IPL 2014: RCB lack confidence, says former coach Ray Jennings

Ray Jennings

Former Royal Challengers Bangalore’s coach Ray Jennings believes that lack of confidence as a group is the reason for RCB’s recent losses after it made a wonderful start to this edition of the Indian Premier League. The former South African cricketer played a significant role as a coach for the RCB in the last five editions.

“There doesn’t seem to be confidence within the RCB team. It seems a crisis of confidence. They haven’t played well as a group. It doesn’t look good at the moment. It’s a difficult one, especially for me to say from outside. But Virat looks like he has quite a lot of things on his plate, right now, and among the players, there seems to be a lack of confidence in their skills. I?think they need to work on the confidence levels,” Jennings said.

Before RCB made its start to the tournament with two consecutive wins, its batting order looked impressive; whereas, the bowling attack was an issue of concern. However, the performance in the last few matches shows otherwise.

Jennings was replaced by New Zealand cricketer Daniel Vettori as the coach for this season of the IPL and Jennings thinks that it will be a difficult task for Vettori to guide the team as a coach.

“It’s difficult for a player to come back and coach. It’s a tough job especially when the side starts losing and questions start coming from the boss if he is not happy. It’s a different situation as a player. The players sometimes don’t understand the ‘energies’ of a 25-strong squad. It’s very important to understand how all the 25 are feeling. Sometimes, if you are a player, you don’t take it into consideration,” the 59-year-old Jennings said.

When asked what could be done by Vettori, Jennings said: “I think Dan still has the expectations to play. When I worked with Dan, he was the captain and did the captaincy responsibilities. He didn’t get involved in anything more than in the unit point of view. As a coach, you have to get involved with so many things, making sure everyone is happy. You even work with the fans. From the knowledge point of view, Dan has lot of knowledge but it will take some time to get used to.”