Cricket’s Odd Couple write a winning script

A few moments later came the most endearing moment of all. Ganguly wrapped Wright in the kind of hug that he might have reserved for a cousin and for a brief while, only a very brief while, they stayed that way. Two very different people bound together by a common love for the side they had moulded in such utterly contrasting styles.

You couldn’t get more different than those two. Ganguly is flamboyant, Wright understated; Ganguly instinctive, Wright meticulous; Ganguly a gambler, Wright a safety inspector. But they have one thing in common: the desire to win runs deep within both and they had the common sense to realise that while desire is the torch that shows the way, the hand holding it could be anybody’s.

Ganguly and Wright have had their differences, especially while they were getting to know each other. Wright had been with New Zealand and the English county, Kent, was used to an organized way of life where you set down objectives and work meticulously towards them. Ganguly came from a family of well-to-do people, where the men generally got what they wanted and where other people listened. It is a tribute to both of them that the relationship, like a good Indian arranged marriage, survived and flowered. It was critical for Indian cricket that it did.

The secret, I believe, lay in separating roles. Two men cannot covet power and live together. Or two women for that matter! Wright realized very quickly that his role lay in preparing the team, goading it towards a new, more modern, more exciting mindset and hoping that plans were translated into action. The translation was Ganguly’s job for on the field of play there can only be one leader.

Wright was willing to give Ganguly that position and that is why he is a fine coach. And so he did what he could do best, try and give a team born and forged in chaos a path to follow; make fitness, which was a sporadic exercise, into a team movement; and get the team ready to play a cricket match.

In doing so, Wright demonstrated why a coach must always stay in the background. Bob Simpson was a rare successful coach who was in the public eye but that was because Allan Border wanted it that way. He had to move as soon as Mark Taylor arrived and said it was his team. Kapil Dev couldn’t come to terms with the job, neither, it seems, can Javed Miandad. A coach needs to be patient, needs to understand why players can sometimes take time to learn. Star performers can rarely do that. Between them though, Wright, Ganguly and a couple of very committed senior players, have created a wonderful atmosphere within the team. There hasn’t been a scandal, no talk of a rift or dissent and while that makes for boring and frustrating journalism, a team could not ask for more. If there was one difference between India and Pakistan, it was the spirit in the dressing room.

Since March 2001, when the partnership began, Indian cricket has seen the development of some extraordinary talent. Harbhajan Singh in March 2001, Virender Sehwag in November 2001, Mohammad Kaif in mid-2002, the return of Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan, the arrival of Parthiv Patel and the more dramatic entry of Irfan Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji.

Pathan apart, because he is so new, each of those players has been persevered with, given the opportunity to fail and to learn from failure for that is the best teacher. Never in our cricket has the development of talent been faster.

And people are competing. Even as brilliant a player as VVS Laxman could not take his place for granted and now Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh find they will need some dramatic performances to get back in. That is the hallmark of a good team. Give people the confidence that they belong but don’t let them believe they can linger there forever.

Ganguly and Wright have laid the foundation for a very good team. Now they need to build on it for in spite of all the euphoria there is much that remains to be done.