G'day all, and sorry for the two-day break in this diary. Thing being, I had
to do some hectic travelling -- at the end of which, I realise that it is
far, far easier to get you the entire blueprint of our military capability,
than it is to paint a picture of the BCCI's finances, and to show you how
much it earns, and spends.
Never mind, we'll get there yet. Meanwhile, I find my thoughts turning to
technology, as an aid to sport. Or more particularly, to cricket.
The first time I spoke to a board official on the subject was about four
years ago -- and the official in question was Jaywant Lele. It's a funny
thing about the guy -- he acts like he hates Rediff's guts, he goes out of
his way to give us a hard time over the littlest things. But when he comes
face to face with Faisal or with me, he is locquaciousness personified, ever
ready to talk at length on pretty much any subject.
Anyways. In course of a chat, I asked him why, when the rest of the world
was going high-tech, Indian coaches could still be found with pencil and
paper, scribbling notes to themselves. 'Arre,' he replied in his inimitable
fashion, 'tum log hamesha kyon ye computer-womputer ke chakkar mein pade ho?
The computer is a fashion for you people, that is all you talk about all the
time. Cricket bat aur ball se kela jaata hai, not with computers. Arre you
tell me, when South Africa came here last, that Woolmer brought this big
dabba with him, carried it all over, you media people wrote about his
computer and said nice things. And what happened? South Africa lost, no?'
A seemingly sound argument, but one that misses the point by a country mile.
Lele, as is usual with him, sees one tiny corner of the picture here. What
he misses is the fact that the Proteas have made incredible progress in a
very short time since their re-entry. That countries like Australia have,
with the aid of computers, refined their game to such an extraordinary
degree that increasingly, it looks like they just can't lose. That even
countries like New Zealand have made tremendous strides once they went
hi-tech.
But who is to tell the board this? After all, 'cricket bat aur ball se kela
jaata hai', no?
Talk to our national players about the coaches they have had, and you will
find that their reactions range from indifference, to downright contempt.
'They yell at you after the game, but they don't have any suggestions to
make before,' is a commonly heard complaint. 'The coach yells at you, says
'Why have you given so many runs?' -- but all he has is questions, never
answers,' is another. 'After a match, the coach tells me, you should have
scored more singles, you should rotate the strike -- but no coach has told
me why it is that I am not able to get the singles, what I am doing wrong,
what I should do to put it right,' is yet another.
We have had quite a few coaches in recent times. And each time a new one is
announced, we media people promptly ask various players what they think of
the latest appointee. 'Oh, it is very good for us, he is very experienced,
we can learn a lot, we are sure he will get us back on the winning
track....' is what we get. And then, if the player knows you well, he will
say, 'Kya farak padega, yaar? They are all the same, they will tell you to
bat better and bowl better and field well, and that is all they will ever
do, nothing is going to change.' And an instant later, he will add, 'Don't
quote me, huh? I don't want to get into trouble with the board and the
coach.
'
White's appointment is being greeted with the same on-record enthusiasm. The
only difference is that this time, there is no off-record cribbing -- the
mood among the players seems uniformly positive.
What is interesting is the reason behind the positive mood in the team.
Players I spoke to point out that what they have lacked all along is someone
to help them think things through. A Srinath, for instance, finds his line
going awry in his second spell. And wants to know, is it that his back, or
ribs, are hurting and subconciously, he is favouring that region and in the
process, his bowling hand is falling away? A Sachin would like to know how
come the shot he plays through point on the up, which during his best
seasons was one of the most distinctive weapons in his batting armoury, is
now the cause of his downfall. A Rahul Dravid needs to know just why he
finds himself run-less to the leg spinner who pitches just back of a length,
outside leg, turning sharply in to leg and middle. And so on. Each player
has little technical niggles he wants help to sort out, and that help, they
say, has not been forthcoming.
"Often," one senior member of the side told me yesterday, "all it takes is
one little adjustment, for things to come right again. But you can't figure
out the adjustment while you are actually playing -- what you need is for
someone to watch you during matchplay, make a note of what the problem is,
then sit down with you and talk you through the problem. You can then get
into the nets and with your coach watching, try making some changes to the
way you bat or bowl, to rectify the defect."
It seems a simple enough matter -- some observation, some feedback, some
monitoring while the player takes corrective remedies. Yet, more than one
player says that the lack of this kind of input, on a regular, ongoing
basis, has been a major cause for the trot of bad performances in recent
times.
It is in this context that the players look at Wright's appointment -- they
think that at long last, they have a coach who can actually apply his mind
to what they require. And for this, they say, technology is a very important
tool.
Interestingly, when Wright met the members of the BCCI prior to his
appointment, he made it an important pre-condition of appointment to be
allowed to spend a reasonable amount on technological aids. His idea of
reasonable amounts, that is -- not the board's.
The first thing he did, on signing up for the job, was to go down to
Bangalore and acquire, from a private company there, a software package that
he believes will help fill the technological bill.
During the ongoing hiatus, that software is being used to back up data.
Videos of old games are being loaded into the computer, the software is then
harnessed to collect the data regarding each player's performance, over
various parameters.
From India's home series against Australia on, however, Wright will be
backed up by a first division player who is also a first class umpire, and
who will be in charge of feeding data into the computer, live, ball by ball,
Tests and ODIs alike. Information the coach will then use to refine on-field
strategy, and also to work with the players on various aspects of the game.
I spent part of my two days away from office checking out the software and
the arrangements being made. I'll leave the specifics of the package to my
diary of tomorrow -- for now, I'll end with the confession that I am hugely
impressed. Any reasonably intelligent human being with a reasonable grasp of
the game AND a willingness to use available aids can bring about a one
hundred per cent improvement in the side.
For now, cheers, see you tomorrow.
Prem
Mail Cricket Editor