"There was no junior-senior culture in our team"- John Wright
John Wright coached India in early 2000s
With a lot of buzz going around split coaching and captaincy in Indian cricket, the mind goes back to the days when team India had a composed and secure environment in the dressing room.
New Zealand’s most admired cricketer in India perhaps remains John Wright. The former Kiwi opener was the first overseas coach for India at the beginning of the new century and left an indelible imprint on Indian cricket.
In an exclusive interview with Senior Sports Journalist Vimal Kumar, the New Zealand legend spoke at length about his association with India.
Here are the excerpts from the chat...
John, what kind of cricket culture you tried to assimilate after you arrived in India. Was the Hindi language a barrier for you to understand the dressing room in a better way?
One of the big things that we tried to do with our team was not to have talked about Juniors and seniors. We just wanted to be a team, and so, that's why, I'm, you know, if the team meeting went into Hindi, that was great, they were discussing things, and the other thing is, it goes across with me, I wouldn't understand what we're talking about.
It was quite fascinating to have an overseas coach for the first time in India. And the team then was a blend of superstars and team of youngsters. How challenging was it to deal with those superstars like the Tendulkars, Dravids, and then the Yuvrajs?
That was very important to everyone; that message was that we are a team, and the team is more important than any of us. So, you know, it was a simple message, but the players really played it, and I was just lucky to have such a nice group of guys to coach.
I remember reading your book “Indian summer” where you wrote about the one regret you had while coaching India: you didn’t pick VVS Laxman in the World Cup 2003 squad. Does VVS still tease you with that because I know both of you share a very warm rapport as he came to meet you in Christchurch recently?
We were very fortunate in that tournament that we had no injuries. Because when you consider that if we did had an injury to our senior batsmen and if we didn't have VVS, that would have been a tragedy for us some and sometimes.
Of course, when you do look back at that, that is one regret because VVS was a very fine cricketer, and at that point in time, the problem we were facing was to work out our best top three.
Laxman, Kaif, Bahutule met John Wright in New Zealand in 2022
You have also mentioned in your book how you have dealt with someone like Virender Sehwag, and there was one ugly incident because he did not speak to you for many years.
Well, I will correct you on one thing Virender and I've always been good mates. You will always have time when you challenge each other. Not only him but a lot of other players like (Mohammed) Kaif, too, challenged me on a couple of occasions because he had every right.
As a coach, you had this knack of picking young talent, whether it was with the Indian cricket players, we all are aware of that, but even in the IPL, the way you picked players was. Parthiv Patel once told me that you came to Ahmedabad, and suddenly you inquired about Bumrah, and he was supposed to go to some other franchise, and you said Parthiv to convince him to play for Mumbai, and later you got Hardik Pandya too in the Mumbai team. So how do you look back at those stories? It's not just Mumbai Indians, but they are formidable Indian players as well.
I was very lucky to work with the franchise, I remember meeting Rahul Sanghvi, and he talked to the management, and they made a very quick decision.
I mean, to me, you look at players, and you look for special things, and hopefully, you have a bit of luck, and you get it right. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to be involved with, still involved with, Indian cricket; I love the cricket that India plays, Indian players have the Love for the Game, and it shows in the way they play it and the dexterity in which they play it.
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