Being coach of India is the best job in the world: Dean Jones

Former Australian cricketer Dean Jones, who was considered to be one of the finest batsmen in the limited-overs format, said that he would have loved to coach Indian national team since he feels that being the coach of the Indian team is the best job in the world.

He recollected that despite having a good rapport with the former Indian senior cricketers, he failed to become the Indian coach after Greg Chappell’s exit. “Being coach of India is the best job in the world,” said Dean Jones.

“At that point of time, I had brown hair (laughs). I would have loved to coach India and I still do. It would have got me out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed Sourav Ganguly and his captaincy. I shared a good rapport with Tendulkar, Laxman, and Dravid. After Greg’s exit, they became a No.1 Test team and they have gone on to beat bigger and better teams. I would have had a lovely time, but it didn’t happen. That’s fine; I moved on,” Jones recollected.

“Let’s not forget that India didn’t like ODI cricket until Kapil Dev’s team won the World Cup in 1983. India hated the T20 format until the ICL came and Dhoni’s team won the inaugural World Cup. So what we have to do is start a World Cup Test series and make India the winners. We will start loving Test cricket again,” added Jones.

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Pakistan climbed the rankings to be ranked No.1, but he said that it can’t be said until they play with all the teams in the world. “How can you say Pakistan are the No.1 when they don’t play India? Until you have a proper World Cup and until you give Test cricket what it deserves — like making it more sexy by bringing more pink ball and D/N games — it’s not going to go anywhere. Test cricket needs a World Cup. With all respect to Pakistan or Australia, you aren’t No. 1 until you have beaten everyone in the world,” added Jones.

“I never had such problems (of boards gagging commentators). I say what I feel,” he added.

According to him, cricket commentary has changed a lot from the earlier days of BBC. “The viewer today wants the razzmatazz, the stats and what the player is feeling in the middle. Why was Richie Benaud so good? He was able to tell the world what Shane Warne was up to in the middle. He would tell that Warne would bowl a couple of leg-spinners and a flipper. And, it was wonderful,” he explained.

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Australia has lost the Test series 3-0 and the ODI series is currently evenly poised at 1-1, with 3 matches to go against Sri Lanka. He feels that Australia’s struggle in the sub-continent conditions is because of their mindset against spin.

“One required courage to face the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Curtly Ambrose and Waqar Younis. And similarly, you need mental strength to play against good spinners on turning tracks. Up against quicks, you have to shuffle from the top to waist up, and against the quality spinner, you have to shuffle from the waist down. You have to learn how to set a bowler up for the lines and lengths you would like to play,” he summed-up.