Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Hottest Job in India- Coach for Indian cricket team!!

The headlines in almost all newspapers today in India scream " Ford rejects India"

Within TWO days of his being offered the job as the Coach of the Indian Cricket team, Mr Graham Ford has had a "sudden change of heart"!!

I am sure -a lot of fellow recruiters and even hiring managers in corporates -have been at the recieving end of such news..almost on a daily basis!! While we are still finding it difficult to stomach the 'dropouts' we are forever trying to woo new candidates for the roles..with a difference.

Can the BCCI learn from any of the corporate/third party recruiters?

Surely if one were to see the 'attrition' levels, it has been very "BPO-ish"!! People with different shapes and sizes and domain specialisations! We have recently had a New Zealander John Wright, Australian Greg Chappel, and a few part timers ( Ravi Shastri, a bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad, a fielding coach in Robin Singh)

Can some of us do a better job in hiring the best man for the post?

Ofcourse there are a lot of basic questions!

1. do we need a coach at all? After all, if a bunch of 20 best guys can make it to national shortlist, from a country of millions playing and watching cricket, the sheer brilliance and calibre -(totally unnerved by the manipulating politics, regionalism, rumoured corruption, and by just letting performance figures speak for themselves!) -they should be able to stay motivated and perform to their level of competency anyway!!

2. If we need a coach, what would be his role? Teach them killer instinct? Steel them to believe in themselves? Strategise differently-for the players are the guys who go out to the middle and perform , no? Has there ever been a job description made?

3. Would the coach have the authority? Surely he is responsible when things go wrong..but would he have a say in the selection of the Indian probables? Or the final Eleven? How would he even know about the capabilities of the 'thousands of prospects who are sweating it out'? Is there enough Business Intelligence -and a organisation structure of 'talent spotters' at various levels..under 13, under 15, under 17, under 19 levels of cricket..not to mention the performances of Ranji and One day tournaments?

4. Should there be a decent tenure-say three years for the coach-to make a difference..?

5. Do we need a foreign coach? Why not an Indian cricketer -who has made it thru the rungs of the domestic leagues, the district competition, represented the State, and been at the fringe of National teams? Surely he would know the eco system just too well -to tinker around, and help nurture fresh talent to bloom and perform at the highest level!! After all- at the international levels of competition, everyone is just as good as the other..it is the temparament on the day, no?

6. Should a coach be a manager or a leader?

And so on..I am throwing open this case study to my fellow colleagues and professionals..how would you select a coach for the Indian cricket team!!?

Oops..I am tempted to ask....why not a returning Indian- mate?? The best of both worlds?

After all, only if we know what we are looking for-will we ever find it :-)!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Achyut, very good post. All the 6 questions you asked are simple but equally difficult to answer.
For me Ford did not accept the job for 2 reasons. 1) inherent risk of coaching South Asian country (e.g Pak coach Bob Woolmer)
2) A word with previous 2 foreign coaches will seal his decision on not coming to India.

For that matter even John Embury has rejected coming as a coach :)