Cricketers have too much power: Eric Simons

June 7, 2012

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When the Delhi Daredevils were knocked out of the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League, it came as no surprise that Eric Simons was the one answering the media's heated questions. Why was Morne Morkel left out? Where did Sunny Gupta come from? Not for the first time in his career Simons, as coach, was left carrying the can. When South Africa limped out of the 2003 World Cup following a bizarre misreading of the Duckworth-Lewis par scores, Simons was back in the spotlight, as though he was solely responsible for what happened. Not long ago, every time Ishant Sharma overstepped, television cameras would frame Simons, the bowling coach, allowing the commentators to have a rant. It's no surprise that Simons has strong and independent views about what a coach's role in cricket is and where he'd like to see it go. Excerpts from a chat with Wisden India:

You've been part of the coaching set-up of two international teams. What attracted you to the IPL job?

The franchise itself has values and objectives that appealed to me. We have an amazing group of owners in terms of their attitude towards the game, towards the way we structure the team and what they want to achieve. That's crucially important. What I really enjoyed as a coach was the different cricket cultures and how they worked together. This was important for me to learn, to grow and hopefully to instruct and teach as well.

You've had a successful career outside sport. In that sense, you don't need to coach for money. What's the biggest thing you've learned from your time in India?

It is something that I want to do, not have to do, from that perspective. The thing that I have learned the most... the way we do things in South Africa we're probably a lot closer to the Australian way of doing things and maybe even the English way. We function too much on hype. I've understood that it's not always about hype. It's about calming your mind down and making decisions in the right mental place. In an Indian change-room, music will still be played before a game, but it's more likely to be calming and soothing rather than motivating and hyping. In a South African change-room, it will always be about hype. Hype blows away in a few minutes. I often say that hype is like a cracker that explodes; a bonfire is something that lasts a while. You need to get players in a place where they're not below the line of complacency and they're not above the line of hype. Clear thought. That's the most important lesson I've learnt. Indian cricketers understand this and strive to live in the now and function in the zone where the next delivery is the most important thing to think about. Bigger picture.

Cricket teams today have coaches for every discipline. Is there a risk that we're compartmentalising things too much?

You need comparmentalisation when comes to specific skills. But I don't think coaches are empowered the way they should be. That I think is the future that cricket needs to get to. You still talk about how it's the captain's team and he makes the selections. I don't think it should function like that. Cricket doesn't need to move as far as football, where the coach runs the show, but the ICC needs to move to a place where the coach can communicate with players on the field when play is on. I have no idea why we don't do that already. There's talk about how this communication can be intercepted but this makes no sense to me. At the moment, you have a situation where if the coach is pushing a player and the player is not happy, the coach gets it in the neck and he disappears. That's crazy. It's ridiculous the power that lies with the players in cricket. People should recognise that a coach should have a greater role in decision-making and then he can live and die by his decisions. At the moment, the coach is targetted and focussed on when there's a struggle.

A senior Indian player once told me, "Eric's a wise man. There's not much about life he hasn't seen." Is this how you see yourself?

I am what I am. If someone sees me as wise, then that's what it is. I always stress the fact that I don't coach cricketers, I coach people. My interest lies in people and who they are and what they're about. So, maybe, a lot of conversations I have with guys is about things like that in a broader sense. I have a very lateral thinking mind in the way that life works and I ask some strange questions sometimes to see what reactions I get and to test myself. Cricket coach is what I do, it's not what I am.

In some ways, is the IPL a laboratory of sorts within which there's room for a coach's role to be explored?

What owners need to do is to bring in a coach whose vision they understand and then back him. It is a place where owners can trust their coach. In world cricket, the processes that you have can be quite cumbersome. There are state sides who vote and people who move up administration and everyone has a power stake. It's not possible for a country to appoint a coach and let him run with it. In the IPL, it can be a lot clearer and cleaner. I keep coming back to football... for seven years, Manchester United were not successful under Alex Ferguson but the owners bought into his vision and stuck with him and see where they are today. The IPL is a place where something like that can happen. I saw an interesting dynamic in the IPL when players came back to owners and said "Please buy me." Suddenly we saw the balance of power shift. I don't think the owners of IPL teams fully understand the power they have. The IPL could be a place... It's pushed and stretched the game in so many different areas.

The IPL has also changed how selection happens. In a country set-up, it's all about 3-5 selectors who make the call...

There are several interesting dynamics playing out in the IPL that are unique to the tournament. One is that some players are playing for enormous sums of money and that is added pressure. People who invested the money in them, it's not just about picking the best players but also justifying the price tag. That is a burden that some players bear with great difficulty but others seem to flourish with it. On the other hand, you have international stars for whom selection has never been an issue. They are going to be playing. Suddenly you can only play four foreigners and this puts extra pressure on the players from a selection perspective.

International teams spend so much time together that the players often refer to the team as a family. How is this different in the IPL?

Managing the IPL is part of the challenge as a coach. We have 28 guys and there's a large group that aren't a part of the immediate family. They are important to us and we tell them this and it's not lip service. We have situations where a squad player is injured and you have to call up someone from the extended squad. You have to have people ready but for weeks on end, they can feel excluded. Making them feel a part of the family is very important. It comes down to how the coach manages people. If the communication is good, there shouldn't be too many areas of surprises for the players or the coach. The sport is often let down by the honesty of communications. Every now and then, these reviews come out and all the things that should be said during the year come out at the end of the season. That makes no sense to me. Why not say it when it needs to be said and deal with it when you can? In the IPL, you have a shorter period of time. With a national side you have more time to grow together and come to know each other. You can hide an aspect of yourself for eight weeks, but you can't over two years.

Are players honest enough with themselves about what they can do and what they can't?

