‘Don’t recommend such novice coaches’ – Ex India fielding coaches recalls getting scolded by Ravi Shastri
Ravi Shastri (Image Credit: Twitter)
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri is known to be a tough person either as a coach or broadcaster. During his stint as the head coach of the India cricket team, he was known to be a no-nonsense person. Not to forget, the 1983 World Cup winner didn’t get too bothered about the ‘outside noise’. Meanwhile, former India fielding coach, R Sridhar has revealed the time he got scolded by Shastri.
The former revealed that Ravi had decided to let the players speak about their game plans ahead of every game. At the start, the former Hyderabad spinner, Sridhar felt that it was a good idea. However, later, he felt that the exercise must be used freely and wanted to speak to Bharat Arun, the then-bowling coach.
“Ahead of the World Cup, Ravi decided that the players would speak at the team meetings. That at every meeting, the batters would speak of their game plans, how they would approach different situations, what their plans are for each bowler in the opposition. After that, all-rounders Ashwin and Jadeja would hold forth, and at the end, the fast bowlers would express their thoughts. It was a very good system, I felt, because ultimately it was the players who had to perform out in the middle,” he said.
“We had a similar exercise the day before the game against South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. That evening, I was at my old friend Noel Carr’s place in Melbourne for dinner when I got a call from Arun, asking for my views on this new introduction. I knew I could speak freely to Arun, so I told him, ‘It’s a great concept, but we should be careful how often we do it. It’s a golden goose, we should not kill it. If we do this before every game, its effectiveness will diminish. I feel it’s better if we have such sessions before key matches,’” he added.
Ravi Shastri called me a novice coach: R Sridhar
Meanwhile, Sridhar, who was speaking to Arun about the concept, didn’t realize the phone was on speaker. The conversation between the two was heard by Shastri.
“I didn’t know, of course, that I was on speaker phone, that Ravi was listening in. I was fairly new to international cricket, and Ravi and I didn’t really know each other all that well. Apparently, he wasn’t very amused by what he heard. ‘Baadi,’ he thundered, referring to Arun by his nickname, ‘I told you these young coaches have no idea what I am doing. I had told you at the very beginning not to recommend such novice coaches. I was rattled. I knew there was merit in what I had told Arun, but I was unnerved by Ravi’s reaction and didn’t sleep very well that night,” he recalled.
