Top 5 cricket coaches

The concept of a coach for an international cricket team is one which is still relatively new, with the captain of a cricket team, along with the team manager, performing the duties of a present-day coach in earlier times. While coaches (or managers) have always had an extremely crucial role to play in sports like football and rugby, a cricket coach for an international team was never considered necessary until the late 1980s. There might have been occasions, during the 1970s and earlier, when coaches were present but only on a part-time basis. The whole thinking towards the role of coaches in international cricket changed during the last part of the 20th century.What, probably, brought about the change in thinking was the increasingly intense international schedule coupled with the media responsibilities of the captain, which led to the captain having too much on his plate. It, therefore, became prudent for teams to appoint head coaches in order to ease the workload of the captains.Cricket remains a sport where the onus is on the captain to make on-field decisions, and he is largely accountable for the performance of his team. But the introduction of coaches on a full-time basis has helped massively as, apart from being a good sounding board to the captain, they are able to discharge some of the off-field duties of the captain, thereby helping the captain to relax and concentrate on his own game.Here are the top 5 cricket coaches in the world:

#5 Dav Whatmore

Sri Lanka, who were granted Test status only in 1981, are a genuine force in world cricket today, and a fair share of credit for that goes to Dav Whatmore. Sri Lanka won the 1996 World Cup during Whatmore’s tenure, and ever since then, they have been one of the most consistent sides in international cricket. While it’s obviously the players who have to go out on the field of play and perform, what Whatmore did during that 1996 World Cup, was instill a lot of confidence among their younger players like Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas. He made them believe that they belonged at the international level.

He later took charge of Bangladesh, from 2003 to 2007, and helped the Tigers pull off a few famous upsets, notably against Australia in an ODI in Cardiff in 2005 and against India in the 2007 World Cup.

He also had the distinction of being coach of the Indian U19 side, led by Virat Kohli, which won the 2008 U19 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and he just recently was the coach of Pakistan, thereby having the experience of coaching in all the four major cricketing countries in the subcontinent.

#4 John Wright

Sourav Ganguly is often credited as the man who changed the face of Indian cricket, as India started competing in Test cricket away from home during his spell as captain. While Ganguly was undoubtedly a fantastic leader of men, John Wright’s role in India’s rise, especially as a Test team, shouldn’t be underestimated.

Before Wright’s appointment as Indian coach in 2000, India always had domestic coaches with the exception of Bob Simpson, who was appointed on a temporary basis in 1999. It was alleged that Indian coaches were often biased to players from their region etc., and they were also susceptible to the politics of the BCCI.

Wright’s appointment was a breath of fresh air, and he, along with Ganguly, managed to get the best out of young players like Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh. His greatest quality was the fact that he was happy staying in the background and was never interested in stealing the limelight away from the players.

#3 John Buchanan

John Buchanan never got the credit he deserved, in my opinion, for his incredible achievements as Australian coach, with people often remarking that literally anyone could have coached Australia at a time when they were bristling with world-class talent. While the fact that he was helped by having players of the caliber of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, etc. at his disposal cannot be disputed, he certainly deserves praise for having been able to get the very best out of players who, after all, had very big egos. During his 8-year stint as Australian coach, Australia were the undisputed No.1 side in the Test rankings and won 2 consecutive 50-over World Cups, in 2003 and 2007, without losing even a single game.

#2 Andy Flower

When Andy Flower took charge of the England team on an interim basis, after Peter Moores’ sacking, in February 2009, English cricket was at an all-time low. His first game in charge saw England being bowled out for 51 and crushing to an innings defeat against a weak West Indies side. It would’ve been easy for the ECB to look elsewhere for the post of England head coach after that disaster in Jamaica, but the board put their faith in Flower and reaped huge rewards for that brave decision.

Under Flower’s 5-year tenure from 2009 to 2014, England scaled heights that they had never reached before. They won 3 back-to-back Ashes, won a T20 World Cup and achieved the No.1 ranking in Test cricket for the first time ever. While his reign ended in agony with a 5-0 hammering at the hands of Australia earlier this year, the good work Flower did, in resurrecting the fortunes of English cricket, should never be forgotten.

#1 Gary Kirsten

Gary Kirsten was known as a hard-working cricketer during his time as a player with the South African national team, and he has taken that same work ethic into his coaching. When India appointed him as head coach in 2008, it was considered a big risk as he had had no prior coaching experience. But it turned out to be a masterstroke, by the BCCI, as he helped India in winning the 2011 50-over World Cup in addition to taking India to No.1 in the ICC Test rankings in 2009.

After resigning as India’s head coach, post the victorious 2011 World Cup, he took over as coach of South Africa and had an equally successful time, taking them to the top spot in the ICC Test Rankings, before resigning in 2013 for family reasons.