'Methodical' Fletcher backed to succeed

John Buchanan, the former Australia coach, believesDuncan Fletcher's vast coaching experience equips him ideally for the task of coaching India - perhaps even better than his predecessor, Gary Kirsten.

Fletcher and Buchanan sparred often as the rival coaches of England and Australia, and the Zimbabwean's appointment to replace Kirsten grants him the opportunity to shoot for the kind of sustained spell at the top of the world rankings that he was unable to achieve with the ECB.

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo as he prepares to take up his new post as New Zealand's director of coaching, Buchanan said Fletcher's similarities to Kirsten, who he coached at Western Province, were allied to a lengthy record of coaching achievement.

"He's obviously got a pretty good track record on the international and county circuits, and he's got a pretty wide range of coaching experience," Buchanan said. "He shares some similarities to Gary Kirsten and that obviously is something India would like to maintain, but he also has had greater experience, which should be useful for the phase the Indian team are about to enter into."

This phase includes tours to England and Australia - Fletcher is unlikely to be in place for the West Indies trip that precedes them - and managing the task of regenerating an ageing team. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman cannot go on for too much longer, while the pace spearhead Zaheer Khan is also reaching the latter stages of his career.

"Ahead of him certainly will be the opportunity to sustain the success the Indian team have had up to and including the World Cup," Buchanan said. "One of the features of that Australian team from the late 1990s through to 2007 was high performance maintained for a long period of time even as a number of players were turned over, and that will be India's quest now."

As the England coach, Fletcher was known for seeking every possible advantage over his opponents, whether it was resorting to defensive extremes when trying to curtail a rampant Tendulkar in 2001, or using substitute fielders to keep his pacemen fresh and drive Ricky Ponting to distraction during the 2005 Ashes series. He also made sure he kept his distance from opponents and public alike.

"I wouldn't say Duncan and I were ever very close," Buchanan said. "He could be a brusque character, he had great competitiveness, which could be seen as keeping to himself at times, you're in the heat of battle and so the opportunities to get to know each other can be scarce."

The distance between Fletcher and his rivals contrasted with the closeness he exhibited to his team, the privileged few to know the "real" man. "Knowing a a number of people who worked closely with him they really enjoyed his methods and his style and the majority were generally pretty happy in how they worked together," Buchanan said, who worked with Troy Cooley after he left England to return to Australia in 2006.

"In that position if you try to be popular you don't last too long, you need to establish your way and hope that the players and the staff and administration of that team or country buy into what you bring."

Another man expecting Fletcher to succeed in his India stint was England under-19 coach Tim Boon, who has worked alongside Fletcher between 2001 and 2005 with the England team. Boon says Fletcher will be "at his best" for India. Though Fletcher is 18 years older than India's outgoing coach Kirsten, Boon said age would not be a factor. "What you need to remember is that Gary Kirsten played under Duncan Fletcher. Duncan's experience will far outweigh issues of how old he is. He is strong and fit for his age, he will be involved in all the drills on the training ground, he is very a tough character."

Fletcher had spend four years since leaving the England job, working in an independent coaching consultancy in Cape Town and Boon said, "He's had a rest in between his last international job. This gives you enough time to look back and reflect on your work. You are at your best stage as a coach, like John Wright is the same with New Zealand now. Duncan will be ready for the job."

Boon said overall Fletcher was "methodical" and an excellent technical coach who did very well working one-on-one with players. "He is very good at identifying talent, which is how an Ashes team was put together in 2005." Boon said he found Fletcher the "best off the field captain" with whom team leaders could discuss tactics and the problems of various match situations. "It is his experience that Dhoni will tap into and be able to sit and talk through with him."

As for the demands of coaching India, Boon said, "Fletcher is very resourceful and mentally very tough. He has an enormous amount of respect for cricketers in the sub-continent, particularly the Indians. He will look at the India job as a challenge he would want to have a go at, and a fantastic honour, it could be the final chapter in the story of his international coaching career.

