‘Over-reliance on coaches can stop players from finding own solutions’

New Delhi: Ravichandran Ashwin doesn’t like “latching on to people” and that’s one reason why he has never warmed up to the idea of banking on coaches in the traditional sense as he believes that such dependence makes players dogmatic.

In his 14-year international cricket career, spanning 281 games and 744 wickets across formats, Ashwin’s sense of agency and his ability to time and again rediscover himself, have helped him survive the grind.

“A lot of players are heavily dependent on coaches or mentors, or one person which I think is a very dangerous trend because latching on to people and over-dependency can cause you to not be able to open to new ideas,” the 37-year-old off-spinner told PTI in a telephonic interview recently.

It is not that Ashwin never had a sounding board. His first state team coach WV Raman, one of the respected names in Indian cricket, and Tamil Nadu legend and former India batter S Badrinath, have been guiding forces for him. But his equation with them never turned into the kind of dependence that would take away his own ability to search for solutions.

“See very often the challenge of a coach is to be able to offer you several solutions. This is because what works

for one (particular player) might not work for the other,” he explained.

“One modern-day coaching philosophy which I totally disagree with is the fact that they try to copy-paste the same technique (solution) that’s worked for another cricketer,” Ashwin, who recently made his debut as an author with ‘I Have The Streets: A Kutti Cricket Story’, added.

While he is completely aware that some players get results by surrendering to the vision of their coaches, he also feels that such dependence can lead to a closed mind.

“Because as a cricketer, you constantly are thrown up with new challenges, so you must be able to find your own answers,” the tweaker pointed out.