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Simpson brief to begin in April

Former Australian captain and coach Bob Simpson will start his mission as consultant coach for the Indian cricket team in April, with a view to mastermind India's campaign in the 1999 World Cup in England.

On Wednesday, Simpson informed the media in Bombay that India, after winning the cup in 1993, had dropped down the ladder and his first priority will be to infuse in the current team the intensity that characterised the winning team of that year, captained by Kapil Dev.

Simpson hastened to add that he would in no way attempt to influence, or even indicate, India's selection policy.

His contract, the former Australian captain and coach said, was on a piecemeal basis. For now, he has been retained with a view to the World Cup, and he plans to have his first camp with the Indian probables sometime in May. He added that he hoped to hold six more camps before May 1998.

"My job will be only to advise on certain aspects, particularly implementation of the new highly defined fielding techniques," Simpson said, admitting that fielding and physical fitness are the grey areas in the current team.

He said that he had clarified with the BCCI that his advice to the captain and coach will be off the field, and if either of them perceive any conflift with the advice given by the official coach, they would be free to disregard his, Simpson's, advice.

The grizzeld 62-year-old Australian's crendtials are undisputed. As a captain in the early sixties, he maintained the great Australian spirit after taking over from Richie Benaud, and then returned, at a ripe age, in 1977 to lead a second string Aussie lineup to a 3-2 win over Bishen Bedi's Indians on the latter's home soil.

He took charge as Australia's coach in 1986 and helped turn Alan Border from a losing captain to a winning one, with the World Cup triumph in Calcutta the following year.

Saying that next to Australia, his biggest love was for India, Simpson added that his entry into Indian cricket need not be misconstrued as an intrusion. He has, he said, already invited suggestions from, among others, Sunil Gavaskar. He further invited coach Anshuman Gaekwad to Bombay, and gave a demostration of his seven-point fielding practice scheme, which he refined in the early nineties.

He has, he said, been observing the Indian team's performance and had got a feeling that the lads did not enjoy fielding. "My job will be to bring the joy back into Indian fielding," he said.

Simpson did not agree that it was strange for India, with a host of excellent former cricketers, to have a foreigner in their midst. "The world over, it is the practice to have foreign coaches in most sports, and India is just falling in line with the trend not not only by giving me an assignment but also showing willingness to employ a foreign physical trainer," he elaborated.

Simpson said he did not advocate his own country's current mode of having two teams, one for Tests and the other for ODIs. A good Test team, he said, had to be a good one day team as well.

Asked if improving captaincy was one of his jobs, Simpson said, "Good lord, no. There is nothing like a good or bad captain, there is only a good team or a bad one. A captain can never be great if he is at the helm of a weak team," he argued.

Simpson advised the Indian public to show patience with their cricketing heroes. "That is why it was correct on the part of the BCCI to make the public aware that moves were afoot to achieve results at the highest level," he concluded, referring to the announcement of his appointment.