11 January,2010 08:20 AM IST | | A Correspondent
India have finally found a new bowling coach. Yesterday, former South Africa national coach Eric Simons was appointed as bowling consultant to help the team for the forthcoming Test series in Bangladesh.
His task is huge to say the least considering India are facing its worst bowling crisis in years. Simons beat South African bowling great Alan Donald to the job.
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has not held back the whip when it comes to talking about his team's bowling, but the bowling consultant's appointment came on the day when the side showed tremendous improvement in that area. India beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the tri-series in Dhaka after dismissing Lanka for 213 yesterday.
Naturally, Dhoni was delighted: "Credit goes to the fast bowlers for bowling well collectively. This was also the best fielding effort we put up in the past 12 months. We fielded really well today," said the skipper.
India take on Sri Lanka in the final but play an inconsequential game against hosts Bangladesh today.
Simons (47) played 23 one-day internationals for South Africa. However, his coaching career has been far from memorable. He had to step down in 2004 just before South Africa's tour of India after a forgettable tour of Sri Lanka. Reportedly, Simons did not enjoy the respect of some players. "Last week, unnamed players launched a stinging attack on his coaching style. They claimed that the side was dogged by bungled management, racial divides, and a Western Province clique intent on embedding themselves into powerful positions to the detriment of the future," said a Cricinfo report in 2004. Interestingly, Gary Kirsten, a national selector at the time stepped down too along with team manager Tim Southey. Ray Jennings took over as coach.
