Imprints of a coach

Imprint (verb) im’print - Establish or impress firmly in the mind

If we were to go by etymology, then yes they did. This is in relation to Venkatesh Prasad and Rabindra Ramnarain Singh and the demons.

Let’s get a bit practical. If etymology drove our life, the driver would be Greg Chappell. For, he did establish or impress firmly in the mind of an Indian fan !!

My view is that a coach who leaves an imprint is a bad coach… The case point is Buchanan, he left his imprint not once but twice. Once in Australia and again in Kolkota . One seems a deceptively successful example if you leave the “Maa Ki” tour aside and the other the obvious. The other is Duncan Fletcher, luckily there came a cushion called Peter Moores and a cue called KP.

Greg Chappell is folklore in India, we definitely know what imprint means.

Believe me I don’t belong to the Shane Warne school of thought. I come from a family of teachers, I broke the line for the first time in 4 generations (in recent memory). There needs to be a teacher, but I belong to the contemporary school of teaching. Yes, the teacher needs to be someone the ward could relate to and reason with… Someone who course corrects, the man in charge of the rudder.

I, for one liked those days when Bishen Bedi was the manager (a coach was called so those days) of the Indian cricket team. Surprisingly he spoke less (or there were less many TV channels) but he did a very good job. Those who speak about Robin doing a change “imprint” on the fielding would have to remember and see the batting records of Bedi and his "imprint" in that department when he was the manager.

If only coaches had a magic wand, Mahrajkumar of Vijayanagaram would have eclipsed The Don. And Lalu Prasad would have hired the best of brains.

For us Indians bad is the culmination of good and vice versa. We don’t believe in the concept of a full stop unless it is an obituary. Otherwise it is always a comma.