Kolkata, Nov 6 (PTI) “Kitna cricket khela hai?” used to be a common refrain in Indian cricket till some years back about anyone who harboured coaching aspirations at a higher level.

R Sridhar, the former Hyderabad left-arm spinner, who was a part of the Ravi Shastri-led coaching staff, first changed that perception turning India from a “good” to a “gun” fielding unit in the past few years.

But it is T Dilip, the current Indian fielding coach, who would perhaps help in reaffirming the perception that you don’t need to be a big star to be well respected as a coach. In fact, you don’t need to be a first-class player also. All that matters is what you bring to the table.

The man, who has become quite the centre of attention with his dressing room speeches and made BCCI.TV’s oft-criticised banal content look good with his fielding medal ceremonies, has been around the system forever.

Dilip is perhaps the best example of someone who has risen through the ranks, coaching in a state cricket academy’s junior age-group programme, serving as an assistant fielding coach in the now defunct IPL side Deccan Chargers while also spending a decade at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

His has been a fascinating journey as his family never supported his cricketing ambitions and he gave part-time maths tuition to school kids to supplement his income which would in turn help him to fund his own coaching.

“Dilip is a very hard working coach. He worked as an assistant with Mike Young, a baseball coach, who was head fielding coach at Deccan Chargers. He had good results in his Levels 2 and 3 courses. He then extensively worked with R. Sridhar at NCA.

“For years, he was part of 150-day per year coaching contracts that used to be given,” a BCCI source, who has keenly tracked the developments at NCA, told

Source: PTI News