Gary Kirsten is making all the correct noises after being (contract not yet signed as of the time of writing the article) appointed the coach of the Indian cricket team. He talks about the respect for the Big 3, the honor of coaching India and how he wants to blend in with the thoughts of the team, rather than dictate things as his predecessor famously failed to do.

With all due respect to Kirsten, I wonder if he knows what he is getting himself into. Does he understand completely what his powers and responsibility are and what boundaries are drawn out for him, the players and the BCCI?

It is all very easy to say that the coach, the players and the employers (the BCCI) must blend in to form one unit; in an ideal world that would happen but realists would understand that the Indian cricket team is not really a place to practice idealism.

Sure, we can all blame Greg Chappell for the ills of Indian cricket up to the world cup but beyond that I for one haven't forgotten that a series winning captain came back from England and put in his papers, and Greg Chappell wasn't within miles of England. There haven't been many people wondering why (at least, not as loudly as they screamed when Dhoni or Pathan was sent in at number 3 in the Chappell era) and if Kirsten is a smart man he will ask that question to the BCCI even if he hasn't a hope in hell of getting an honest reply from that body.

Different people handle pressure in different ways, and what Chappell couldn't handle might be easily handled by Kirsten; a legendary status as a player doesn't automatically give one an advantage at coaching, being a consultant or even running a restaurant for that matter. However, what would help Kirsten is preparation which I hope he would be doing in earnest. If he thinks coaching the Indian team is only about forming strategies to defeat the Pakistanis and the Australians, he doesn't even know the beginning of it.

I hope he discussed some key issues before accepting the position and some that I can think off the top of my head are -

1. Can I get a media manager to handle the front end job as everything I say must / will be misconstrued in the worst way possible by the Indian media dying to run "breaking news" banners at the bottom of their news channels?
2. Do I get a vote in selection, yes or no, and damn the usual cliché of "the coach's suggestions would be considered by the selectors"? What do I do if I feel that the team handed to me is not the best that could have been selected but one that for various reasons is the one the BCCI wants to field?
3. What are the short term and the long goals for me and the team to achieve? "Winning the 2011 World Cup" is not a goal, it is just an item on a wish list that even the mighty Australians cannot guarantee today, let alone the Indians.
4. How is my job progress monitored and at what intervals? What are the parameters of measurement and what makes the review panel (which would probably consist of Shastri and Gavaskar, among others) competent enough to judge me? Of course I must be judged and monitored, but those monitoring me must be on the same wavelength as me on the aims we wish to achieve.
5. What is my position w.r.t. player power? If I think Tendulkar fits better at 4 in O.D.I.s or if I think Yuveraj would make a better choice in the eleven than Ganguly, and neither example is to say I think so right now, what are my options? If Harbhajan thinks sorting hats are an idiotic idea and I think it is a great idea to get the team to sink their brains into lateral thinking, and this is again not to say that I think lateral thinking is necessary for International cricketers, what do I do?
6. Finally, can the BCCI hire on a permanent basis two psychologists, one specializing in sports psychology and one in stress related psychological disorders, for the players and me respectively?

Off the bat, Kirsten has disappointed me by making his choice clear about not being the coach of the team for the Australian tour, but only taking over after that tour is over. Of course, the blame must mostly go onto the BCCI and its superstar panel for coach selection that has finished their job 6 months behind schedule, and exactly 15 days before the most grueling of all tours begins. In fact, to put a positive spin on it, this also shows that indeed the new coach of the Indian team is a smart man, and that in itself is something to end on a positive note with.