What Duncan did for us

It was September 2005. Duncan Fletcher was riding high after England's Ashes triumph. Journalists were showering him with praise, calling him England's greatest-ever coach, and government officials were suddenly willing to overrule protocol and rush through his UK citizenship. Here was a coach to be proud of, a man who had dragged English cricket out of the doldrums, bred confidence in his group of young, inexperienced players, and led them on a monumental trek to the summit of Everest - beating the indomitable Australian team in an Ashes series. He was a hero just as much as any of those players who lifted the urn.

Fast-forward to April 2007. The England team have been through the "Tour of Hell" in Australia, losing all five Test matches. After that, they were involved in another awful English World Cup campaign. No one came out of that six-month period with any real credit but, as is often the case in international sport, it was left to the coach to fall on his sword. Duncan Fletcher's seven-year reign with the England team was over. If you add to the mix some controversial comments he made in his autobiography about Andrew Flintoff, a few journalists, and some members of the ECB, the story looks very much one of a man whose legacy with England cricket is compromised.

To those who played under him, however, there will always be a legacy, regardless of whether they got on with him personally or not. His ideas became so much of a blueprint for England cricket over the time he was in charge that I defy any recent player to stand up and say he didn't learn anything off Duncan Fletcher, whether he played one Test or a hundred.

Marcus Trescothick, who made his debut in 2000, shortly after Fletcher took the helm, remembers his first impressions clearly. "The way he operated in a tough environment really struck me. He managed to bring players together. It was not easy because there were quite a few older, experienced players, and the cricket was lingering on from years before, but he managed to gel the team. Also, he made sure everyone knew where they stood. He had strong ideas, and everyone was clear what was expected of them."

His method was to be one taken from business, in which he had plenty of experience in both Zimbabwe and South Africa. He believed strongly in having a management group of senior players who would report problems to him and the captain, while feeding information back to team-mates from those in charge. At the same time he strongly believed in players learning to think for themselves, using him and other coaches more as consultants to their game, rather than being told what to do. He was particularly keen on analysis, but wasn't about to shove it down throats. It was very new and very different to a crop of players used to a coach occasionally telling them that their foot was getting too far across or their elbow wasn't high enough.

Fletcher had two advantages when he took over the side. Firstly, the England team were at a particularly low ebb, having just lost at home to New Zealand, and so the only way was up. Secondly, he was joined by a captain, Nasser Hussain, who had the drive and desire to change English cricket. Different in background and temperament, they both understood that the England team needed a revamp in personnel and management style.

The inherited issue of players finding a hostile environment on entering the dressing-room, owing to a culture in which every man was left to look after himself, was already being treated by the introduction of central contracts. Not only did the England coach have more control over players, but also they themselves began to feel part of the team. They were now England players, rather than players more easily affiliated with their counties. What Fletcher mainly did, however, was confront problems. Those who he felt did not buy into the team environment, or were unwilling to change their ways, found that they were surplus to requirements pretty quickly. In their place came the likes of Trescothick and Michael Vaughan. These were players who were picked out of county obscurity by a coach who believed they had the technique and temperament to succeed at the highest level.

More importantly they added to the team. Both brought bags of enthusiasm, were willing to train harder, and bought into the idea of taking the England team forward. Fletcher, meanwhile, was willing to stick his neck on the line for them. He was to be loyal to the death. In return he expected the absolute loyalty of those around him.

Any cricketer who came into contact with Fletcher could not help but realise that this coach was completely different from any they had experienced before. All batsmen, without exception, were shepherded into a dark room at some stage early in their England career, to listen to Fletcher's theories on playing spin, which involved a white-board, plenty of lines showing different angles of deliveries, and finally why the "forward press" worked. He was never one for telling a player to do something unless he explained it thoroughly first.

Geraint Jones remembers being struck by just how much thought went into Fletcher's coaching. "It was incredible how absorbed he was in the game. He never stopped thinking about it. He was never afraid to think outside the box, look at other sports, relate their methods back to cricket, and then push us to think in those terms as well."

