Players need to take pride in representing Delhi: Coach Vijay Dahiya

New Delhi: Delhi begin their Ranji Trophy cricket campaign against Bengal in Kalyani from Sunday, hoping to improve upon the disastrous performance of the previous few years when they failed to qualify even for the knockouts.

Delhi had a 10-day pre-season camp where the 16-member squad went through rigorous training and nets. Ahead of the season, the newly-appointed Head Coach Vijay Dahiya spoke with www.thedelhijunction.com about the plans for the upcoming season. Dahiya was also the coach in 2007-08 when Delhi last won the Ranji Trophy title. Excerpts from the interview:

Q. First of all congratulations on becoming the Delhi coach and after a long time you are returning to coach the wards here, how much has the team changed?

A. Thank you so much. Change is the only thing which is constant. I think everything has changed but it's good to be back. Good to be back among the lot which promises so much. The only challenge is to come up as a collective unit and it's time to deliver for them.

Q. You are returning after many years. Have you been following Delhi cricket all these years?

A. I have been definitely keeping an eye. Because of my work, I have to keep an eye. I have been talent scouting for a lot of IPL teams and Delhi is always close to my heart. I have also been in touch with a lot of players as well, trying to understand what is there that is keeping them away from giving their best. So picking a few clues from there and trying to understand what went wrong is a challenge for me as a coach here. When you are in a group, you want to talk to them and say that the environment they talk about is something that they [only] have to create. As coaching staff, as an association, we try and give them the best possible facilities, best possible atmosphere where they can give their best. But when we talk about culture, when we talk about giving that sort of dressing room where they want to play, that is something that needs to be created by the players themselves. So yeah, it's going to be that sort of a journey here where you want players to be taking the onus, taking the responsibility.

Q. You were the last coach to take Delhi to the title and it's been like almost 20 seasons since then. So how big a challenge this is and what do you think that you can bring from that season?

A. I think that's a long ago. The only thing I want to bring is bring everyone together. It's not about individual performance, I know it's a team game but it is played by individuals. So I need to bring everybody together. There are individual players who have done really well, some of them have gone and played for India, some of them have played for India A, a couple of boys had a really good season last year, scoring almost 900 runs. But we need to put everything collectively now. I know the big challenge is going to be days' cricket because that's where everything lies. So Ranji Trophy is something that you build upon slowly, you need to build a team culture, a team environment which takes time. So that's a big challenge. What you need to bring is the kind of environment where they feel confident about their work and the need to give their best. I think what is missing is the thriving mentality -- somehow we have a surviving mentality and that needs to be changed.

It's not going to change overnight and it's not going to change from my end, it's going to change from the players' end. They need to understand if they have a thriving mentality, they don't need to think about surviving. Sometimes I feel it's the survival mentality which is a big reason for the [below-par] performance in last couple of years.

Q. Besides the thriving mentality, I picked a couple of other things from your pep talk with the players. One of them was that it takes a whole village to make a kid. So for one player, a batsman or a bowler, the entire squad of 25 including the support staff is required. You also talked a lot about team work instead of playing at the individual level.

A. I think it's very, very important that people need to understand who they're playing for. It's Delhi. They need to feel that pride, they need to have that confidence when they walk into the park that they're playing for a state which has given the maximum number of players in last 10-15 years to the Indian team. I mean like it's funny that a lot of people don't even realise that Delhi has given the maximum number of captains in the last 15 years. I mean if you go back and see, this is what Delhi has done. You need to take pride from there and say that, you know, I'm walking out, I'm walking into the ground with the knowledge that this is the team I'm playing for. I'm sure every coach or every coaching staff member think like that and if they don't, then they don't deserve to be in that job. But at the end of the day, it is the players walking into the park who need to have that mentality that we're going to put 100% effort out there in the middle and then the rest will follow. I mean like you talk about potential. Potential is nothing without performance. Potential is nothing when you don't deliver. That's the kind of environment you want.

The other thing that I'm telling everyone is that you have to give 110% and then only you can demand 100% from your partner. That is what you need to do. That's the culture you need to create. It's not going to happen overnight. The onus comes down to the players how quickly they want to have that sort of thinking.

Unfortunately, last couple of years, we have not done well. That doesn't mean that we don't have what it takes to get back right at the top.

Q. One of the things that we've noticed is there is a dearth of spinners in Delhi. There is one specialist spinner in the squad. How do you hope to address that?

A. I think it will happen once we start thinking and when we start doing well. We'll start backing our spinners. You just mentioned about Hrithik Shokeen. He needs to be backed. It is very important for him to deliver.

Looking at the conditions, we feel in Kalyani is going to help the fast bowlers more and that's why we have only one in the team. But yeah, that is one area [we are short on]. If you want to do really well in red ball cricket, you have to have a couple of good spinners in your squad. It is something that is not going to happen overnight like I just mentioned.

We have few in line. I think some of them will be playing in under 23 because at the moment we felt that only one can play in the first game. So there's no point carrying a couple more. But yeah, going forward, there'll be more in the side because you need two specialist spinners in the squad of 15.

Q. What would you be happy with? Obviously, you would want to win the title. (8:08) But if the team doesn't win a title, God forbid, where would you think it will be okay to finish...

A. I think going into that direction. That is very important. Sometimes, things just happen — you might not even realize it at the time. But there are other times when you are fully aware of what you are trying to achieve, and that awareness leads to consistent results. So, the goal here is to build something where you know exactly what you are striving for.

And that will happen through a collective effort; it cannot be achieved by just two people. A team can function without a coach — it is possible for a team to carry on without one — but the team itself must keep moving forward. I wouldn't have a job if there were no team. Therefore, it is crucial for the team to understand — and for us to convey — that the players are the most significant stakeholders in this journey. They need to understand this; they need to realize just how important they are.

Yet, often, one tends to forget that how important they are. And that's the reason why you start losing that self-confidence. That starts playing in your mind and you're playing only for the next game. As individual. You want to do really well. You want to be on that path where you start thinking about that you can do well and then you win. What we're going to start with is about having that confidence back "ok, we will do really well". And when you start doing well, then you start thinking about the next step, which is winning things, which is winning big games. So I think that's how the whole this season will be.

Tags : Vijay Dahiya, Delhi, Ranji Trophy, Kalyani, cricket