'We don't need foreign coaches, they can spoil Indian cricket,' says Gautam Gambhir

Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir has said the BCCI should never appoint foreign coaches for our national team as he believes that they will spoil Indian cricket. Gambhir cited the examples of Duncan Fletcher and John Wright, asking, "What special work they have done for the team?" Gambhir said we have to show trust in our local resources, pointing out that we won the 2007 T20 World Cup under an Indian coach. 

"Yes, we don't want and need foreign coaches for our team, they just can spoil your cricket and team, what's wrong with Indian coaches? What have they done wrong? We won the 2007 T20 World Cup under the coaching of Lal Chand Rajput," Gambhir said. 

"We also won the CB series first time in Australia with the same coach but what we remember is the 2011 World Cup victory and coach Garry Kirsten. What special work was done by Duncan Fletcher and John Wright? We have to show trust in our local players and coaches," the former India opener added. 

"Why should we always remember players who scored 97 and 91 in the World cup final? Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh played crucial roles in the Indian victory and their effort was equal to that of batsmen, so we have to remember them too," he concluded. 

Gambhir has won two IPL titles as captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2012 and 2014. Gambhir is currently the mentor of the Indian Premier League franchise Lucknow Super Giants. He helped his team reach the knockout stage of the cash-rich tournament before they were knocked out by Royal Challengers Bangalore in Eliminator 1.

Gambhir's career

Gambhir has represented India in 58 Tests, 147 ODIs, and 37 T20Is from 2004 to 2016. He has scored 4154 runs in the longest format, 5238 runs in 50-over cricket, and 932 runs in T20Is at averages of 41.95, 39.68, and 27.41, respectively. Gambhir was a crucial part of the Indian squad that won the 2007 T20 World Cup and the subsequent 50-over World Cup in India. Gambhir was the top run-scorer for India in the final of both competitions. 

Image: AP