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Captain has to perform: Imran Khan
Published on Tue, Jan 10, 2006 at 19:39, Updated on Wed, May 17, 2006 at 11:46 in 
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In an exclusive interview the king of swing from across the border, who took his team to the zenith of world cricket, Imran Khan faces some scorchers from CNN-IBN Sports Editor Gaurav Kalra, and comes out with flying colours as he always did on the cricket field.
Gaurav Kalra:Well in cricket these days it is quite common to use the word great or legendary to describe a player. But the man sitting next to me is without a doubt great and a legend. Imran Khan a very warm welcome to CNN-IBN.
Gaurav Kalra: Over the next half an hour Imran Khan will wear the captain’s hat, selector’s hat and a hat of cricket pundit. We will ask him six big questions that will confront the two team managements ahead of the mother of all battles, Indian vs Pakistan. Imran, I hope you are carrying all those hats with you.
Imran Khan: Well let’s see.
Gaurav Kalra: Ok. Let’s get straight to the first one, the big debate that has engulfed India for the last few months. Should Sourav Ganguly be a part of Team India? Should Sourav Ganguly be apart of that playing XI?
Imran Khan: Ok, now look, I am not equipped to know what his form is like because I haven’t seen him playing. But, I will say this, for a start as a captain he can only command the respect of the team if he performs well himself. If a captain does not perform, it is very, very difficult to expect or get the best out of the team. So in that sense if Ganguly’s form has gone, and Greg Chappell is someone I respect a lot, then perhaps it was the right thing not to make him the captain. But in dropping him from the team on a tour like Pakistan, where there would be tremendous amount of pressure, with his experience I think it was the right decision to take him with them.
Gaurav Kalra: Imran, but the other issue that will confront the team is that only 11 do sit out there on the park and the man who replaced Sourav Ganguly in the last Test match that India played at Ahmedabad was Yuvraj Singh. He has a great record in Pakistan. You remember watching him getting 100 the last time in Pakistan and he got two very, very good 50s in those last two innings. How do you drop him and accommodate Ganguly at No 6 because the rest of the middle order is taken.
Imran Khan: Well you know if I was the Indian captain, Indian coach, I would think its a very happy situation to be because you know their injuries are part of cricket. What if someone gets injured? You have someone of Ganguly’s experience coming in. So you know that’s a positive thing.
Gaurav Kalra: In a sense that means that you would not pick him in the team for the match even if he is available. But look at options in the second Test match.
Imran Khan: Depending on the form. The form is real thing. You don’t know who is playing how and depending on the form. If Yuvraj is playing better then obviously he gets in, provided the man management is right. You do not allow any disruptive thing. Everyone sort of realises that the best player plays. If that happens, that’s a happy situation to be.
Gaurav Kalra: You mentioned man management. That’s going to be the tricky bit, isn’t it? Because, here is the man who led the very same player who is now competing for the place with him?
Imran Khan: It is always difficult for a captain to then start playing as an ordinary team member. I never knew what this was like and I don’t think I would have wanted to really because here you are the captain and then suddenly you are just one of the team. Very few players adapt to that and actually sometimes they can become disruptive. I don’t know the situation of Ganguly and Dravid but it can be disruptive and I have been Pakistan team’s man when I had become the captain, there were four ex-captains and about three ex-vice-captains and it was a very difficult situation for a while.
Gaurav Kalra: Let’s move on to the other big issue ahead of the series about the role that the two coaches will be playing. Remember they are both foreign coaches but that’s not where the similarity ends. Our next big question is what impact will the two coaches have on the series?
Imran Khan: Here is someone who really does not think that in cricket a coach plays that bigger role. I think the captain is supreme in cricket. No sport needs leadership as much as cricket. We have overestimated the role of the coach because somehow because in soccer a coach is supreme or in other sports. Some how people think in cricket it’s the same thing. It’s not.
Gaurav Kalra: Is that a subcontinent problem Imran? That you overestimate the role of the coach in the subcontinent. So much more than, may be, in England or the West. In fact they are doing it as well. But in the subcontinent there seems to be larger-than-life figures, Greg Chappell certainly is here.
Imran Khan: Well we do so, but you know I mean in Australia, which is the one cricket structure that I think is the best in the world, I don’t think the coach plays that bigger role. They recognise that the captain is the ultimate, I mean, you can win incredible games with a good captain but a coach can’t win you a match and I give you an example.
