Indian Cricket Team Won't Have Coaches Anymore!

Breaking news from a parallel universe: BCCI has decided the Indian senior team will have no coaches. All coaching contracts, terminated.

After a long meeting, the board agreed on the following:

1. Every player in the squad is a senior player. What can a coach possibly tell Virat Kohli about batting that he hasn't already figured out?
2. Nobody good enough is available. Sachin, Kapil and Sunil don't want the job. Everyone who does want it has a worse batting average than the players they'd be coaching.
3. Players want freedom. Freedom to play their natural game. Freedom to find their own form. Freedom to figure out their technique during a Test match.
4. And frankly, why waste money on coaching? That budget could build half a stadium.
5. And anyway, the team already has a captain. Why do we need an additional person?

So, has BCCI taken the right decision?

Obviously not. You'd call it madness. No serious team in any sport anywhere in the world operates this way.

Now read those five points again, and replace “player” with “manager.”

“Our leaders are senior people. They've been doing this for 20 years.”

“We can't find a coach who has run a bigger company than our CEO.”

“Our people prefer to figure things out their own way.”

“And that budget is better spent on the new CRM.”

“And we already have a CEO. He can coach everyone else. Why do we need an additional person in the room?”

Same five excuses. Different industry. Nobody laughs at these ones.

A coach doesn't need to be better than the player

Here's the part worth sitting with. A coach doesn't need to be better than the player. Ravi Shastri never had Kohli's numbers. Coaching is a different skill entirely.

The coach's job isn't to do your job better than you. It's to help you do your job better.

Even, and especially, when you're already very good at it.

So: does your team have a coach?

And if not, which of the five excuses are you using?