My Kingdom for a Coach

Graham Ford is India’s new coach – well, not really. He has turned down the job for ‘personal reasons’. As many columnists have pointed out (including Mukul Kesavan and Ian Chappell), the BCCI were very egoistical (for lack of a better word or rather because there is no better word) in their selection process for the coach. Of course, one could expect nothing less from an organisation that utilise an equally cumbersome and political process to select the cricket team itself. But cricket selection is the topic for another rant blog!

The BCCI in all their glory probably felt that the lure of several zeros before a decimal point would be all that is required to entice their chosen candidate to the coaching role. Alas, that was not to be. It seems Graham Ford put his personal life before his career and of course, money – a train of thought that would probably be lost on the BCCI.

Several comments have emerged as to why he turned down the job. The speculation is rife from his tentativeness to be in the subcontinent to the apparent shock at the appalling state of affairs within the BCCI. Of course, the other speculation is that he simply wanted a free trip to India. Is it so hard to believe that his personal circumstances may simply have changed? Or that after further contemplation, he simply didn’t feel it was the right opportunity for him at the moment? Could it be that his reason’s were oh so simple and obvious?

On thing is for certain, I wouldn’t want the Jamaican police investigating his reasons for turning down the job!

John Wright’s Indian Summers - Prologue to a review

Firstly to avoid any confusion this is a book review and not that of someone’s holidays in India. Though to some that’s exactly what John Wright had.

The setting is India - a concoction of colour and culture. Over 1 billion people and every single one of them cricket crazy. India was reeling from the implications and allegations of the match fixing saga (aka Hansiegate). The team being it's usual mercurial self which such great achievements as losses to Kenya.

Enter John Wright. The former New Zealand opener and captain. Mooted as a candidate for the Indian coaching job. Certainly not the frontrunner – after all he was a foreigner. India had never had a foreign coach and there certainly wasn’t a shortage of former Indian players rushing for the job. As fate would have, this former Canterbury lad from one of the smallest countries in the world (where the sheep far outweigh the people) was to coach the most populous cricketing nation in the world through several heady and giddy years.

Indian Summers is John Wright’s personal account and thoughts on his journey and time with the Indian cricket team. John Wright has written this book in much the same way he played and coached (I realise after reading the book) – sharp and straight to the point. Nice and simple. It feels like reading his diary and joining him on the tumultuous rollercoaster ride when he was Indian coach – enduring the dizzying highs and the cavernous lows. Not to say it is dry, quite the contrary in fact. John has lent his rather quirky and witty sense of humour through the book while not missing the point.

What it is not and never claims to be is a gossipy, trashy, tell-all, scandal-ridden behind the scenes recount of a team filled with such talented players who miraculously seem to find a little time in their busy ad-filled, restaurant-running, endorsement-packed lives to play a bit of cricket. There are no great revelations of factions within the team or scandalous dressing room altercations between players and coach. And I for one have to say it is a nice refreshing change….