Pakistan were playing Australia, Inzamam sat out in the last two matches. Pakistan got wiped out. Bob Wolmer was the coach, but when Inzamam performed in India, against England and the West Indies, each time he performed the team gelled together. He commanded respect in the team. So the captain’s performance is linked to the team’s performance. When England came to Pakistan, Michael Vaughan was injured in the first Test match, the team collapsed. So you know for a start let us not lay too much importance on the coach.
Secondly a coach can play an important role. What is the role? No 1 is man management. We have a problem in Pakistan and in India. There are problems, issues of managing the players, so in that sense if a coach is a good manager that’s positive. Secondly, strategy. Now in that sense Greg Chappell, for me, the experience he has, I mean he captained one of the greatest teams of the times — he played against the greatest team in the cricket history, which is West Indies. He has tremendous batting records he used to bowl a bit. So, the experience he brings with him and the calibre of cricket he has played, he will be able to help Indian captain Dravid much more than what Bob Woolmer brings with him because Bob Woolmer didn’t play that caliber of cricket. He didn’t captain an international team, he did not play the sort of teams that Greg Chappell played against. So in that sense in my opinion Greg Chappell is better equipped to give the right advice, strategy, man management.
Gaurav Kalra: So in Imran Khan’s book, quite clearly, Greg Chappell wins over Bob Woolmer, doesn’t he?
Imran Khan: Well you know, only because I am looking at what if I was the captain what would I want from a coach. I would want him to help in the strategy. There would be pressure situations, so I would want help from him there. I would want him to — fielding practice anyone can do, you don’t need a great player — main thing is that he would, if he is a batting coach, then he would be able to, sort of, point out flaws and batsman techniques. And then, of course Greg Chappell, of course. Who would I listen to more, Bob Wolmer or Greg Chappel?
Gaurav Kalra: Well quite really. But Imran for Indian another major decision looms. What if Pakistan prepare green and bouncy pitches to support their strength in the fast bowling department. Can India bite the bullet and play three seamers, too? Our question is, should India stick to play two spinners? Would you play Anil Kumble and Harbhajjan? No matter what the conditions, would you play both of them?
Imran Khan: No, I would look at the conditions first. This time of the year, it’s completely different. When India came to Pakistan the last time there were there in March and April, which were unseasonably hot, I mean it was the hottest March and April I can remember. So the wickets were dry. There was hardly any help for fast bowlers, in that heat the fast bowlers tired much quicker.
This is now going to be time of the year, it’s the best time for fast bowling in the subcontinents. They will be fresh, they will be able to bowl long spells, there will be moisture in the wickets especially in the morning. The bowl will swing in the evening. So in my opinion these wickets will favour fast bowlers more than spinners.
Gaurav Kalra: But Imran how do you drop players of the calibre of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble? Not just their caliber, but their proven record? How do you drop someone like say Anil Kumble or Harbhajan and include a third seamer in the form of Ajit Agarkar whose record does not match the record of these two individuals?
Imran Khan: I am great one for specialist and the ones who are better bowlers and if Kumble is better bowler than Agarkar, then I would put him in. But, then again, if I look at the wickets which has grass in it and see the weather conditions, I am afraid I will have to make a choice. I would actually go in with five bowlers. I have gone in Test matches with five bowlers. If I have got quality bowlers, because the wicket changes over five days, so first two days might still help seamers, but the last two or three days it will help spinners. They will have a better chance than seamers. So there I would take a risk.
Gaurav Kalra: You are not a believer in the theory that the four best bowlers should play.
Imran Khan: I think yes, four best bowlers should play, but, I would always look at the weather condition. And if the conditions favour seamers, then I am afraid I would then have to start thinking, that look, I have to win this match, I have got to get 20 wickets to win this match, what’s the best way I can do it? I might go in with five bowlers.
Gaurav Kalra: But if you are confronted with that decision, quickly Harbhajan or Kumble?
Imran Khan: I think it would be very difficult, if they are seaming wickets, then I would go with Kumble, because finger spinners might not be able to get much out of it. A wrist spinner might still get something as the wicket dries. You might just get something out of it.
Imran with Gaurav Part II
Imran talks Rawalpindi Express
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