I have a few things that I believe are critical in players. One of them is being honest with yourself. The moment you blame someone else for something, it means you can't do anything about it yourself – it's their problem, it's their fault. When you internalise the problem and take ownership of it, it gives you a chance to do something about it. Players who are able to take responsibility for themselves and their performance will be successful for an extended period of time. That comes, I believe, from the fact that the power basically lies with the player. A coach in many cases has to influence players rather than instruct them. Instruction is not a bad thing if it comes from the right place.



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News Network
June 25,2020

Jun 25: After asserting that the 2011 World Cup final was "sold" by "certain parties" in Sri Lanka to India, the island nation's former sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has now called his claim a "suspicion" that he wants investigated.

The Lankan government has ordered an enquiry into the matter and a special Police investigation unit recorded Aluthgamage's statement on Wednesday. He told the team that he was only suspicious of fixing.

"I want my suspicion investigated," Aluthgamage told reporters.

"I gave to the Police, a copy of the complaint I lodged with the International Cricket Council (ICC) on 30 October 2011 regarding the said allegation as then Sports Minister," he said.

Aluthgamage has alleged that his country "sold" the game to India, a claim that was ridiculed by former captains Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene who demanded evidence from him.

Set a target of 275, India clinched the trophy thanks to the brilliance of Gautam Gambhir (97) and then skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (91).

"Today I am telling you that we sold the 2011 world cup, I said this when I was the sports minister," Aluthgamage, who was the sports minister at the time, had stated.

Sangakkara, the captain of Sri Lanka at that time, asked him to produce evidence for an anti-corruption probe.

"He needs to take his 'evidence' to the ICC and the Anti corruption and Security Unit so the claims can be investigated thoroughly," he tweeted.

Jayawardene, also a former captain who scored a hundred in that game, ridiculed the charge.

"Is the elections around the corner...like the circus has started...names and evidence?" he asked in a tweet.

Aluthgamage said that in his opinion no players were involved in fixing the result, "but certain parties were."

Both Aluthgamage and the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa were among the invitees at the final played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Following his allegations, Aravinda de Silva, the former great who was the then chairman of selectors, has urged the BCCI to conduct its own investigation.

De Silva has said he is willing to travel to India to take part in such an investigation despite the current COVID-19 threat.

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News Network
May 1,2020

Melbourne, May 1: Reclaiming the top spot in Test cricket has brought smiles back on their faces but Australia coach Justin Langer says beating India in their own den remains the ultimate test and their numero uno status will be put to test when they clash with the Virat Kohli-led team.

After a tumultuous transition phase post the ball-tampering scandal, Australia on Friday displaced India as number one side in Test format but Langer is aware that it does not take long for the situation to change.

"We recognise how fluid these rankings are, but at this time it was certainly nice to put a smile on our faces," Langer told Cricket Australia website. "We've got lots of work to do to get to be the team that we want to be, but hopefully over the last couple of years not only have we performed well on the field, but also off the field," Langer added.

The former left-handed opener underlined what he felt will be the ultimate test of character.

"Certainly a goal for us has been the World Test Championship ... but ultimately, we have to beat India in India and we've got to beat them when they come back (to Australia).

"You can only judge yourself as being the best if you beat the best and we've got some really tough opposition to come," Langer put his priorities in place. The team he insists needs to get better as now others will come gunning for them.

"Getting to No.1 is a great thing, but when you're No.1, you're always the hunted," Langer said. "We've been the hunters for a while, now we're the hunted and we need to get better and better."

Langer also hoped that white ball team under Aaron Finch will win the World Cup. "I know how hard it is to win World Cups ... everything has to go right. One day, I'd love to see Aaron Finch with all his mates lift that T20 World Cup above his head."

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News Network
February 19,2020

New Delhi, Feb 19: An Indian wrestler whose family story was immortalised by Bollywood is hoping to create a blockbuster of her own by becoming her country's first world champion in the high-octane sport of mixed martial arts.

Ritu Phogat, who initially followed her father and two elder sisters into wrestling, is now charting a new path after making an explosive MMA debut in November.

Phogat's father Mahavir, and her sisters Geeta and Babita were the subject of 2016 movie "Dangal", telling the story of the wrestling coach who raised his daughters to become Commonwealth champions.

But Ritu, 25, is forging a different career. After winning her first MMA fight in less than three minutes, she will face China's Wu Chiao Chen at this month's ONE Championship fight night in Singapore, which will be held behind closed doors because of the coronavirus.

The youngest Phogat daughter is trading an attempt at an Olympic medal to tackle MMA, but she said she was attracted by the lure of making history in her new sport.

"I got a chance to train with the best in Singapore and there was no looking back," she told AFP during a promotional event in New Delhi.

"There was the 2020 Olympic Games but I thought that I would do well in mixed martial arts. I have come with an aim of becoming the first girl from India to become a world champion in mixed martial art."

The nimble but strongly built Phogat said wrestlers were a good fit for the fast-growing contact sport, which is yet to take off in India.

"Top seven champions in mixed martial arts are wrestlers, so I believe that wrestlers have an edge in this sport with their ability to take down the opponent," she said.

"It is all a matter of skill. You just have to practise hard. I think MMA is not much different from wrestling in terms of preparation.

"One has to take risks to do something new and as an athlete I am ready to embrace every challenge."

She added: "Without the support of my father and sisters I would not have been where I am. My father always taught me to be far-sighted, hard-working and with strong resolve. Three traits will take you a long way."

Phogat won 48kg gold at the 2016 Commonwealth Wrestling Championship and followed it up with a silver in the under-23 world championships the next year.

"She used to watch a lot MMA and one day told me that I will win a gold in this game. So we all backed her and the result is there for everyone to see," he said.

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