"I left the room with a clear understanding that unless India made it to the final of the World Cup, I was losing my job soon," Wright wrote. His successor, Greg Chappell, quit after a disastrous World Cup campaign in 2007 in the Windies.
In recent times, South African Mickey Arthur and Zimbabwean Andy Flower lost their jobs with Australia and England respectively thanks to a plummeting performance graph. In top football leagues around the world, coaches are shown the door the moment a team starts faltering.
This time, though, the Indian cricket board seems to have adopted a wait-and-watch policy with Duncan Fletcher. Since the Zimbabwean took over as the coach after the World Cup in 2011, India have forgotten how to travel well.
Soon after he took charge, India lost 0-4 in both England and Australia, with the losses being pinned on an ageing side. This was followed by England humbling India on home turf too. MS Dhoni and Co bounced back by thrashing a listless Australia and the Windies at home and winning the Champions Trophy in England. However, hopes of a resurgence were dashed after defeats in South Africa and New Zealand, following which both captain MS Dhoni and Fletcher are under the scanner.
India under Fletcher
| Test Cricket | ||||||
| Venue | Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | Draw | Success % |
| Home | 15 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 80 |
| Away | 15 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 20 |
| Total | 30 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 6 | 50 |
| ODI Cricket | ||||||
| Home | 27 | 18 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 68.52 |
| Away | 49 | 25 | 19 | 3 | 2 | 56.12 |
| Total | 76 | 43 | 27 | 3 | 3 | 60.53 |
| T20I Cricket | ||||||
| Home | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 42.86 |
| Away | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 63.64 |
| Total | 18 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 56.56 |
But on Saturday, BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel made it clear there was no threat to Fletcher's job leaving former India skipper Ajit Wadekar baffled. "It is amazing. Fletcher has got enough time with this team now. It is for the coach to form a strategy, but I don't think he is helping Dhoni in that department. With so much cricket nowadays, the think tank has simply stopped thinking. Dhoni leads from the front, especially in ODIs, but he too needs guidance from the coach, which he isn't getting."
Wadekar feels that the 65-year-old is not even "guiding the BCCI properly". "When I was the manager, I impressed upon (then-BCCI chief) Dalmiya the need for a 'code of conduct' because things were going haywire. The results followed. Now, we hardly play any practice ties on important tours. Can't Fletcher point this out?"
One reason Fletcher is still in favour could be that the players want him around. Former India skipper and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar feels the process of consulting the senior players in the Indian team before appointing a coach is flawed.
"Why do you need to consult the players before appointing a coach? The onus for this task should be on the BCCI. The board should form a committee of former cricketers of repute — that panel may have Indians and foreigners as well. The coach has to be answerable to BCCI, not players," he said.
"You need someone like Sunil Gavaskar who has scored more than 10,000 Test runs, rather than a coach who has read plenty of books on cricket coaching. These foreigners come from a different system and are a misfit in our set-up," opined former Pakistan skipper Javed Miandad.
With foreigners too not achieving the desired results, is it time for a desi Team India coach? "We have so many former cricketers like Dilip Vengsarkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, who have such deep knowledge about the game. The board can pursue them to coach or guide this team," Wadekar felt. "To get to know the Indian team is difficult. Only an Indian coach can bind the team into one unit, otherwise our players have a tendency to form sub-groups."
Fletcher doesn't even address the media after defeats. "It shows a lack of transparency," said Wadekar.
Though Fletcher has a poor report card to show, there are those who still sympathize with him. "We are blaming the coach and the captain for the defeats but not analyzing the performance of the players. What can the coach do if the players are inconsistent?" said former India batsman and coach Anshuman Gaekwad. "They are not schoolboys. You can get the best coach in the world but it is the players who have to deliver."
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