Joe Dawes sacked as India look for local talent

Ajit Vijaykumar 16:46 03/11/2014
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  • New guidance: local coaches Bharat Arun and Sanjay Bangar will now guide the likes of fast bowler Umesh Yadav

    India bowling coach Joe Dawes, who was hired in 2012 after India had lost eight successive Tests, is no longer part of the Indian set up; a move that was expedited following a crushing 3-1 defeat in England this year. 

    The 44-year-old Australian came and went without making a real impression, so I wonder why he was hired in the first place. 

    The fact is that the Indian cricket board has failed in its attempt to get a foreign coach to strengthen its fast bowling resources. 

    Dawes’ predecessor Eric Simons did a half decent job during his stint but India had Zaheer Khan to lead the pack and he took the bulk of the load, delivering more often than not. 

    Zaheer got decent support from the other end every now and then, from the likes of S Sreesanth, RP Singh and Munaf Patel chipping in. 

    But once they went out of the picture, India’s fast bowling began to suffer and Simons couldn’t do much to stem the slide.

    Eight successive defeats on bowler friendly conditions is a blot on any fast bowling coach’s CV, despite being part of a 50-over World Cup winning team’s support staff.

    His successor Dawes was even worse.

    With the Queenslander in charge of India’s bowlers (read pacers), India’s performance in away Tests continued to suffer, with series defeats in South Africa, New Zealand and England very hard to digest.

    In all these three tours, India were in a position to take command of the series but the fast bowlers simply ran out of steam.

    Zaheer had no sting in him picking up nine wickets in two Tests in New Zealand at an average of 42.44 while Mohammad Shami’s six wickets in two Tests in South Africa cost 43.83 per wicket.

    The one bowler who has shown some improvement in the last year and a half is Ishant Sharma. 

    He scalped 15 wickets in two Tests against the Kiwis and almost single handedly won the Lord’s Test against England this year, taking seven wickets in the fourth innings. 

    Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar looks promising but it’s too early in his international career to arrive at any conclusion.

    Dawes said he was proud of the fact that Ishant improved while he was in charge.

    Personally, I feel that was down to the Delhi quick working on his bowling after years of toil.

    Don’t forget Ishant made his debut in 2007 and there is a certain level of maturity seven years of international cricket automatically instils in a player.

    Any way you look at it, Dawes’ departure is good news for Indian cricket.

    Not because there is going to be some sort of a pace bowling revolution, but because the BCCI has decided to think local.

    They brought in Ravi Shastri to ‘assist’ the likes of head coach Duncan Fletcher, Dawes and fielding coach Trevor Penney, with help from IPL side Kings XI Punjab coach Sanjay Bangar and Bharat Arun.

    The message was clear, at least for the likes of Dawes and Penney, that the Indian team was looking beyond them.

    One of the reasons attributed for recent developments is the language barrier.

    The new crop of Indian cricketers is not coming from metropolitan cities anymore.

    The likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav come from cricketing outposts in India and English is not their strongest suit.

    Dawes said he would talk to Ishant and ask him to convey his views to the rest of the bowlers.

    The language barrier might seem like a hindrance but the main issue here is not how the message was being sent across but what exactly was being told.

    After the Greg Chappell era, the Indian administrators consciously looked for support staff who kept their views to themselves and didn’t tread on too many egos.

    But in getting people like Gary Kirsten, Simons and then Fletcher and Dawes, the Indian team ended up with a bunch who got increasingly comfortable sitting in the back ground.

    No whips were cracked and that has resulted in some shocking results of late, topped by two successive Test defeats in England inside three days.

    Let’s hope that the likes of Shastri, Bangar and Arun will talk in a way players get the message.

    And we are not talking about dialect but stern words delivered at the right time to ensure this young Indian team stays on track. 

    Also, local bowling coaches know what an Indian fast bowler needs to succeed at the top level as they are aware of the conditions in which they play at home and what challenges they face while travelling.

    Indian coaches will know exactly how much work can be extracted from a bowler as the physique and fitness level of Indians is different compared to those from

    Australia and South Africa.
    The Indian team management has done well to rope in local coaches to guide the Indian team.

    The foreign coach experimentation has run its course and the Indians need to stick with those they know can get the work done in a way they are familiar with. 

    If India can produce world conquering batsmen and bowlers, surely they can’t be too bad at coaching.

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