R Kaushik Book “Coaching beyond Buzzing” Review 2023

In his book “Coaching Beyond: My Days With Indian Cricket Team”, Sridhar highlights the importance of communication in the coaching staff. He emphasizes the need for honesty in creating a culture where coaches can candidly share their observations with players, even if it may be difficult to hear. Sridhar co-wrote the book with journalist R Kaushik.

In the chapter “Cracking The Communication Code” on page 42 of his book, Sridhar recalls a situation from Virat Kohli’s early days as a Test captain and captain-in-waiting for the white-ball squad. Sridhar narrates how Kohli expressed his desire for the white-ball captaincy and how head coach Ravi Shastri spoke to him about respecting current captain MS Dhoni. Shastri told Kohli that unless he showed respect for Dhoni now, he would not receive respect from the team when he became the white-ball captain.

According to Sridhar, Virat Kohli took the advice he received from Ravi Shastri about his aspirations for the white-ball captaincy and eventually became its captain. Sridhar describes Shastri as a direct communicator who doesn’t sugarcoat things and was responsible for delivering difficult news to players about being dropped from the team.