My role is to optimise the players’ abilities: Gary Kirsten

Bengaluru, August 31: The Royal Challengers Bangalore have appointed Gary Kirsten as their coach and mentor with a view to bring in a fresh perspective to coaching and help the team take next step. It's a task that motivates Kirsten, who joined the RCB set up as a batting mentor ahead of the IPL 2018.

Kirsten and Sanjay Churiwala, who has taken over as the RCB chairman, spoke at length about their roles, expectations and the way forward for the Bangalore outfit.

Excerpts:

You joined the team the last season a bit late and now how differently are you going to operate in terms of talent spotting?

I will be part of a coaching team and our thinking is to put together a strong coaching structure around the team and I will be one of those individuals. In terms of our planning for the next year, we are going to spend a decent amount of time to build and plan our strategies. Having said that, the recruitment process during tsshe major auction last season...I think about 90 per cent was spot on and everyone is happy about it. I think there will be some small tweaks just to fill some gaps.

How helpful it is to come together as a coaching team almost a year ahead of the IPL 2019?

I am not going to put together the team of coaches but I will be one of them. I think getting together as a team well ahead of the IPL is important for us in terms of preparation and planning. Everything will be put on board early this year.

There is no fixed formula...but what it takes to be a successful T20 and IPL team and not just in terms of winning the title but the overall success?

The one word that stands out for me is consistency. The performance is the end result. What are you going to create consistency in performance and when you look at teams with high level of performance in the IPL, they give us great examples of what they are doing and we can say we are learning out of that. I think often the high octane, energy and intensity around the IPL and the real pressure to get those two points can put pressure on people. Everyone reacts to pressure, you know.

I think if we can put in place a system where we can create consistency - team selection, some consistency with our players that we recruit into the franchise. I think that will be one big step in helping the situation. But you have to take some pain along the way because if you are not getting the result that you are looking for, the easiest thing is to go into crisis management and you start changing and chopping and when you do that the players are on a slippery slope.

Since you already know Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers well, how important is that in your aim of creating leaders in the team?

It's important. One thing I have enjoyed about coaching is, I don't cross the ropes and go and play the game. My role is to optimise the players' abilities, whether they are leaders or bowlers or whatever work that they are doing. It's important to have group of leaders, in a high pressurised environment like IPL and I think that's what we are going to create for Virat, to help him make decisions that he makes on the field rather a case where everything rests on his shoulders.

Because I think that's a tough task to take on. He does it pretty well but in T20 there are lot of decisions you make, for example a bowling change that can turn around, it really helps when you have more leaders you are working with.

When you have players like Kohli and ABD, how difficult it is to tell the team that it is an 11-man team game?

Others players need to stand up with their performances. We certainly will endevaour to make every player feel like his role is as important as anybody else. Virat and AB would also want that. Someone like Virat has superstardom in India and everyone expects him to score runs in every innings, which he does most of the time. It is also good for him as well to take pressure off him when he knows that there are other guys, who can win matches. IPL teams require match-winners - it is simple so it will be our responsibility to build a unit that can have more than two guys winning matches.

How do you identify players who can lead?

By their behaviour - how they operate on and off the field. There are guys who will surprise you. For example, Parthiv Patel only played 6-7 games last year, but he showed great leadership. It was an informal leadership, rather than a formal one like the roles of captain and vice-captain. You need other guys to help out along the way. Parthiv - an experienced player - came on and showed that he can offer some value in decision-making.

How important is to make the Indian players not in the 11 feel at home?

We spoke about this at length in the last IPL. I have got some personal ideas on that. If BCCI permits for a second tournament, in parallel with the IPL, for the players who aren't playing in the main league, it would be nice. This gives the guys who aren't playing an opportunity because I think it's really tough for those players for eight weeks for not to play matches.

Also it helps when one of your players from the core 11 gets injured and you bring in a guy who has already played five matches as his replacement. As a coach it's difficult. Some teams have big squads and as a coach, because those two points are important, you focus only on your core 11. Otherwise it's better to have a dedicated second coach to look after those who aren't playing.

