Pune bowling coach Donald likes building relationships

After successful stints as bowling consultants with England and New Zealand, Allan Donald is now the bowling coach of South African national team and Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Pune Warriors India.

Take it easy: Allan Donald during Pune Warriors' practice session at the Wankhede Stadium recently. Pic/Suresh KK

Pune's good start to the IPL (victories over Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab) provided much cheer to the former South African pace great, who spoke to MiD DAY yesterday.

Excerpts:
On his coaching philosophy:
I always want to interact with the guys (bowlers). In one interaction, you can gauge a bowler's mindset and then work accordingly. I am not at all a technical person. I always concentrate on building a relationship with the bowlers. I have done this with the South African national team, and I am not doing anything different here.

On Pune Warriors' fine IPL-V start:
So far, Ashok Dinda and Ashish Nehra responded to my style very well, especially Dinda. I've followed his career a bit. From an Indian perspective, he is really quick, classy and skillful. I'm impressed by the pace he generates. Even Sourav (Ganguly) rates him very highly. I like his confidence. Also, he keeps trying till he achieves perfection and always has questions.

On what went into winning back-to-back matches:
One is the way Sourav is leading. The entire unit is charged up because of his aggressive captaincy. Besides Sourav, Paddy Upton (mental conditioning coach) has played a crucial role in keeping the players calm after winning two games in three days.

On whether he wants to become Team India's bowling coach:
No way. Gary (Kirsten) and me have a mission for South Africa - the 2015 World Cup. Our target is to reach the final. I still regret our exit from the 1999 World Cup after the tie against Australia in Edgbaston. u00a0