John Wright, India&rsquo;s first foreign team coach, has &ldquo;doffed his hat&rdquo; to Rahul Dravid for accepting the position of head coach of the Indian cricket team.
<a href="https://www.mid-day.com/search/rahul+dravid-all" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Dravid</a> will take over from <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/search/ravi+shastri-all" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Ravi Shastri</a>, who ends his long association with the team after the ongoing T20 World Cup being held in the UAE and Oman.
<img title="India&rsquo;s stand-in captain Rahul Dravid with team coach John Wright during a practice session at Green Park, Kanpur, ahead of the April 15, 2005 fifth ODI against Pakistan. Pic/AFP" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2021/nov/rahul-seven-nov-b_e.jpg" alt="India&rsquo;s stand-in captain Rahul Dravid with team coach John Wright during a practice session at Green Park, Kanpur, ahead of the April 15, 2005 fifth ODI against Pakistan. Pic/AFP" width="1280" height="720" />India&rsquo;s stand-in captain Rahul Dravid with team coach John Wright during a practice session at Green Park, Kanpur, ahead of the April 15, 2005 fifth ODI against Pakistan. Pic/AFP
&ldquo;I doff my hat to Rahul for coming back and contributing to Indian cricket. He has the experience, he has seen a lot of the guys develop through his involvement as coach of Rajasthan Royals and India u-19, so it has to be advantageous,&rdquo; Wright told mid-day.com from Christchurch, New Zealand.
<h2>&lsquo;Wonderful appointment&rsquo;</h2>
&ldquo;I would call it a wonderful appointment. I have known Rahul since my days with Kent (Wright, coached the county side before taking the India job in 2000) and he was always a tough competitor. Now, how that translates into coaching you never know but he has the experience and that&rsquo;s always important,&rdquo; remarked Wright, suggesting that Dravid has few equals where knowing Indian cricket inside out is concerned.
&ldquo;For someone who has given so much already&hellip;to come back and take on a role which is full of responsibility and expectations, is very admirable.
&ldquo;Rahul was a big part of our [India] success as a player when I was coach,&rdquo; stressed Wright.
The 67-year-old former New Zealand captain ended his stint in 2004 and had the satisfaction of guiding the Indian team in their epic 2-1 series win over Australia in 2001, the 2002 NatWest Trophy triumph, the 2003-04 drawn (1-1) series in Australia and the historic 2003-04 Test series win in Pakistan apart from a runner-up finish at the 2003 World Cup in Southern Africa.
<h2>Greg: Rahul can do it</h2>
Meanwhile, Wright&rsquo;s successor Greg Chappell, in response to The Straits Times&rsquo; columnist Rohit Brijnath&rsquo;s query surrounding the challenge for Dravid to turn a fine team into an even better one, said: &ldquo;If anyone can do it, he [Dravid] can do it. It&rsquo;s not an easy role, for the coach must carry the demands and expectations of a billion people. He&rsquo;ll need all the resources he has.&rdquo;
The Dravid-Chappell combine provided India their first Test series win in the West Indies after 1971 in 2005-06, its first Test match win in South Africa [at Johannesburg in 2006-07] and a string of one-day triumphs until disaster struck at the 2006-07 World Cup in the Caribbean.

Former India coach John Wright hails The Wall for his latest decision to be head coach in a pressure-filled, expectation-heavy scenario 

Well played, Rahul Dravid!

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Home / Sports / Cricket / Article / Well played, Rahul Dravid!

Well played, Rahul Dravid!

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