"Kapil votes for Ganguly to coach India - kapil takes on Dhoni"

Ganguly has the traits to be a good coach: Kapil

Kapil feels the calendar should be planned keeping in mind the requirements of the players and the game.

Former India captain Kapil Dev, who feels Sourav Ganguly can be a good coach, has lashed out at current skipper MS Dhoni as well as the selection process in place for the Indian team.

Kapil said though Ganguly may want to become a coach, the Indian players won't be too keen to have him in charge. "The Indian players would never want him, or any Indian coach,
because they feel he would interfere too much in the running of the team. It is a trend Ganguly started himself when he was captain and now the players would not want someone like him to be coach," he wrote in the Hindustan Times.

Kapil also wrote he hasn't been too impressed with Dhoni as the captain after the World Cup andaccuses of him being biased towards certain players. "Why was RP Singh, who had played no cricket for a few months, chosen to play in England? Why is Suresh Raina given such a long rope when he is not in form? Why was Manoj Tiwary not played at all in Australia?," he queried. Though Kapil said he doesn't have anything against Rahul Sharma, he did express surprise at how a player who had played only 15 first-class matches be picked ahead of other consistent performers at the domestic level.

He also rued the fact the Indian players didn't get time to enjoy their World Cup success and were instead pushed straight into the fourth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), adding the lucrative tournament was the first nail in India's downward spiral. "I have nothing against IPL, which is an entertaining add-on to the cricketing calendar. But some of our players were injured and badly needed rest, and a situation was created which, I believe, was the first step towards the disaster which has engulfed us today," Kapil wrote.

Kapil criticised Dhoni not only for being indifferent and aloof as India's tour of England progressed, but also for bowling himself on the second day of the Lord's Test. "The England tour was a disaster because we had a jaded, tired and an injured team battling against a very strong team in its home conditions. Here, the Indian Board needs to take responsibility," he said. 

He wrote the decision to send some of the senior players early to Australia in order to adapt to the conditions was a good move, but felt it backfired as each player was concerned about his own form and again said Dhoni was also listless in such a situation and made things worse by passing comments against seniors (with reference to their fielding and the rotational policy). "A captain should not talk like this. The right way to go about it is to convince the selectors what team and which players you want," he said; adding Virender Sehwag was also in the wrong for making statements against the captain. "But this does not give players the right, like Sehwag did, to speak against the captain. Or, maybe we are living in times where anyone can speak anything and against anyone," Kapil said.

Talking about the BCCI, Kapil feels though current president N Srinivasan has the administritaive capability and understands cricket, he is also moving towards the direction of making money and is running a one-man show. 

Kapil also said the calendar should be planned keeping in mind the requirements of the players and the game, adding India's cricket hasn't changed for the last 15 years.  "Australia haven't changed their Test schedules for the last 30-40 years. We are willing to take their coaches but not their structure," he wrote.

He felt it was wrong to give Gary Kirsten so many plaudits for his stint as India coach. "People say Gary Kirsten did a great job because we won the World Cup and became the number one Test team. If that was the case, how come our team crumbled within months of his leaving? Shouldn't a good systemic work done last for at least 3-5 years?," Kapil asked, adding it's unfair to be harsh on Duncan Fletcher. Kapil added foreign coaches won't find it easy to do a good job in Indian conditions.

Kapil reiterated Sachin Tendulkar should have retired from one-day cricket after India won the World Cup as he had nothing else to prove, and said he isn't sure what's going through the Master Blaster's mind. He also feels Tendulkar is not under any pressure despite failing to score his elusive 100th international century yet. "One more hundred won't make him greater than what he is, nor one less, lesser than what he is. Had Bradman averaged 100 and not 99.94, do you think we would have thought of him differently than what we do today?," he asked. 

He said it is important for fans to be made aware of the future plans of Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. "Age is against them. Being a cricket-loving nation, can we know their future plans, do the selectors know?," Kapil queried.