Sourav Ganguly Reveals Interesting Point Behind Selection Of R Sridhar Over Jonty Rhodes As India Coach

It would have taken a very brave man to bet against Jonty Rhodes when the South African applied for the post of Team India’s fielding coach. The former South Africa cricketer is widely regarded as the greatest fielder of all time. Rhodes’ fielding is still seen as the benchmark by the cricketing world and thus many thought he would easily bag the job.

But the world was in for a major surprise. The Indian selection panel, which was given the task of picking the support staff, recommended incumbent R Sridhar’s name. In fact, Jonty Rhodes could not even make it to the list of top three interviewed candidates. The decision was undoubtedly baffling. MSK Prasad did give an explanation after the selection but it was not very convincing.

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Well, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly has now tried to decode the rationale behind selecting Sridhar ahead of Rhodes. At first, Ganguly echoed Prasad’s sentiments by saying that Sridhar did a fine job with India in his current stint which will end after the ongoing tour of West Indies. The legendary cricketer then came up with an interesting point.

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Ganguly said that being an Indian coach might have tilted the balance in Sridhar’s favour. Ganguly’s said that communicating with Indian coaches is easy for the players and it must have played a role in his re-appointment.

“I think Sridhar has done a good job. The Indian fielding has been very good. You saw that in the World Cup with Ravindra Jadeja leading the pack,” Ganguly said.

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“I am a big supporter of Indian coaches because communication is good, they understand the mindset. I am not saying that overseas coaches are different. At one stage, during the transition period in 2000s, we needed overseas coaches to guide young players. Now, I am extremely happy that our own home-bred coaches are given priority which is good because they have put in a lot of effort,” he added.

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