How important is man management?

I think man-management to me is everything. It is the most important job in coaching. And then I would say, next would probably be building a team strategy, as to how you want to play. I think cricket coaching has really shifted significantly over the last while. There has been this kind of traditional view that the captain is the main guy and he runs the ship and he makes all the decisions. In T20 cricket, no, he is not making all the decisions. Yes, he makes a lot of them and he goes on to the field, but he goes on to the field with a plan.

There is a lot of discussions that are taking place around the selections, the teams, around recruitment for the season, around opposition that we are playing against and how we want to play against them, what players we want to use against them on certain conditions. Working with support staff, preparing the team, rotating your squad. The coach has got a lot more work to do than the captain. But it is all off the field. Captain walks on to the field, he has a plan.

This is how you are going to play in this game, you got to make it happen. If you take any sport around the world, you will see that the manager or the coach plays a very significant role and T20 cricket's doing that now, more and more. A coach is much more relevant than maybe in a Test match.

A cricket coaching job in India comes with a lot of demands How do you shut yourself from such external factors and concentrate on your work?

Just on that, what I am saying is that the coach is not more relevant than the captain. There is an equal responsibility. I am excited by the way that has been created in T20 cricket because I think it takes a lot of pressure off the captain. And specially in domestic cricket, franchise cricket. As for the demands, you have got to manage the demands that are placed on you. If you enjoy your work, you are going to do it. It's not an issue. I enjoy the pressures that come with it. Ultimately, all you are doing as one of the leaders of the team is doing everything you can to help those players perform on the field.

This just in: @Gary_Kirsten has been promoted to Coach and Mentor of RCB for the coming seasons. Read the official statement 👉 https://t.co/SrJkItf3s6 #PlayBold pic.twitter.com/S4RfxlZu2U

— Royal Challengers (@RCBTweets) August 30, 2018

As a mentor, how would you address the situation of getting back to winning ways after defeats?

Last year, we lost seven, won three and then we won three on a row. And we were one win away from the playoffs - so that is how close it was. In many ways, we did not deserve to make it to the playoffs. We did not play well enough throughout the season. There is nothing worse than a case where you are behind the eight ball. It is always great to have a good start where you put yourself out of pressure.

That requires one to play some solid good cricket. And two games costs us last season, one against CSK here and the SRH game while chasing when we were on track. IPL is always a close contest. We came sixth last season and fifth, sixth, and seventh team all ended with 12 points - so close. We lost matches, which we should have been winning last season.

It's an eight-week coaching job in IPL, so how do you keep the continuity of culture going?

That's the big challenge for all of us. IPL has had 10 years now, the most successful IPL teams, you have to ask them that question. What are the things that are allowing you to have more success than the other teams. They could probably articulate it quite well, they could say these are the things that happen. I think every team is trying to create that.

We will look at the things that have been good for us at RCB in the past, and we will hold on to those things and then we will create some new behaviours, we will create a new language that allows us to go from where we are now to get there because we want to be that team. And every team is aspiring to wiin the IPL, obviously. But it is what can we bring in that shifts us to that. For any leader in an organization or a group of people, that is the responsibility.

What are those new behaviours you want to bring into the group that allows them to go from there to there. What are the things that have allowed you to get there, because you might have been there. That's how you build culture but as you say, you have got eight weeks to do it, it's not easy. But it's possible, because you have got a 10-year history.

What drives you to continue as coach after years in coaching?

I am not sure. May be I am mad. I love India, I love the IPL and I have been in three IPLs, and every year you learn more. It is fantastic tournament and love coming back to India. I come six-seven times a year. I love coaching. I have enjoyed T20 cricket from a coaching perspective as you do a lot as a coach. It is a busy job as a coach. Head coach of a Test team, everything unfolds over a long period of time and I have found it tough for five days. Three hours work quite well.