VIRENDER SEHWAG PLEASED WITH DUNCAN FLETCHER’S EARLY APPOINTMENT AS INDIAN COACH

The Indian opening batsman Virender Sehwag, who is leading Delhi Daredevils in the ongoing Indian Premier League, has endorsed Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) decision of appointing Duncan Fletcher as nation team's coach soon after Gary Kirsten’s departure. 

Sehwag stated that an early appointment has given Fletcher enough time to understand players and settle down with the team before that start of India’s series against England.

"It's good for India. It's a good thing that the BCCI has found a replacement in quick time. It will obviously help the players and the new coach to settle down early. He (Fletcher) will get enough time to do home work before our series against England starts," Sehwag said.

After Kirsten’s exit, BCCI appointed the former Zimbabwean skipper, Fletcher, as Indian national team’s coach for next two years.

The decision faced a mix response from cricketing circles. The Indian cricket legends, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, slammed BCCI’s decision to appoint a foreign coach whereas the gurus like Nasser Hussain, Harsha Bhogle and Michael Vaughan believed that Fletcher can carry forward the legacy of Kirsten.

Fletcher, who did a fantastic job as England’ coach by guiding them to historic 2005 Ashes victory, would not be able to accompany Indian team for their next month’s tour to Zimbabwe because of his personal commitments. However, Fletcher will be there when Mahendra Singh Dhoni and company tours England later this year.

Avoiding to make any comment on Fletcher’ selection, Sehwag said that he does not know him much, thus, it is inappropriate to say anything on his coaching.

Sehwag’s team-mate, Gautam Gambhir, on the other hand, said that he has not yet thought about the new coach as his complete focus is on his IPL outfit, Kolkata Knight Riders.

"Right now, my concentration and focus is totally on the IPL. I am not thinking about all these things. I will only think about all this once the IPL ends," Gambhir said.

Fletcher, as Kirsten’s successor, has huge expectations to come up to as the great South African left after taking Indian side to the heights of international cricket.

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John Buchanan lauds Duncan Fletcher’s coaching experience

Former Australian coach, John Buchanan, praised former England and South African coach, Duncan Fletcher’s, experience saying that he best suits to take up the Indian coaching post and may guide them better than his predecessor, Gary Kirsten.
"He's obviously got a pretty good track record on the international and county circuits, and he's got a pretty wide range of coaching experience", Buchanan said.
Buchanan, who is going to take over his new post as New Zealand’s director of coaching said that Fletcher has some similarities with the former Indian coach and holds plenty of coaching records. Earlier, Fletcher had brilliant coaching experience with the England team, guiding them to marvelous victories during 2000 to 2004.
The Zimbabwean born has been named as India’s new coach after Kirsten’s removal from the position on Wednesday. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary, N Srinivasan, revealed that Fletcher has been appointed for two years to coach the Indian team.
Fetcher was chosen from the lists of candidates which included former New Zealand player, Stephen Fleming, and Zimbabwean, Andy Flower.
Indians had some special memories with their former South Africa-born coach, Kirsten, who helped them clinch the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup 2011 title.
Despite having no prior coaching experience, Kirsten proved to be the most successful coach for India. During his three-year tenure, a considerable improvement was seen in all areas of Indian cricket including batting, bowling, and fielding.
He also helped the team in posting them at the top in the ICC Test rankings. In addition, the batting maestro, Sachin Tendulkar, and pacer, Zaheer Khan, also restored their form during his tenure.
With such achievements under their previous coach, the Indian team would now be expecting Fletcher to guide them in a similar manner so that they can maintain their form, taking on the hectic schedule ahead of them.
The new coach will start off his duties with the Indian’s tour of West Indies which will start in June. The tour includes a Twenty20, five One-Day Internationals and three Tests.
Following the West Indies tour, the Indian team’s hectic schedule would continue as they are next scheduled to start a longer tour of England which includes four Tests, a Twenty20 and five ODIs.

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Pakistan's bowling, fielding has improved during the last year-Waqar

Pakistan cricket coach Waqar Younis has said that the team has improved dramatically during the last 12-14 months, especially in the fielding and bowling departments.

Waqar  denied the opinion of former Pakistan Captain Javed Miandad, in which he expressed that Pakistan team had not shown any notable improvement in the bowling and fielding, despite having special coaches for these areas.

"I don't want to indulge in such things. I am doing my job on the field and during the last 12-14 months the team has shown improvement," Waqar said.

Waqar, however,admitted that there are some issues in the batting sector, which need to be addressed. Pakistan team's weakness in the batting and fielding departments was clearly exposed in the recently-concluded World Cup, where a poor performance in the both areas let them down.

The major cause of Pakistan's defeat in the mega event was terrible team's fielding, as the fielders wasted five simple chances in the high-voltage semi-final game against India.

However, Waqar has some different thoughts in the mind. The former reverse-swing master stated, "Our fielding has improved a lot. Though critics are not happy and mention just one game, i.e. the semi-final against India where we dropped a good number of catches. However, I think overall our fielding has made remarkable improvement."

There are some report circulating in the media that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been negotiating with two foreigners for the post of national team’s batting coach after Miandad turned down the offer to join the team as batting consultant.

Earlier, Miandad showed his readiness to coach national team but after that, he refused to accept the job. There is also a kind of 'war of words' going on between Waqar and Miandad.
Miandad apparently has some issues in working as a support staff with the chief coach, Waqar, who is one of his junior fellows.

The coach, who is with the in West Indies, further hoped that youngsters in the side would perform well in the forthcoming Test and one-day series against the Caribbean.

The former fast bowler explained that it is a general practice all over the World that the young players are inducted in the team while targeting the next World Cup. Thus, Pakistan has also put some new-comers in the set-up in order to build team for the next showpiece event.

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