	He knew my game better than anyone else. He worked out what made me tick very early, and was able to spot flaws in my technique that no other coach would even dream about telling meMarcus Trescothick on Fletcher

An analytical mind allowed Fletcher to see below the surface, and find out what really made players tick. It helped enormously with the England side, but in dissecting opponents' weaknesses he was without peer. "His greatest strength was in his analysis of opposition players, and the way he got us thinking about it too," Jones recalls. "I remember how Jacques Rudolph kept getting out exactly as Fletcher predicted on tour in South Africa, and Hayden in the 2005 Ashes was very similar." It is hard to quantify how many wickets that skill took for the England team over seven years. As for his own players, he was able to use that talent to predict difficulties and fix them before they became an issue. Prior to the 2005 Ashes series, Fletcher came up to me stating that he thought I needed to work on my method against Shane Warne. Being slightly pig-headed, I replied that rather than change anything before the series started I would prefer to see whether my technique worked first. Needless to say I was running back for advice and guidance two Tests into the series.

Trescothick used Fletcher for batting advice more than most of his team-mates. "He knew my game better than anyone else. He worked out what made me tick very early, and was able to spot flaws in my technique that no other coach would even dream about telling me." None of this came by accident. Trescothick remembers a crisis moment during the Ashes tour of Australia in 2002-03. "I knew something was wrong but couldn't put a finger on it. I told Duncan this, and he went away to his room, accompanied by a computer, studied how I had been playing, looked at old footage and finally after a couple of days noticed a minor flaw that had crept in." His natural attention to detail made his insights unique.

Ashley Giles, another who really flourished under the Fletcher regime, echoes Trescothick's assessment: "He has huge technical knowledge, what he said always stuck with you." Ironically, though, he believes that Fletcher's greatest influence on the England bowlers came through taking their attention away from technique. "He challenged us to think about tactics and game- plans rather than being too preoccupied with technique. His role was to switch us on to competition mode." With a bowling coach of Troy Cooley's calibre alongside him, perhaps he didn't need to focus too much on the technical side of bowling, but it was vitally important for the bowling unit to be absolutely comfortable in their roles, and know what the bowling plans were for each batsman.

Giles, who has made the jump from player to coach himself, is determined to pass on much of the advice given to him. "I was very fortunate to play under Fletcher and Bob Woolmer. My coaching education has not come from Level 1, 2, 3 or 4, but from spending time with the best in the business. I have realised that much of the stuff that we took for granted hasn't spread down the system, and that makes my new job exciting."

Over the years that Duncan was in charge huge changes were made to the set-up in terms of support personnel. He believed strongly that a world-class team needed to have a world-class support network behind it. Doctors, analysts, bowling coaches, psychologists, fitness gurus, physios and masseurs travelled with us everywhere by the time of his departure. How much effort it took for him to get all those positions in place with his employers is anyone's guess, but I suspect that there were some battles fought which the players were not privy to.

Duncan Fletcher named India coach

Duncan Fletcher, the former England coach and former Zimbabwe captain, has been appointed India's coach, ending weeks of speculation over who will succeed Gary Kirsten. The BCCI announced the decision to give Fletcher a two-year contract after a Working Committee meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday. Eric Simons' tenure as the team's bowling coach was also extended.

Fletcher, though, is unlikely to be with the team during the tour of West Indies in June. "The contract with Fletcher is for two years," N Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary, told reporters after the meeting. "He may not join the team in West Indies as he has some prior commitments."

"After a lot of thought and consultation, the BCCI president and BCCI secretary placed Fletcher's name before the Working Committee, which the Committee ratified," Rajiv Shukla, the BCCI vice-president, said, adding that the terms and conditions of Fletcher's appointment would be the same as Kirsten's.

Fletcher, 62, was in charge of the England team when they beat Australia in 2005 to win the Ashes for the first time since 1986-'87, and was credited with turning around England's fortunes in Tests during his eight-year stint, first with Nasser Hussain and then with Michael Vaughan.

