Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir is a straight-talker. And yet again, after India’s third T20 World Cup win, Gambhir shared what he wanted from the team. Gambhir also spoke about being “misunderstood” as a player and coach, saying that if he is to be made a “villain” for backing the team over the individual, he is okay with that, and that “one day, his honesty will defend him.”
In an interview with ANI, Gambhir said, “the media wants to create superstars, his job is to create a super team. That is a simple difference and that difference will always remain. The media wants to create superstars, but my job as a head coach is to create a super team. And that is the only way I look at my profession because my job is to be absolutely fair, even, and treat everyone exactly equally, because those 15 people in that dressing room are absolutely equal to me.”
“I do not look at the amount of runs they have scored. I do not look at the amount of social media following they have. I do not look at what TRP they bring to the people or to the broadcaster. I only look at what they bring to the team and what they bring to the country. And that is why I feel that my job is to create a super team. And hopefully, till I finish my tenure, I will be able to create a super team,” Gambhir again said.
‘I think the IPL has definitely brought in a different dynamic there’ – Gary Kirsten
Meanwhile, Gary Kirsten, India’s 2011 World Cup-winning coach, has fully backed Gautam Gambhir’s stand.
“I think it [superstar culture] has changed significantly in India over the last 15-odd years and I think he [Gambhir] is absolutely spot on,” Kirsten said on Wisden Cricket’s The Scoop on YouTube. “I think that India was driven largely around that superstardom status of each individual and there was a massive commercial entity to that as well.”
“But I think the IPL has definitely brought in a different dynamic there and I couldn’t agree with you more. There are just so many good Indian players around now. I mean, you could literally pick three teams. When I was with the Namibians [as a consultant for the T20 World Cup], we were down at the Centre of Excellence in Bangalore, and it’s the most impressive cricket facility I’ve ever seen anywhere,” he concluded.
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