Long before he was the Indian coach, Gautam Gambhir, a known opponent of Indian cricket’s intrinsic superstar culture, was asked to name his favourite footballer. Messi or Ronaldo? “Marcus Rashford,” he said. Not many would have picked Manchester United’s committed team man who warms the benches these days over the two GOAT contenders. It’s like opting for Nitish Reddy when the choice is between Kohli or Rohit. But then that’s Gambhir.
The Delhi opener is now in a position of authority. Though the start to his stint has been disastrous, India’s head coach has the firm backing of the BCCI and he still thinks that the prima donnas need to be treated like the choir of the group.
It is this thought that jumps off the pages of the newly released Team India policy document that BCCI has come up with after the chaotic tour to Australia.
No travel by car when the rest of the team is on the bus, no avoiding domestic games, no personal advertisement shoots during tours, no leaving of nets too soon, no returning home if games end early, no extra baggage provision, no long stay for families and no personal chefs or security.
Since juniors don’t get these perks or have the temerity to demand them, it is clear that this latest BCCI diktat is put in place to clip the wings of stars and deny them preferential treatment.
Indian coach Gautam Gambhir. (FILE photo)
It also comes across as an angry reaction that is illogical and unfeasible in parts. It’s like the ‘no play, no TV’ grounding of a child after a poor report card – a punishment that is irrational, unimplementable and also unreasonable.
Almost overnight, after a quick turn of events, the team’s ‘Special Ones’ are now Commoners. The sudden downgrading of seniors in a team set-up isn’t conducive to foster a healthy environment. It breeds insecurities and intrigue. It also puts a question mark on the authority of the captain and other leading voices.
Unlike the selectors or the powerful board officials involved in the review, Gambhir will be on the ground as change sweeps in. He will have to implement the new and unpopular curbs. It’s a tough job and for that he needs to learn the subtle art of man-management.
Lessons from Ancelotti
Since the Team India head coach has interest in football, he needs to read up on European club managers who handle global superstars with bigger egos and bank balances than the cricketers. He can start with the best in business, the most successful Champions League manager Carlo Ancelotti.
Called Don Carlo and El Maestro, he is both affable and authoritative. While managing the star-studded teams at Real Madrid, Juventus and Chelsea, he has harnessed the strengths of geniuses, mavericks, enfant terribles and even the imposters.
Real Madrid’s head coach Carlo Ancelotti gives instructions from the side line during the Spain Super Cup final soccer match between Real Madrid and Barcelona at King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
In his early days as coach at Italian club Parma, Ancelotti was stubborn. He wasn’t willing to change his ways to accommodate stars. He once rejected Italian football’s cult hero Roberto Baggio, the Divine Ponytail himself, since he didn’t want to tinker with his 4-4-2 formation to accommodate a celebrated No. 10.
But with time, like all great coaches, Ancelotti changed. There is this fascinating story involving Zinedine Zidane from his days at Juventus that shows how the Italian was ready to bend if it was worth the trouble.
This certainly was. In an interview to The London Times, he spoke about Zidane’s habit of arriving late to board the team bus which didn’t go down well with him.
“I said to the driver, ‘No more, let’s leave,’ but he was scared and wouldn’t move, and then [Juventus defender] Paolo Montero came down the bus to speak to me. I said to him, ‘Let’s get going, and then we’ll talk.’ But he said, ‘You don’t understand. Without Zizou, we’re going nowhere’.” The team and Ancelotti would wait. That day the coach learnt a very important life lesson that day – without stars, a team is going nowhere.
Another Ancelotti trait that Gambhir can learn is malleability. He takes the shape of the mould that the team he joins has got cast in. There is no Ancelotti way, he doesn’t have a signature style, he has not one but many blueprints. Ancelotti is an embroiderer who uses the stencils of his players to draw varied designs on the field.
Working around limitations
Gambhir too needs to understand that what worked with him at KKR can’t necessarily be implemented when he is with the Indian team. He would have his reasons to pick all-rounders but Test matches in Australia have been won with specialists in the past. Besides, unlike in IPL, national team squads don’t have a global pool to pick players of your choice that fit into your favourite template – your own 4-4-2.
Most teams have limitations and coaches have to live with them and work around them. Those who excel are the ones who find solutions and those aren’t about sacking the seniors and hoping that the juniors who replace them are good enough. Gambhir the captain and coach is known to back talented youngsters but he also needs to get the best out of seniors and prolong their peaks.
Indian men’s cricket team head coach Gautam Gambhir.
A vocal nationalist Gambhir wears the tri-colour on his sleeve. During the Australian tour, he inspired the ‘find of the tour’ Nitish Reddy with a talk that was about “taking a bullet for your country”. The coach needs to know that it might not work with everyone. The cricket landscape has the likes of the 1950s Aussie cricketer and World War fighter pilot Keith Miller. Known for his irreverence and not one to make sport a matter of life and death, Miller was once asked about pressure in cricket. “Pressure is a Messerschmitt up your arse, playing cricket is not”.
This Indian team needs astute communicators and quality support staff. Virat Kohli has a problem in leaving the ball outside the off-stump and him travelling with the team isn’t going to solve that problem. Rohit Sharma doesn’t look sharp on the field but will him playing J&K in a Ranji game, before the Champions Trophy next month, change that? Maybe, but most likely not. He would have needed a few Ranji outings before the Test season, not before the Champions Trophy.
Gambhir has to only delve into his own past to see the answers staring at him. He personally saw what Greg Chappell’s autocracy did to the team he was part of. He was the fall guy then, dropped from the Test team in Pakistan to accommodate Ganguly. And later lost his ODI spot. He saw how Gary Kirsten’s relaxed, even-handed approach fetched a World Cup trophy, where he starred. He was part of the team when Duncan Fletcher was the coach and who by then was on autopilot in his coaching stint; Gambhir nearly became the Test captain but the board stuck with Dhoni.
Autocracy and auto-piloting doesn’t work – this much he must know for sure. A middle path needs to be found, not easy for a proudly stubborn man perhaps but if he sees his own mantra of putting team over individuals, which in this case is himself, he might perhaps see the wisdom in the middle path.
Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir (left) and Chairman of senior selection committee Ajit Agarkar after the press conference in Mumbai. (Express Photo by Devendra Pandey)
The chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar, like Gambhir, too is a stickler for discipline. When leading Mumbai he would speak his mind in case the juniors in the team lacked focus. On the Mumbai cricket circuit, they still call him ‘Tiger’.
Early in his stint as selector, he knocked Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan off the list of contracted cricketers as they missed Ranji games. Iyer’s injury didn’t sway him from taking this extreme step.
In Gambhir and Agarkar, Indian cricket has the youngest pair of decision-makers ever. They have a temper but also the team’s best interests at heart.
In days to come, Gambhir and Agarkar will have to take tough calls. This policy document that reads like a primary school handbook for parents isn’t what Indian cricket needs. They need not be impulsive in managing the team’s transition. They also need to be open-minded and patient. Easy Tigers.
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I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