He was England's first foreign coach and took over in 1999; soon enough, he oversaw Test series wins inSri Lanka and Pakistan, though Australia thrashed England 4-1 in the Ashes in 2001. Later, with Vaughan, he helped England win their first Test series in South Africa post apartheid and the pair played a critical role in moulding a team that was to win the Ashes the following year.

Fletcher was, however, unable to revive England's ODI form. His tenure reached its lowest ebb during a 0-5 Ashes drubbing in Australia in 2006-'07 and a disappointing 2007 World Cup campaign, after which he stepped down. One of Fletcher's problems during his England reign was a tetchy relationship with the media, something which Vaughan felt could be a hindrance in his India job as well. "Duncan will work well with all the talent," Vaughan tweeted. "His biggest challenge will come from the media ... he has never really understood how it works."

After giving up the England job, he has taken up several short-term international assignments. He joined South Africa as a batting consultant in 2008, a role he returned to for the 2011 World Cup, and was in a similar position with New Zealand on their tour of India last year.

England were officially ranked the worst Test team when he took over as their coach, and he will now take charge of a team that won the World Cup earlier this month and is currently topping the Test rankings.

One of the first coaching jobs Fletcher took up was at the University of Cape Town where Kirsten was part of the team. The pair once again were together at Western Province.

In 1994, Fletcher applied for his first high-profile job - the head coach of South Africa. He was one of the three candidates interviewed. His two other competitors were Eddie Barlow and Bob Woolmer. Eventually the three-man panel comprising Peter Pollock, Raymond White and Ali Bacher agreed on Woolmer, who stayed with the job till 1999. Fletcher, meanwhile, operated as South Africa A coach for a while before taking up the England assignment.

According to Bacher, Fletcher's style of coaching draws a lot from his playing days."Hardworking, disciplined, very professionally driven and played to his utmost potential even if he was not blessed with extraordinary talent. He brings the same characteristics to his coaching," Bacher said.

Fletcher also has been known to work on an individual basis with Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis. Kallis spent time with Fletcher prior to travelling to India for the IPL.

Gayle had written off IPL 2011 until Bangalore call

Chris Gayle says he had written off IPL 2011 and was getting ready to resume international duties before being dropped from the West Indies team for the series against Pakistan. Gayle spoke to ESPNcricinfo on the eve of his second IPL game for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Delhi Daredevils on Tuesday.

"It was to be international cricket for me. Had I been picked, that would have been what I would have done," Gayle said. "I didn't have any thoughts about IPL4. I had written off IPL4, rather I was looking forward to its next year. I should have been there (in the West Indies) playing with the national team, but I am here. It is unfortunate but that is how it is."

Gayle said he had never expected to be in this part of the world at this time. The offer to play for Bangalore came "out of the blue at 3 am. After a party." Gayle's IPL arrival was emphatic, with an unbeaten centurythat set up Bangalore's win against Kolkata Knight Riders after they had gone four matches without a victory. Gayle hammered 102 in 55 balls against his old franchise, leading Bangalore to a nine-wicket win.

He came in to bat at Eden Gardens after having spent the better part of a month without a hit in the nets, working entirely, he said, on physical strength work to recover from an abdominal strain. "An opportunity presented itself, so I am here now to actually do what I can. I have got a good welcome from each and everyone, the players, the owners, and management staff." The abdominal strain? Gayle replied to the question with another one, "What did it look like during the match? That's what it is like now."

In the January IPL auction, Gayle had remained unsold. "It was surprising to be honest when no one took up the bid but based on my knowledge, they said we (West Indies) have a window where we have international cricket at that particular time. So I guess that was the reason, unless there are other things that I don't know about."

Gayle said he did have complaints against the West Indies Cricket Board that had not communicated with him before dropping him for the first two ODIs of the Pakistan series. "I was injured and no one bothered ... haven't I done enough (for the West Indies)? I have given my all and if that is not enough, what is? They left me to fend on my own and I have complaints."

He has followed the progress of West Indies against Pakistan by reading the scores, rather than watching the first of the five ODIs on TV. His interaction with his teammates has been through Blackberry messaging. "I say hi to the guys now and then and wish them well."

