Calcutta: Newly appointed Bengal coach W.V. Raman feels it’s time Bengal cricketers took “fresh guard” and stopped dwelling on what went wrong in the past few seasons.
“First and foremost, all of us should forget what happened in the past few seasons. It is pointless thinking about what could have been… It’s a new season and all of us should believe we can take Bengal cricket to the level where it should be,” Raman told The Telegraph from Chennai on Wednesday.
The former India opener will be coming to Calcutta in September for Bengal’s pre-season camp. The coach is at present looking at the possibility of his wards playing in some of the pre-season tournaments.
“I will have to work that out with the CAB officials. I know they have played a lot of club cricket and are tired,” he said.
He admitted it would be difficult to get enough practice on the turf wickets due the to monsoons in the month of September.
“You can’t fight nature. We will have to make best use of whatever opportunities we get. It’s all about training well, whether it be indoors or on turf wickets,” the former Tamil Nadu coach said.
Raman guided Tamil Nadu to successive Vijay Hazare titles with Bengal being the losing finalists on both occasions. However, Raman is not bothered by talk that Bengal haven’t of late produced too many quality cricketers if one leaves out Manoj Tiwary and Wriddhiman Saha.
How difficult would it be to work with a bunch of players who may not be in the same league as the Dinesh Karthiks, Murali Vijays, Abhinav Mukunds and R. Ashwins?
“The Vijays and Ashwins didn’t fall from heaven. They had the talent and they were prepared to work hard. My job as a coach was to fine tune a few things and suggest a few adjustments. It’s hard work and dedication that has made Tamil Nadu a formidable domestic unit. I don’t see any reason why that can’t happen with Bengal as well. I believe there is enough talent in Bengal and we have to make full use of that,” he answered.
The discussion turned to captaincy — often a topic of heated debate in CAB — and Raman made it clear what qualities he was looking for in a captain.
“I don’t want to get into any controversy as I am not aware of what went on in the past few seasons.
“For me, the man who leads should be a consistent performer. That will ensure, he has the respect of his teammates. Also, he should always try to be positive, whatever be the situation,” the coach added.
Bengal’s last coach Roger Binny alleged that players were not flexible to trying out new things in training or new scoring shots.
“I don’t mind what kind of shot they play as long as their application is correct,” he said.
