Why Abdul Kalam should be made Team India coach…

By Joe

After Graham Ford thumbed his nose at BCCI, the search for a full-time Team India coach is far from over. That evokes the obvious question, why is it such a complicated job? Is it rocket science? At least BCCI seems to think so.

In such a scenario, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam surely fits the bill. Preposterous it may sound, but you can’t have a better person than the “Missile Man of India” to deal with the rocket science of coaching Team India.

And Kalam is no alien to cricket. After Sourav Ganguly’s men had returned runners-up from the 2003 World Cup, Dr Kalam threw a tea party in the cricketers’ honour. The teacher in Dr Kalam explained to the cricketers how important it is to play as a unit and shared his view on science and technology.

Logically too, there should not be any problem. The popular President with tinted tresses is at the fag end of his term and would have to vacate the Rashtrapati Bhavan for its probable next occupant Pratibha Patil.

Always game for new challenge, Dr Kalam probably won’t mind having a shot at cricket coaching.He already has a 2020 (or is it Twenty20?) vision of India as a super power and we can expect a similar upturn in Team India graph under the motivational speaker. After all, both the president and a cricket coach share striking similarity in the fact that both take the backseat.

Out there, Prime Minister runs the country and captain skippers the team.After all, you can’t coach Sachin Tendulkar or a Rahul Dravid at this level. All you need is a manager who can help in strategizing and keep the players motivated. As President, Dr Kalam is the supreme commander of the armed forces and formulating strategy is his forte.

Critics may point out that Dr Kalam has never been sighted anywhere near a cricket stadium. But then Bennette King too never played first class cricket and still coached the West Indies in the World Cup! He was in fact a rugby player!Besides, when it comes to motivation, you can’t have a better person than Dr Kalam.

In brief, he is techno-savvy, inspirational, innovative, approachable, visionary and a master strategist, all rolled into one. Now, did we ever have a coach who wore so many hats at the same time?

(Picture Courtesy: Reuters)