Gayle earlier also became one of three West Indian players who did not sign their WICB contracts, becoming freelance players in the several Twenty20 leagues around the world. "I had already pointed out my reasons (for not signing the contract). I thought the contract had too many restrictions and I explained to them (the board) and I explained to the public why I had not signed."

The decision by Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga to retire from Test cricket and choose the shorter format of the game, Gayle said, had little to do with his own situation. "Malinga and I are not in the same boat - so I don't know what's happening with Malinga." The issues of club versus country, he said, could be easily sorted in most cases through communication. "It's simple, they (boards) just have to work it out as much as possible with the individual and see how best we can all co-operate. At the end of the day everyone can be happy and then we can actually move on and we wouldn't have anything dramatic like this."

A window for the IPL would be the next step to avoid what Gayle called cricket's "confusion" between a lucrative Twenty20 league and international commitments. "You have a window for the IPL just like you have a World Cup window. I'm sure there wouldn't be any fuss. That's something they need to take seriously. I'm sure cricket can actually move ahead and everyone will be happy."

Gayle had earlier said that the WICB had left him with no choice. At the moment though, all he wanted to do was, "win the IPL, be on a winning team. That would be the ultimate at this point in time. To lift the IPL trophy and see what it's like."

Andy Bichel appointed Chennai's bowling coach

Chennai Super Kings have appointed former Australia seamer Andy Bichel as their bowling coach, replacing Venkatesh Prasad who has moved to the Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise. Bichel, 40, was Kolkata Knight Riders' bowling coach in the 2009 IPL, when the team finished bottom of the standings.

Chennai recently roped in New Zealand seamer Tim Southee into their squad. They continue to await news on the injured duo of Dwayne Bravo and Doug Bollinger, who both had to leave the World Cup midway.

Vettori to lead Bangalore in IPL 2011

Daniel Vettori who led New Zealand in the 2011 World Cup, has been named the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore for IPL 2011. Vettori, who was in the Delhi Daredevils line-up for the first three seasons, takes over from Anil Kumble, who has retired from the game, but will mentor the Bangalore team this year. Ray Jennings will continue to be the side's coach.

"Vettori is a hugely respected professional not only within his team but among his international peers as well," Kumble was quoted in the team's website. "His unique ability to get players to perform as a unit and deliver more than just the sum of their parts, as he has done time and again with New Zealand, will be a big asset to any team."

Jennings echoed Kumble's views on Vettori's leadership, and also touched upon his bowling abilities. "Vettori is probably the best spinner in the world at the moment and brings in tremendous skills that will be extremely useful on the Indian pitches," Jennings said. "We hope that he will inspire the young Royal Challengers as much with his performance as with his leadership skills in the upcoming season."

Bangalore had a disastrous 2008 season, when they finished seventh in a field of eight teams, but fared much better in the next two editions of the IPL. They were losing finalists in 2009, and finished third in the 2010 edition. They also qualified for the first two editions of the Champions League, but failed to win the event on either occasion.

"We are very excited for the upcoming season," Vijay Mallya, the owner of the Bangalore franchise, said. "Vettori is a highly experienced and respected leader and we hope to ride to the pinnacle of success this IPL under his leadership."

Meanwhile, Deccan Chargers have announced that Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara will lead their side in the IPL. Sangakkara swaps the leadership role with former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist who has taken over as the Kings XI Punjab captain. Australia batsman Cameron White will be Sangakkara's deputy, while Darren Lehman will continue to coach the Hyderabad-based franchise.

Kochi team to be called 'Kochi Tuskers Kerala'

The Kochi team in the fourth edition of the IPL will be called 'Kochi Tuskers Kerala', a name decided on through an online poll.

"The state animal of Kerala is the Asian Elephant, also known as the Indian Elephant. Therefore the appropriateness in selection of the Team Kochi IPL name, Kochi Tuskers Kerala by the fans all over India cannot be ignored. Elephants are the largest land animals alive today and their tusks are attractive, sharp and intimidating," Mukesh Patel, the director of Kochi Cricket Pvt Ltd, a consortium of six companies that are shareholders of the franchise, said.

