Former India coach John Wright hails The Wall for his latest decision to be head coach in a pressure-filled, expectation-heavy scenario
Rahul Dravid. Pic/AFP
John Wright, India’s first foreign team coach, has “doffed his hat” to Rahul Dravid for accepting the position of head coach of the Indian cricket team.
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Dravid will take over from Ravi Shastri, who ends his long association with the team after the ongoing T20 World Cup being held in the UAE and Oman.
India’s stand-in captain Rahul Dravid with team coach John Wright during a practice session at Green Park, Kanpur, ahead of the April 15, 2005 fifth ODI against Pakistan. Pic/AFP
“I doff my hat to Rahul for coming back and contributing to Indian cricket. He has the experience, he has seen a lot of the guys develop through his involvement as coach of Rajasthan Royals and India u-19, so it has to be advantageous,” Wright told mid-day.com from Christchurch, New Zealand.
‘Wonderful appointment’
“I would call it a wonderful appointment. I have known Rahul since my days with Kent (Wright, coached the county side before taking the India job in 2000) and he was always a tough competitor. Now, how that translates into coaching you never know but he has the experience and that’s always important,” remarked Wright, suggesting that Dravid has few equals where knowing Indian cricket inside out is concerned.
“For someone who has given so much already…to come back and take on a role which is full of responsibility and expectations, is very admirable.
“Rahul was a big part of our [India] success as a player when I was coach,” stressed Wright.
The 67-year-old former New Zealand captain ended his stint in 2004 and had the satisfaction of guiding the Indian team in their epic 2-1 series win over Australia in 2001, the 2002 NatWest Trophy triumph, the 2003-04 drawn (1-1) series in Australia and the historic 2003-04 Test series win in Pakistan apart from a runner-up finish at the 2003 World Cup in Southern Africa.
Greg: Rahul can do it
Meanwhile, Wright’s successor Greg Chappell, in response to The Straits Times’ columnist Rohit Brijnath’s query surrounding the challenge for Dravid to turn a fine team into an even better one, said: “If anyone can do it, he [Dravid] can do it. It’s not an easy role, for the coach must carry the demands and expectations of a billion people. He’ll need all the resources he has.”
The Dravid-Chappell combine provided India their first Test series win in the West Indies after 1971 in 2005-06, its first Test match win in South Africa [at Johannesburg in 2006-07] and a string of one-day triumphs until disaster struck at the 2006-07 World Cup in the Caribbean.
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