-nonsense individual, a wonderful student of the game, an out-of-the-box thinker who has firmly kept himself in tune with the developing modern game without sacrificing the old values that made him such a hit when he was the coach of England between 1999 and 2007.

In a lot of ways, Fletcher is cut from the same cloth as Kirsten. Indeed, Kirsten is an unquestioned, undisputed Fletcher protégé; for once, the baton has been passed on to the master by the pupil, with all eyes firmly trained to see if the master will achieve the same successes and lofty status as one of his more illustrious students did.

Fletcher’s challenges are far more demanding and immediate than Kirsten’s. The former South African opener wasn’t even the first-choice India coach in the post-Chappell phase, and he took charge when the Indian team was there and thereabouts –– talented beyond belief but neither committed enough nor driven enough to aspire for the stars.

For all the results India procured under the Kirsten era, it was in the changing of the players’ mindsets that the Protean’s greatest triumph lay. He moulded an uncertain, somewhat insecure bunch into a true unit, winning over the trust and confidence of the players and maintaining a wonderful relationship that will stand the test of time. He came in quietly and without fanfare, kept his distance from the media, stayed away from the limelight and when he left, he left in a blaze of glory and adulation, basking in the numerous pleas for him to stay on and continue.

It’s against such exacting, non-negotiable standards that Fletcher will be judged. The pressures on the 62-year-old are far more humongous than they were on his younger predecessor. His non-stop challenges will be to keep India on top of the Test rankings and propel their thrust towards the number one ranking in limited-overs cricket. They won’t be easy expectations to meet, but Fletcher has never looked for easy ways out, which alone should explain why at this stage of his life, he is putting his reputation on the line.

Quite obviously highly recommended by Kirsten, it will be to Fletcher’s advantage that he will be openly welcomed by Dhoni and his men. He will still have to work hard, and often on his own, to ensure that the trust of the players is his for keeps. He will have to work harder still to get the team to deviate, even if only slightly, from the Kirsten Way and to embrace the Fletcher Philosophy which paid handsome dividends in England when he struck up a wonderful relationship first with Nasser Hussain and then the man who succeeded him as national captain, Michael Vaughan.

Out of England, voices have emanated backing the appointment of Fletcher as the new India coach. These are respected voices, men that have been coached by Fletcher, who know and understand him as a professional and an individual, and who have constantly referred to his ability to draw from other sports, to quickly identify problem areas and find solutions to problems even faster.

They have also harped on his obvious distaste and dislike for the harsh arc-lights; those that believe a high-profile job such as the coach of the Indian cricket team has to be a high-visibility experience need not look beyond Kirsten, who effortlessly merged into the background as the players took centrestage.

Kirsten’s first assignment as India coach was against the country of his birth. Coincidentally, India’s first engagements in the Fletcher era will come in England, whom Fletcher masterminded to a rare Ashes triumph in 2005. The start is propitious enough, but for the honeymoon to continue, for the players and the fans and the authorities to not be disenfranchised and for India to continue to rule the cricketing world on the field of play, mere coincidences will not suffice. As Fletcher will be well aware.