'I Am in a Business That Runs on Results': For Rahul Dravid Coaching is About Building Connections, Creating Right Environment

While positive results are a prime indication of the progress a team has made, for Rahul Dravid that’s not the top parameter to judge his coaching stint with the Indian cricket team. Dravid says results are important but to him what takes precedence is creating a safe, nurturing environment that creates a fertile ground for success.

Having ended his tenure as India coach on a high with a T20 World Cup winning performance, Dravid says his job revolves around helping the captain and remove the fear of failure.

“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.

The 51-year-old says coaching a team goes beyond the game and it’s about building connections with the players and creating the right atmosphere to help them succeed.

“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.

Dravid likes continuity and says too many changes create instability and has a negative effect on the team environment.

“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 also opened up on his vision which he says goes beyond just winning matches.

“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