Coach is not the 'Messiah'; Ravi should be made the Manager : Sidhu

New Delhi, June 8 (UNI) Cricketer-turned-politician Navjyot Singh Sidhu today played down the importance of a coach for Team India, saying the need of the hour for Dravid and Co was to have Ravi Shastri as a professional Manager to help in man-management.

''Coach is not the messiah....its important to realise this,'' Sidhu said frankly.

''The Captain is the most important in a team. He is the man who should be held accountable......not the coach,'' the once-swashbuckling right-handed batsman said.

''In India there is too much hype over the role of a coach.

We are giving far too much importance to him (coach) than he deserves,'' he said.

He strongly pitched in for his former team-mate Ravi Shastri, who was the Manager of the team during the Bangladesh tour, to be appointed as the Manager on a long-term basis.

''Our players are matured enough....they need someone who is good at man-management skills and who better than Ravi (Shastri) to do the job.

''He (Ravi) is the best man the cricket team can have as the professional Manager,'' he told mediapersons in the capital.

Asked whether Englishmen John Embury or former South African coach Graham Ford should be put at the helm of affairs, Sidhu told UNI, ''I haven't seen any of them in person so I really can't comment,'' but made it clear that he was in favour of a foreign coach when he said,'' A foreign coach who is technology-savvy is preferrable.'' Speaking on the sidelines of a book launch here, the commentator was at his wittiest best and sent the huge gathering into splits when he recalled his playing days with Kapil 'paji'.

The Laughter Challenge judge recollected a moment when Kapil Dev had taken nine wickets in a match after which the foreign media badgered the former captain with questions of why India could not produce another 'Kapil Dev' but Sidhu realising his (Kapil's) weakness in English language at that time had advised him to skip the media interaction and opt for watching the Jackie Shroff-starrer 'Hero' instead.

But Kapil no-balled his suggestion and went ahead with the pressmeet where he supposedly said in broken English, ''Ladies and gentleman. My mother is 62 years old. My father has died...so how can it be possible to give birth to have another Kapil Dev.'' UNI