Cricket News: As Rahul Dravid ‘break’ controversy erupts, Different coaching setup is the way forward?

Naturally, the decision has left many perplexed, including the man Dravid replaced in the hot seat – Ravi Shastri. 

Never one to mince his words, the former India all-rounder questioned the rationale behind a head coach opting for a break. 

“I don’t believe in breaks. I want to understand my team and players, and then be in control of that team,” he said in a press conference ahead of the series. 

“What do you need that many breaks for, to be honest? You get your two-three months of the IPL; that’s enough for you to rest as a coach. 

“But other times, I think a coach should be hands-on, whoever he is.” 

In many ways, it is hard to argue with his rationale. A coach needs to mold the team in his image, and is that possible with multiple breaks? 

And to be fair, this isn’t the first time Dravid has taken a break in recent memory. He was also absent from India’s tour of Zimbabwe, with VVS Laxman – the man in charge of India for the New Zealand tour – stepping in at that time too. 

However, even if one rightfully questions the need for a coach to take breaks, there’s also the fact that cricket’s relentless schedule doesn’t leave much downtime for a head coach. 

It begs whether an alternative coaching setup for white-ball and red-ball cricket would be the way forward. 

It would make sense in many ways. Not only are the skills needed to succeed in all three formats of the game quite different, but it is also not possible to expect one head coach to have sufficient expertise for all three formats – even if they played in all of them during their career. 

And the split coaching way works well. Look at England; they’ve had different coaching setups for a while now, and it’s helped them a lot. 

Brendon McCullum is focused solely on getting into the Test team, whereas Matthew Mott handles the white ball side. 

It would also have the added benefit of halving the schedule for the coaches. Currently, India have the same coaching setup for all formats. 

It means that, even as players are rested due to workload management, the coaching staff stays precisely the same throughout. 

It would get especially grueling during international tours, so adding a new coaching staff for different formats would be the way to proceed. 

It would also allow both coaching setups to be laser-focused on just one primary format rather than risk running the current form thin. 

The signs are there to move to a multi-coach setup, not just for the better specialization of formats but also to ease the burden on coaches who feel the grind of the cricket calendar – and can’t rest.