Caked in white zinc, his eyes covered by shades, and his skin crinkledby the sun, the New Zealand-born Indian coach could be attempting toscale Everest

Charlie Austin19-Jul-2001Caked in white zinc, his eyes covered by shades, and his skin crinkledby the sun, the New Zealand-born Indian coach could be attempting toscale Everest. He’s not, but John Wright has undertaken an equallydaunting task – the job of welding the Indian cricket team into theworld-class side that it’s natural talent demands it should be.Wright wanders around the Sinhalese Sports Club practice nets with asimple school masterly air. He doesn’t have a video camera glued tohis hand or a bio-mechanics manual hanging out his back pocket, but heis quick to tell his batsmen that the pull shot is best played bygoing back and across his stumps.The 46-year-old, who coached Kent for four seasons before joining theIndian team in November last year, is clearly from the `keep itsimple, play it hard’ school of coaching. He could share a beer withEngland coach Duncan Fletcher, but would probably dismiss some of BobWoolmer’s theories as utter flim flam.Asked as to whether he had set the team objectives for the currentCoca Cola Cup he replied in astonishment: "Yes, of course, that iswhat the job of the coach is." Could you please divulge what theywere? "Well, that would take ages because there are 15 differentplayers in the squad," he helpfully pointed out.Eventually the team objectives were unveiled: "What we try to focuson is doing the basic things well. We are trying to improve ourfielding standards, particularly our ground fielding, our runningbetween the wickets, and are very were keen for the batsmen, when theyget in, to go on to get a big score."You can analyse the game all you want and have all kinds oftechnology, but you always come back to trying to perform the basicsunder pressure consistency," he said. "We have a lot of flair andability, so if we can do those basic things, that makes us moreformidable."A left-handed batsman in the era of Richard Hadlee, the Crowebrothers, and Jeremy Coney, Wright handled the basics very well. Hewas an obdurate player and one of the most consistent batsman that NewZealand has produced, scoring 5334 Test runs at 37.82 in 82 matches.His appointment, ahead of Geoff Marsh, who bizarrely didn’t realisethat his reluctance to live in India was a black mark on his CV, andGreg Chappell, who simply wanted too much `dosh’, has already producedan upturn in the national side’s fortunes, securing Test seriesvictories against Zimbabwe and Australia at home. They have thoughtripped up in the one-day game.He is quick to point out though, when the dreaded `final’ word ismentioned, that this is a youthful side: "The average age of thisside is just 25. We failed to beat Australia in the five match one-dayseries so that was a shame and didn’t play quite as well as we wouldhave liked in Zimbabwe, but it’s a young team."Wright grimaces a little when the 2003 World Cup is mentioned. The SriLankans talk of little else and the Kiwis admit that they have `oneeye on it,’ but Wright does not have that luxury. Eighteen months forthe coach and players in India is an awfully long time.He once revealed that it has been his "dream to coach in Asia" andsays, "It’s a wonderful experience and great privilege to work in acountry where there is such a passion for cricket." Nevertheless, thehigh expectations mean that India and Wright simply have to performall the time."There is a lot of expectation in India whenever we play," he says."To be quite honest, everyone in our camp, and indeed India, wants usto win every game, so we take it one game at a time. We are notlooking too far ahead " tomorrow will do!The responsibility of satisfying those insatiable expectations isclearly a burden, especially for the younger players, so Wrightsimplifies the issue: "We will win some and lose some, but if theIndian people see that their cricketers are playing the game with alot of pride and fight, that hopefully will repay the support weget."Tomorrow, it’s the first time he locks horns against Kiwis. He refusesto admit to any heart wrenching divided loyalties: "It’s really justanother game. We spend a lot of time trying to play better cricketourselves and it doesn’t matter who you are playing."Nor is it much of an advantage apparently: "I don’t even have thatintimate knowledge of the New Zealand guys, as I haven’t been coachingin New Zealand at the first class level."One knows of course that he knows a fair deal, because it justwouldn’t be his style not to do his homework.