An Indian should coach Indian team, we know how to put in hard yards: Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir. (Photo Source : Gettyimages)

Former cricketer Gautam Gambhir completely dashed away the idea of having foreign coaches for the betterment of Indian cricket. He believes that the nation has enough capable personnel who know how to put the hard yards. Notably, after India’s loss to Australia in the finals of the ODI World Cup 2023, there were talks of changing the coaching staff but BCCI eventually showed faith in Rahul Dravid and other support staff to continue with the national team.

However, Pakistan have made a lot of changes in their coaching staff in the recent past. Mickey Arthur and Morne Morkel were appointed in the lead-up to the World Cup but there were doubts if the duo would continue under Zaka Ashraf. However, then selection committee chairman Inzamam-ul-Haq showed faith in them after consulting with Babar Azam but the team couldn’t perform well in the marquee tournament in India. Following which, all of them were sacked and Mohammad Hafeez was named the new head coach of the team.

Recently, legendary cricketer Wasim Akram pointed out that foreign coaches are not the solution as they fail to understand Pakistan cricket. Gambhir stated the same as he mentioned that only an Indian should coach the Indian team while only a Pakistani should coach their national team.

“We saw how well India played in the World Cup and that shows that we don’t need anyone from the outside. It shows that our coaches are not behind any foreign coaches. Our problem is we are probably not able to give presentations that way, use the laptop, or speak English that well. We don’t come from that corporate culture, but we know how to put the hard yards on the field and do the groundwork,” Gautam Gambhir was quoted as saying by NDTV.

“We are not nations who have started playing cricket 10 years ago. We have players who have won the World Cup. An Indian should coach the Indian team, a Pakistani should coach the Pakistan team,” the 42-year-old added.

Gambhir also added that BCCI and PCB should back their former players to come into coaching as they understand the sport well enough. He also mentioned that emotion is extremely important in succeeding and the former cricketers understand that.