The team, which will be led by Mahela Jayawardene, had previously decided on the name 'Indi Commandos'. That has been now discarded in favour of 'Kochi Tuskers Kerala.'

Sangakkara steps down as ODI and T20 captain

Kumar Sangakkara has stepped down as captain of Sri Lanka's ODI and T20 teams but has offered to continue as the Test captain on an interim basis for the forthcoming series against England and Australia "if this is considered helpful for the new captain". He will continue as a player in all formats of the game.

His decision, revealed on Tuesday, comes days after he led Sri Lanka to the World Cup final. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Angelo Mathews are among those tipped to take charge of the limited-overs' sides, while Thilan Samaraweera is being discussed as an option to lead the Test team.

Sangakkara was the third highest scorer in the 2011 World Cup and scored 48 in their defeat to India in the final.

"I would like to announce that after careful consideration I have concluded that it is in the best long-term interests of the team that I step down now as national captain so that a new leader can be properly groomed for the 2015 World Cup in Australia", a statement from Sangakkara said.

"This was a decision I made prior to the 2011 World Cup. I will be 37 by the next World Cup and I cannot therefore be sure of my place in the team. It is better that Sri Lanka is led now by a player who will be at the peak of their career during that tournament.

"It has been a true honour and a great privilege to serve my country as captain during the past two years and, although bitterly disappointed that we could not win the final, I am very proud of the performances of the team.

"I met with the selectors on Monday and I explained my reasons for my decision and I assured them of my fullest support in helping our new captain settle into the leadership.

"In this regard, I have offered to continue as the Test captain for the forthcoming series with England and possibly Australia if the selectors believe this would help the new captain and aid the transition.

"I have no plans of retirement from international cricket at this stage and subject to form and fitness I would like to be considered for selection in all three formats of the game for the foreseeable future. "

'ICC's decision a joke' - Porterfield

Ireland captain William Porterfield has described the ICC's decision to trim the next World Cup to just the ten countries as "an absolute joke". The ICC, in its executive board meeting in Mumbai on Monday, decided to restrict the 2015 World Cup to its 10 full-member nations, thereby denying Associate countries like Ireland and Netherlands the chance to qualify on the basis of their position in the ICC one-day rankings or by a qualification tournament.

"It's an absolute disgrace," Porterfield said, "and I don't know how they can even comprehend doing this. We have done everything they asked of us over the last few years in terms of restructuring Irish cricket and I can't come to terms with how they can just shut us out, do away with the qualification period and then try and call this a World Cup."

Monday's decision means that that the Associates and Affiliates have been effectively shunted out of cricket's showpiece event for the next eight years. Ireland are currently ranked No. 10 in the ICC ODI rankings, and though they finished sixth in Group B in the World Cup, they beat England in Bangalore, to add to their win over Pakistan in their World Cup debut in 2007 and have been one of the consistently stronger Associate countries.

"We are currently ranked 10th, ahead of Zimbabwe, and there is no reason we can't move up another position, if not two, by the next World Cup," Porterfield said. "Instead, the door has been closed in our face. It is an embarrassment.

"I don't know what else we had to do in the World Cup, we held our own against the full members, we beat England, we got the fastest ever hundred. For them to turn around and throw that back in our face a few weeks later is an absolute joke."

Porterfield said the decision to expand the Twenty20 World Cup to 16 teams was not adequate compensation and warned that the development of the game in the non-Test playing nations could get severely affected. "They say it's a compensation [to expand the Twenty20 World Cup to 16 teams] but I can't agree with that because it is every player's dream to play at and win a World Cup," he said. "Everyone in the cricketing world can see they are shutting the door on not only a lot of players, but also on the development of world cricket.

"It's not just about Ireland. This could mean the death of cricket in a lot of countries … and all because a few full members are looking to make a few extra quid from the competitions. How they can turn around, shut out half the world and still call themselves a world governing body is an absolute joke.

"It is every full member's duty to look after world cricket. Now the whole integrity of the World Cup has been brought into question because this is not a World Cup, it's a glorified Champions Trophy."

