Indian coach prepares to climb Everest

Caked in white zinc, his eyes covered by shades, and his skin crinkled by the sun, the New Zealand-born Indian coach could be attempting to scale Everest. He's not, but John Wright has undertaken an equally daunting task - the job of welding the Indian cricket team into the world-class side that it's natural talent demands it should be.

Wright wanders around the Sinhalese Sports Club practice nets with a simple school masterly air. He doesn't have a video camera glued to his hand or a bio-mechanics manual hanging out his back pocket, but he is quick to tell his batsmen that the pull shot is best played by going back and across his stumps.

The 46-year-old, who coached Kent for four seasons before joining the Indian team in November last year, is clearly from the `keep it simple, play it hard' school of coaching. He could share a beer with England coach Duncan Fletcher, but would probably dismiss some of Bob Woolmer's theories as utter flim flam.

Asked as to whether he had set the team objectives for the current Coca Cola Cup he replied in astonishment: "Yes, of course, that is what the job of the coach is." Could you please divulge what they were? "Well, that would take ages because there are 15 different players in the squad," he helpfully pointed out.

Eventually the team objectives were unveiled: "What we try to focus on is doing the basic things well. We are trying to improve our fielding standards, particularly our ground fielding, our running between the wickets, and are very were keen for the batsmen, when they get in, to go on to get a big score.

"You can analyse the game all you want and have all kinds of technology, but you always come back to trying to perform the basics under pressure consistency," he said. "We have a lot of flair and ability, so if we can do those basic things, that makes us more formidable."

A left-handed batsman in the era of Richard Hadlee, the Crowe brothers, and Jeremy Coney, Wright handled the basics very well. He was an obdurate player and one of the most consistent batsman that New Zealand has produced, scoring 5334 Test runs at 37.82 in 82 matches.

His appointment, ahead of Geoff Marsh, who bizarrely didn't realise that his reluctance to live in India was a black mark on his CV, and Greg Chappell, who simply wanted too much `dosh', has already produced an upturn in the national side's fortunes, securing Test series victories against Zimbabwe and Australia at home. They have though tripped up in the one-day game.

He is quick to point out though, when the dreaded `final' word is mentioned, that this is a youthful side: "The average age of this side is just 25. We failed to beat Australia in the five match one-day series so that was a shame and didn't play quite as well as we would have liked in Zimbabwe, but it's a young team."

Wright grimaces a little when the 2003 World Cup is mentioned. The Sri Lankans talk of little else and the Kiwis admit that they have `one eye on it,' but Wright does not have that luxury. Eighteen months for the coach and players in India is an awfully long time.

He once revealed that it has been his "dream to coach in Asia" and says, "It's a wonderful experience and great privilege to work in a country where there is such a passion for cricket." Nevertheless, the high expectations mean that India and Wright simply have to perform all 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 us to win every game, so we take it one game at a time. We are not looking too far ahead " tomorrow will do!

The responsibility of satisfying those insatiable expectations is clearly a burden, especially for the younger players, so Wright simplifies the issue: "We will win some and lose some, but if the Indian people see that their cricketers are playing the game with a lot of pride and fight, that hopefully will repay the support we get."

Tomorrow, it's the first time he locks horns against Kiwis. He refuses to admit to any heart wrenching divided loyalties: "It's really just another game. We spend a lot of time trying to play better cricket ourselves and it doesn't matter who you are playing."

Nor is it much of an advantage apparently: "I don't even have that intimate knowledge of the New Zealand guys, as I haven't been coaching in New Zealand at the first class level."

One knows of course that he knows a fair deal, because it just wouldn't be his style not to do his homework.