Web Only Feature

Interview with John Wright

"Who’s brave enough to come out and say
I don’t like the coach?"

By Sharda Ugra

He tells his players he want to be the "man behind the curtain," and has managed to remain relatively anonymous even after working for the country's most high-profile sportsmen - the Indian cricket team - for exactly two years this week.

John Wright, one of New Zealand's most respected cricketers and the Indian team's first overseas coach, was not expected to survive long. He was working alongside a captain who had a mind of his own, a very young team, a hectic international schedule and an environment dominated by a politicised selection system and the BCCI's haphazard way of functioning, stock-taking and decision-making.

In these 24 months, Wright has been in charge of the Indians for more days of international cricket than even the longest-serving team coach Ajit Wadekar. Of the 28 Tests and 56 one-day internationals played with Wright in India's corner, the Indians have won 12 Tests (four overseas) and 32 one-day internationals (at the start of the one-day series against the West Indies).

He will eventually judged by that win-loss record but Wright's biggest contribution to the Indian team and Indian cricket has been the establishment of a minimum benchmark of professionalism in the side - whether it is in coaching, fielding drills, net practice, team discussion or the emphasis on fitness.

"We were tired of being told dil se khelo, sir se khelo, pair se khelo," (play with your heart, play with your head play with your feet) said one player. Another said, "When I first came into the Indian team and sat in a meeting I thought, 'this is like my state team meeting … surely it's got to be more, this is India, it must be more… now it's completely different, everything is focussed and we have quality meetings quality practice. That's John's doing." Asked for their coach's trademark, players singled out, "committment" "communication" and "professionalism," "sending out the right vibes in the dressing room" - and the tendency to get extremely tense during tight one-day games, leading to an immediate evacuation of the area around his chair.

Dismissive of praise from his own players or the hype that surrounds his team, Wright, a pragmatic and purposeful 48-year-old, talked about his experiences in the job and his coaching philosophy in a freewheeling conversation with Associate Editor Sharda Ugra.

Q. India's been your first international assignment. Working with the constraints that exist with international teams, how much of an influence can have a performance coach actually have on a side?
A. You've got to feel you can have an influence - there's no point in being there if you cant. You've got to feel you can make a positive contribution to the job you've got to the team and individual players you work with. Otherwise there would be no purpose. How you quanitfy that is difficult sometimes… Sometimes you can say the smallest things to a player during the game where you hope it makes a difference and they may do well. It can be minor. Or they may not even take with them that onto the field. Overall you want to make a positive contribution otherwise the job's pointless. It's pretty simple, if they play well, the players get the accolades and they deserve it. If they dont there's got to be some scapegoats and usually it's the coach or the captain; that's the way the game works not only in cricket. Someone said a coach has got to be low prescence but high impact.

Q. It seems to have worked. Players on this team make mention of things you have said to them, like for example…
A. (Interrupts) So often you see interviews about coaches where the players say nice things about the coach. They are always going to do that. You read it the media in England or Australia, a present player saying oh the coach is great. They mightn't think it but who's brave enough to come out and say I don't like the coach?

I suppose you suggest things to players… but at the end of the day the player has to do it. I think it is far better for a player to feel, hear, see or visualise than to be told, demonstrated or instructed. And it's the same thing with playing the game. They have to go out and do it. Unless they think it's a good idea or take ownership and think about the thought you've put in their heads, then it's going to have limited results. They have to think what you're saying is of some value.

And how you say it and what you say can be very different between individual players and the types of people they are. There's that level of helping them individually or steering them in the right direction - and sometimes you might have to do that more firmly than is sometimes appreciated - and then there is the work you do at the level of the team.

Q. How much of what happens outside the national team affects your work?
A. There's lots of things I'd like to do just outside the national team. Ideas crop into your head about how you can contribute. In other things areas you think gosh if you get those right, it will help in what I do. That's very important, sometimes you are dependant on some things. When you're in the job at this level you'd like to see maybe a different way of doing things. But I focus on the team - the present team. I try and keep in contact with guys who have been in and out and I make a conscious effort to focus on the team that's playing that day at that particular time or that particular tour.

Q. We asked people what one question would you like to ask the national coach and the question that kept coming up was - how do you deal with different kinds of players, superstars, egos? Where do you begin?
A. I think it helped me that I had no history or baggage or any Indian influences whatever they may be. I've really tried hard - sometimes seniors players have earned certain rights but I try and treat everyone the same. But I think that is really important... It doesn't particularly worry me if I've upset Kumble or Srinath or Dravid and I have done on occasion - but that's just because I think it's really important.

For example, punctuality is a big thing. It's a simple thing. If people are not being punctual they are not thinking of people on the bus that are waiting for one bloke because he's decided to be late and I don't care who that is. No one has earned the right to be late not even the latest people - because you can tell immediately that focus goes (among the people waiting)… That's just a simple thing. Similarly for me. work ethic is huge. I try and be fair to every and each individual and tell it how it is, you judge and you tell it how you feel.

The next thing is making them understand that the team is bigger than them. And it doesn't matter who they are. Because if people think that they can do whatever they like - whether its turning up late for the bus, turning up for a team dinner or not even bothering to come - then that's not good enough. Because the team must come before you. Sometimes there are things you don't feel like doing on and off the field but you do them for the team.

Q. Was there are lot of this attitude when you came in?
A. Yes. I would say they are good boys to work with. I respect them a lot, I like them a lot. I really want them to do well. I really hope they know that that whatever I do sometimes it be right or wrong or something they dont agree with, I hope they know I care. I really care about the team and individuals and I want us to win. I really do. I feel a lot with this job. There were certain things when I came in that needed to be perhaps tidied up a bit. There was a certain lackadaisical, easy going… sloppy things.

For example, I've banned chairs at practice. The first practice I had with them in New Delhi - they got off the bus, they walked over to the ground and that took 15 minutes. Then they sat down and had cups of tea and waited for someone to pull their gear over. I just couldn't believe it... it took 35 minutes just to get ready for practice.

Q. We're told that team meetings and practice are a lot more focussed now, there's no eating and drinking in meetings…
A. Yes, because it's business. Business is business. The things that's really important is that you practice how you're going to play. It's business. You have to do everything with a purpose when you're playing top-level international sport. If you're not, then go and read, go and relax. If you have to succeed at this level, whatever you do it's got to have an intensity about it. These are important things you discuss in practice. You click your mind on when you get on the bus, you know you're going to practice for a purpose and you're not just going through the motions. Sometimes I wished I run better practices. We're playing a lot and you have to be careful.

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