We knew we were going to win' - Kirsten

"We wanted him (again) from the quarters but he said he couldn't make it but he came for the semis. The players were unaware when he entered the room in Mohali. He gave three very really inspirational talks leading into the final. He really just shares his personal experiences about his life and his adventures. He was the X-factor. He was that little bit of extra kick we needed."
Gary Kirsten has called the tough quarter-final against Australia a tipping point in self-belief in the Indian camp, and that it led to a "sense of destiny" about winning the World Cup. Though no host country had won the World Cup before, Kirsten said he thought there was "never any doubt" about India becoming champions as the knockout stage progressed.

"I felt we were going to do this thing. And to the point the day before the final we knew were going to win," he told ESPNcricinfo on Monday (full interview here). "We actually even spoke about it. That we were going to win this thing. It [the issue] is how we prepare to deal with the success because we are going to win. There was never any doubt at that stage."

Kirsten said he was thrilled with the resilience of the Indian team, which managed to win though their opponents were generally viewed to have the edge at the halfway stage of each of the knockout matches. "The one thing what really worked for us in the tournament was that we got ourselves into tough situations in virtually every game," he said. "Even the games against Ireland and the Netherlands were tough. But I believe that really helped us. We were battle-hardened. We had no easy build-up.

"For me the key moment was the Australian game where we chased down 260, which was a tough ask. And from that moment I just got a real sense that within our unit that now we can actually believe that we can win this (World Cup) because we can confront any situation.

"We just believe that we can do anything. It stems from Harbhajan Singh scoring hundreds. It stems from Ishant Sharma batting with [VVS] Laxman to save a game. It stems from Gautam Gambhir batting out a day against South Africa in really tough conditions at Newlands. And then all the one-day efforts from difficult situations."

One man who rescued the team from tight situations in several matches was Yuvraj Singh, who had lost his place in the one-day side last year after struggling with form and fitness, but transformed into a match-winning allrounder in the World Cup.

"Yuvi had a turnaround I would say about six months ago when he got left out of the side in Sri Lanka. From that moment he did a lot of work with Paddy [Upton, the mental conditioning coach]. He made some personal decisions about what he was going to do in preparation for the World Cup: one of them was his fielding, one of them was his fitness.

"He had been through a tough six months, and to end up being the player of the World Cup that is as good a turnaround I have seen in world sport. He just personified the desire and the pride that these individuals have in playing for the country."

Among the people who inspired Yuvraj and the rest of the Indian team in the build-up to the tournament was Mike Horn, a high-altitude climber and Arctic explorer, who returned to help the team in the knockout phase as well. Among Horn's extreme adventure feats are climbing a 8000-metre peak without oxygen, navigating 7000km of the Amazon river besides traversing the Arctic circle without the help of motorised transport.

"The guys were really impressed with Horn's first session, which was during the Kolkata Test against South Africa last year," Kirsten said. "So we got him again during the pre-tournament stage. And again he went down remarkably well with the players, really connected with them, players love him, gave a couple of chat sessions, got involved in the practices.
Horn may have provided the extra kick, but it was Kirsten's low-profile coaching technique that constructed the base for the team to succeed. Everyone from Sachin Tendulkar to Virender Sehwag have repeatedly spoken of how Kirsten has helped them with their game, and the respect with which the players hold Kirsten was demonstrated when they chaired him around the ground during the victory celebrations at the Wankhede Stadium.

Despite the high esteem in which he is held within the Indian establishment, and the many successes during his three years in charge, Kirsten ruled out continuing to coach the national team and said he hadn't been approached by the BCCI to change his mind. The time away from his young family in South Africa was one of the factors in his decision, and he was yet to decide on what his next job would be.

"There is a lot on the table, you know. South Africa have approached me, and a couple of IPL teams have approached me," he said. One of them is the Mumbai Indians, and the other is a team that he has "forgotten" but for now it seems the only way in which he may remain connected to Indian cricket will be through the IPL.

Worldcup 2011 Final Toss