Coaching is about building connections with the people and creating right environment – Rahul Dravid sheds light on his tenure

Departing India’s head coach Rahul Dravid has shed light on his coaching tenure with the Indian team. Dravid took over the coaching from Ravi Shastri in November 2021 and took the team to the semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2022, the World Test Championship 21-23 final, and the ODI World Cup 2023 final.

But, the team could not cross the last hurdle in all of these major events. However, they were able to clinch the T20 World Cup title after beating South Africa by seven runs. 

Dravid said it is important to get the right results but his focus was always on creating the right environment and following the process. As the head coach, Dravid gave all the freedom to his players and backed everyone to get the best out of them.

“As a coach at the end of the day my job is to help the captain deliver his vision, his philosophy of how he wants the team to play. I don’t really like talking more about results. Yes results are important. I am in a business that runs on results,” Dravid told BCCI.

“I like to believe that coaching is not just about coaching cricket. This is about building connections with the people and creating right environment that allows for success. I feel that I am a part of the team whose responsibility is to create the right professional, safe, secure environment that really doesn’t have fear of failure as such but its challenging enough to push people. That is always been my endeavour to try and create that atmosphere,” Dravid said.

The former Indian captain admitted that changing and chopping creates instability in the team and he is not a big fan of it.

“I am someone who likes continuity in life. I don’t like chopping and changing too many things because I think that creates a lot of instability and doesn’t create a very good environment,” he said.

Dravid, who was known for his solid defense during his heydays, added it was crucial for the team to follow the right process to get the desired results.

“The vision of course is to win a cricket game. You try to win as much as you can. But I always look back to the fact that what is it that leads to the winning? How do you win more games? What is the process required to win more games? For me the vision was to get that process right. Ticking all those boxes. How do you challenge the players enough? How do you practice enough, how do you well prepare tactically and technically? Are we supporting the players in the right way? These are the things I wanted to tick before going on to the winning. Hopefully, if we would do most of these things, winning will take care of itself,” he said

Gautam Gambhir is expected to take over from Rahul Dravid as India’s head coach.