'I told you not to recommend such...': R Sridhar recalls how Ravi Shastri blasted him during CWC'15

Ravi Shastri had a stellar run as Team India's head coach. Under him, India scaled new heights, especially in Test cricket, and even reached the semi-finals of the 2019 ODI World Cup. Before he was appointed as the full-time head coach, in mid-2017, Shastri also served as India's team manager (coming into the scene during India's pathetic Test series loss to hosts England) in 2014.

During the 2015 ODI World Cup, Shastri -- along with bowling and fielding coaches Bharat Arun and R Sridhar, respectively -- had joined then coach Duncan Fletcher in the support staff. Back then, Shastri and Sridhar didn't get off to a bright start. Sridhar was the newest in the coaching staff in 2015 when he was slammed by the former Indian all-rounder for not accepting his idea.

In his book 'Coaching Beyond: My Days with the Indian Cricket Team', Sridhar narrated the whole episode, “Ahead of the World Cup, Ravi decided that the players would speak at the team meetings. That at every meeting, the batters would speak of their game plans, how they would approach different situations, what their plans are for each bowler in the opposition. After that, all-rounders Ashwin and Jadeja would hold forth, and at the end, the fast bowlers would express their thoughts. It was a very good system, I felt, because ultimately it was the players who had to perform out in the middle,”he said.

Sridhar revealed, “We had a similar exercise the day before the game against South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. That evening, I was at my old friend Noel Carr's place in Melbourne for dinner when I got a call from Arun, asking for my views on this new introduction. I knew I could speak freely to Arun, so I told him, 'It's a great concept, but we should be careful how often we do it. It's a golden goose, we should not kill it. If we do this before every game, its effectiveness will diminish. I feel it's better if we have such sessions before key matches."

The ex-fielding coach added how Shastri was on the call and blasted him."I didn't know, of course, that I was on speaker phone, that Ravi was listening in. I was fairly new to international cricket, and Ravi and I didn't really know each other all that well. Apparently, he wasn't very amused by what he heard. 'Baadi,' he thundered, referring to Arun by his nickname, 'I told you these young coaches have no idea what I am doing. I had told you at the very beginning not to recommend such novice coaches. I was rattled. I knew there was merit in what I had told Arun, but I was unnerved by Ravi's reaction and didn't sleep very well that night."

Nonetheless, it allended well with India hammering South Africa the next day with the fielders doing a fabulous job and, thus, Shastri lauded Sridhar.He added, “The next day, we turned in a brilliant performance in the field, we out-fielded South Africa for the first time. David Miller was run out, AB de Villiers was run out, thanks to great efforts by the fast bowlers, and we took all our catches. Ravi turned to me in the dressing room and said, 'Sri, great job. The way you have worked on the fielders is awesome. I was mighty relieved. He had completely shed his ire of the previous night. And although he had been angry at the time, he did take my suggestion on board. Only when he felt each one had to know the others' game plan before a big game did he have inclusive, extended meetings thereafter."

The MS Dhoni-led Indian team didn't have a great run coming into the CWC'15 but went on to win all their group-stage encounters to storm into the semi-finals. In the semis, the then defending champions India bowed out with eventual winners Australia beating them by 95 runs.