Daredevils coach Shippers reveals that greats can warm the bench as long as others are performing on the field
Daredevils coach Shippers reveals that greats can warm the bench as long as others are performing on the field
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It's only when it is announced that he's the coach of the all-conquering Delhi Daredevils team that heads turn towards him.
Delhi Daredevils led by Virender Sehwag beat Sachin Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians by four wickets here yesterday and just like last year, emerged in the top four.
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GOT HIM: Dirk Nannes, who keeps McGrath out of the Delhi side, celebrate Mumbai's Jayasuriya's wicket yesterday. |
Shipperd's appearance is quite misleading though. For all his politeness and lack of presence, he is a really tough man. He's sure not intimidated by the big names or impressive records.
He's probably the only Australian coach who has axed Glenn McGrath from the playing XI ever since the fast bowler started his glorious international career. McGrath played 124 Tests and took 563 Test wickets and is a three-time World Cup winner.
"The team comes first. Whenever you tell a champion of the game, an all-time legend of the game that he's not going to play, it's obviously going to frustrate him.
"Glenn's in good form, he's fit, he's strong, he's ready to go but we are only able to pick four internationals and in quite a few games we have gone with three international batters.
That means we have had only one bowler. Sometimes, we want to pick Daniel Vettori, sometimes Dirk Nannes so it makes it difficult for Glenn.
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But like a true champion he's copped it on the chin. He's been a terrific team man from the start to this point of the tournament," said Shipperd.
So who does the tough part of telling the great man that he's not playing? "We just announce the team and the players know who's in and who's out," said Shipperd, who coaches Victoria in Australia.
"We have huge respect for McGrath. He's involved in bowling strategies. He's helping out the young bowlers.
Victoria's left-arm pacer Nannes is the bowler Shipperd has preferred over McGrath. "At the start, we wanted to experiment with couple of left-handers to see how it works for us.
Nannes in Australia has been in fine form and for the last two seasons. He got an opportunity and he grabbed with both hands.
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So, it has made it difficult for us to include Glenn right through the tournament," Shipperd said.
"It is an enormous challenge every game to come up with the right combination.
You have 11 spots and 20 plus players and all desperate to play.
You could pick another 10 who could do an equally good job.
Most teams could pick a different team, with different names, different balance and get the same results. We (Delhi) could certainly do that," said Shipperd.
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