India's coaching staff (Fletcher/Simmons) - Should they go?

AbhishekS

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That's a sad news IMO. The bowlers, especially the pace department has constantly improved since his arrival. Would have been nice had he extended his contract.
 

sifter132

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Have they improved under Simons? They've found Yadav and maybe Aaron, but I think those guys would have been unearthed no matter who the bowling coach was. What about Ishant? Or Sreesanth? Or Irfan Pathan? Have the established bowlers improved at all under Simons?

I'm all for changes in coaching, and in fact I think these specialist batting and bowling coaches should change a lot. Why? Because every new guy you hire brings in a new approach eg. Saker in England, and McDermott in Australia. Then when you notice the bowling group getting stale again, hire someone else with new ideas. Keep the best ideas of the old coach and move on.
 

SaiSrini

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That's a sad news IMO. The bowlers, especially the pace department has constantly improved since his arrival. Would have been nice had he extended his contract.

Not much. Just their pace has gone up, but that too only for the shorter formats. Their line and lengths were highly erratic during the two disastrous whitewashes. Their fitness always remains a concern. They need to be managed better, and we need a different guy as Simmons had not been producing the results.
 

angryangy

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Have they improved under Simons? They've found Yadav and maybe Aaron, but I think those guys would have been unearthed no matter who the bowling coach was. What about Ishant? Or Sreesanth? Or Irfan Pathan? Have the established bowlers improved at all under Simons?
Varun Aaron, no. He's been to the MRF Pace Academy, National Cricket Academy and the AIS Centre of Excellence. He's your regulation pipeline rookie, in the system since his teens. It's almost wrong to suggest he could have been unearthed. They planted him in the earth to begin with!

Umesh Yadav, more likely. Not a serious junior, he got on the radar in the 2010 IPL after a couple of good Ranji seasons and played for India soon after. He wasn't bowling 90 mph and wasn't even that useful a limited-overs bowler, but he was a clear find: a strong-looking 22 year old with as much pace as most of India's mature stocks.

Ishant Sharma is the interesting case. He seemed to have all the tricks in 2008, but between then and now hasn't made progress. Some suggested he was better back then, but he took few wickets, bowled few miserly spells and didn't have to do a whole series. He won a lot of hype for a couple of spells featuring pace, bounce and inswing; but not for length or efficiency. In terms of coaching, the big question is not whether he has developed since 2008, but since 2010.
 

Fenil

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I would prefer an Indian coach tbh.

I agree. While I would prefer foreign coaches. They are some Indian coaches who can do good to the team. Venkatesh Prasad, Srinath or even Lalchand Rajput had a pretty good stint with Indian team. Lalchand was the coach under whom India won the Inaugural T20I World Cup.
 

SaiSrini

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I created this thread after the Aussie test whitewash, but we have performed poorly in the CB series also after that, and yet the media nor the board is willing to talk about Fletcher and if he should go. Wonder what magic has he done onto the media?

Our last overseas tour before Fletcher was in SA and we drew the series 1-1 and lost the ODI series by a very close margin of 2-3. Enter Fletcher, and we are whitewashed badly in tests and we lose ODI's a little less badly (but badly enough). And we struggle to win convincingly against a West Indies side. We got lucky against England who played poor ODI cricket in that revenge series which we won 5-0.
 

Aswin8

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Hmm,lets see atleast then India gets better in Bowling department.
I think Wasim Akram can be bowling coach of India:p
 

sifter132

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I created this thread after the Aussie test whitewash, but we have performed poorly in the CB series also after that, and yet the media nor the board is willing to talk about Fletcher and if he should go. Wonder what magic has he done onto the media?

Our last overseas tour before Fletcher was in SA and we drew the series 1-1 and lost the ODI series by a very close margin of 2-3. Enter Fletcher, and we are whitewashed badly in tests and we lose ODI's a little less badly (but badly enough). And we struggle to win convincingly against a West Indies side. We got lucky against England who played poor ODI cricket in that revenge series which we won 5-0.

It can be hard to judge how much of an impact a coach is having. Maybe it would have been even worse without Fletcher :p I've never thought much of him really, but I think he deserves a couple more series at home before he gets written off completely. One thing working in his favour is that the attention has been more on Dhoni's captaincy and the incompetence of the senior players. So instead of asking questions about Fletcher the questions have been about players retiring or a new captain.
 

SaiSrini

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It can be hard to judge how much of an impact a coach is having. Maybe it would have been even worse without Fletcher :p I've never thought much of him really, but I think he deserves a couple more series at home before he gets written off completely. One thing working in his favour is that the attention has been more on Dhoni's captaincy and the incompetence of the senior players. So instead of asking questions about Fletcher the questions have been about players retiring or a new captain.

I find it hard to believe that the same team (with the same captain and the same senior players) was performing really well (even in overseas tours) and once Fletcher comes in, the same team starts under-performing? The amount of cricket is the same as it was pre-Fletcher. Overdose of cricket has been issue for the past 3-4 years (more so since the inception of the IPL).

Anyways right now the focus is not on the coach and so Fletcher has more time in his hands. And the fact that our calender for the next year is completely in the subcontinent (with more home games). I just wish Fletcher can improve as time passes by and be of better help to the team and that the team sorts itself out in the next year.
 

sifter132

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But the problem is that no one can put an exact finger on the EXACT problem in England and Australia. Was it the tactics? Was it the preparation? Was it a general lack of enthusiasm that lead to a lack of hunger? And even if it could be narrowed down to some specific issue, can it then be isolated as Fletcher's fault? It could be Dhoni's fault. Or it could be the senior players not getting behind Fletcher. I don't like Fletcher, but at the moment the evidence against him is purely coincidental. Until someone comes out and specifically says that he's ruined the dressing room or that his methods stink there's only results to go on.
 

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