Last Updated on 2 years by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: Gautam Gambhir: Foreign coaches make money and vanish from India | Gautam Gambhir on foreign coaches
Former India international Gautam Gambhir has raised eyebrows by commenting that foreign coaches make money and vanish from the country, Free Press Journal reports.
The 41-year-old instead appreciated the trend of onboarding Indian coaches for the national team seen in the forms of Ravi Shastri, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid taking over the coaching responsibilities since 2015 onwards.
Indian coaches good for India team – Gambhir
“One really good thing that has happened in India cricket in the last six or seven years, is that an Indians have started coaching since Anil Kumble,” Gambhir said in a FICCI event on Wednesday.
“I am a strong believer that an Indian should coach the cricket team. There has to be emotions involved. We give a lot of importance to foreign coaches. They only come here and make money and they vanish,” he added, according to a video that the former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper shared on his Instagram handle.
In his 13-year-long international career, Gambhir played under the tutelage of multiple international coaches like John Wright, Gary Kirsten and Duncan Fletcher. The southpaw even played an instrumental role in helping India lift the 2011 One Day International (ODI) World Cup under Kirsten’s watch.
Gambhir spoke about the emotional aspect of the game, indicating that only a native coach can resonate with the sheer love that Indians carry for the game.
“Emotions are involved in sports. And the only people who can be emotional about Indian cricket or Indian sports, are people who have represented their country. So whether it is now Rahul Dravid, before that Ravi Shastri and Anil Kumble, I hope this trend continues,” Gambhir explained.
He further quipped, “You ask Rahul Dravid, he will be more passionate than all those other guys. Wish I had played under Dravid or Shastri or Kumble.”
Gambhir actually did play under Kumble’s stewardship for a short while made he made a brief comeback into the Test team during England’s tour to India in October 2016.
