It is the start of a new chapter for former India captain Rahul Dravid. After having served the gentleman’s game for over a decade, Dravid now looks to serve Indian cricket in a different capacity –that of coaching the U-19 and India A sides. For the young and upcoming ones who are still trying to find their feet and taking gentle strides towards success, Dravid is the best mentor they could ask for. In this exclusive chat with bcci.tv, Dravid speaks about his vision to take Indian cricket forward and throws light on different aspects that he would be dwelling on for the young buds to blossom. How do you see this new role of coach as India A and Under-19 teams? Is it in a way giving something back to the game? I think the game is too big for me to give something back to it. I never look at it like that. I just think this is an opportunity for me to share my experiences and what I have learnt from the game with the next generation of cricketers coming through. It gives me an opportunity to hopefully try and help them in their journeys and their dreams and aspirations of making it to the next level. It is a chance for me to learn as well about the coaching side of things and continue some of the work that I have already been doing in the IPL with the Rajasthan Royals. What do you plan to bring to the table in this new capacity of yours? I think everything is a learning experience and you learn all the time. Being mentor for the Rajasthan Royals for the last couple of years gave me a good perspective of things from the other side of the fence – from a support side, coaching and management side of things. After being a player for so many years this experience gave me a different perspective about how things are, which has been really interesting. You are able to look at things with a lot broader perspective when you are not just focused on performing and trying to play and win games. I hope to bring some of those learning into this stint of mine with India A and U-19. What are the kinds of plans that you have chalked out for yourself to fulfill this role with success? I am still having discussions with people in the BCCI as to how you can create the right environment. At the moment it is about focusing on the A team and U-19 team and looking to try and build the best U-19 team that India can take to the World Cup next year. It is hard to get into the specifics of it but overall what you really want to do is to try and give the players who are coming through the best possible environment where they can learn, grow and improve. Any kind of challenges that you feel you would have to encounter in the process? I know it is challenging and tricky sometimes for a young player in an India A setup because I have been there myself. Sometimes you are fighting for very few spots in the national team. Everyone wants to go out there and play for India and it is not always easy. There is a lot of pressure on you. Sometimes you are in a different stage in your career. There are players in India A team who get dropped from the national side and are trying to make a comeback and stake their claim in front of the selectors. In that context, it is an important to sense the balance between those two aspects and understand that each player is going to come there with very different aspirations in mind. It is about balancing and managing that and trying to give every player an understanding that even though it is a team game, there are specific individual goals that each one of the players wants to achieve. It is about how we create an environment that gives them the best chance to achieve it. I hope to have conversations with the selectors to see why they have picked certain players in the A team and what they see as a future for them. It is just to understand from the selectors as well as to how they see some of these players and future roles that they envisage for them if and when the opportunity may arise for them in the Indian team. From U-19, only a handful have gone on to make it big at the international stage. Is that one of the objectives on your mind – to increase the turnover from junior to senior cricket? Most of the guys in the Indian team today have played at the U-19 level. The conversion is going to be low because every year there is a new U-19 team and there aren’t many spots in the Indian team that open up. The competition is pretty intense and not all of the guys get that opportunity to break through. Not everyone in an Under-19 team will make it to the Indian side which is just natural. You cannot judge U-19 programs on just the number of people who have graduated to the Indian team. Everyone in the Indian team from a Virat Kohli downwards has played U-19 cricket. Now the system is such that you generally have to have played U-19 if you were to make it to the big stage. Very few would have actually got through without playing at that level. The system is so strong and people pick up talent at such a young age. I think a lot of them will go on to play First-class cricket and that is equally important. You need to think of how you can help build a better cricketer who even if he doesn’t go on to play for India, plays successfully at the First-class level and thereby raises the standard of the First-class game. Basically, will it be about giving them the right advices and showing them the correct path? I think at this level it is not about teaching people technique or coaching people how to bat or bowl. They know that. You don’t get to an India A level without knowing how to bat or bowl. A lot of guys who are going to come are really experienced players. The role is about looking at the mental side of the game and seeing how we can get consistent performance and help some of them deliver under pressure and in situations when it really does matter. Give them clarity of thinking and try to talk them through that side of things. I see that as a really important side of the game. It is important to have conversations with people around and share experiences of what I think are the challenges at the international level, both on and off the field. It is about working on what they need to work on if they were to graduate to the next level. Coaching is not just about coaching cricketers but it is also about coaching people. It is about helping a lot of these guys through everything that comes with international cricket. Not only the challenges on the field but even off the field. It is about sharing experiences. I definitely don’t claim to have all the answers to a lot of these things but a lot of what I will be doing is hopefully share experiences I have had and also tap into other people’s experiences with some of these young boys. It can be so many things outside of cricket and getting to know about challenges that they have to face as young cricketers. How important is it for the youngsters to understand the Indian cricket history or leaving a legacy behind once you are done with the game? I think it is important to recognise and understand that you have a rich history and tradition in our country that you have to follow on from. You have to make them believe that they are custodians of this game from the time that you have been given this opportunity to play the game. It is important that you represent yourself and any team you play for with pride and dignity and ensure that you help to move the game forward. It is your responsibility to carry that legacy forward. In the process does self discovery play a huge role in shaping a cricketer? Playing cricket is not only a journey about learning the skills of cricket but it is a journey where you learn about yourself, understand yourself and see how you react in different situations. If you want to succeed at any level you have to learn about yourself as much as you are learning about the game. That for me is really important. If you can grow as a person as much as you can grow as a cricketer, you find that you give yourself a much better chance to succeed. Is the current modern day cricketer a lot more aware and ready for bigger challenges very early in his playing career? Absolutely! The game is always improving all the time. Look at some of the skill levels and fitness levels of some of the players today. It is incredible. They are always improving and getting better and that is the way it should be. Cricketers today have got lot more opportunities even before they come in to the Under-19 setup. They have played a lot more games than you did in the past. Even from smaller towns and cities you find players coming through with a lot more game awareness than in the past because they have played a lot more. By the time you have come to the U-19 level you have probably played a lot of U-16 and U-14 cricket. There are just so many games that you have played that there is always something to learn from every game. A lot of them are touring and travelling a lot more than what we ever did. They are doing it at a much younger age than we did. I think all of that adds to that experience. Today’s young cricketers are a lot smarter and have a lot more opportunities to develop and grow their skills than the earlier generation did. Having said that, I think by the time the guys play cricket at the U-19 or U-23 level they would have probably dedicated their lives to the game and are pretty desperate and pretty keen to play. That is the part of the thing you have to manage and balance. At the end of the day this must be viewed as just a game. It comes with pressure, challenges and insecurities that you have to deal with as a young cricketer coming up. What is the kind of vision that you have for Indian cricket at the moment? What are the areas of concern that need to be looked at? It is challenging for me and this is something that I am excited about. I have always been excited about the part of being hands on and working on the ground and getting involved with the players. It is an opportunity for me to work with a lot of young cricketers. It is also good to recognise that at the India A level it is not about necessarily the results and the matches that you play but it is also about how you develop the kind of cricketers India needs or India wants. You are not necessarily looking to win every series or every game but you are also looking to develop the cricketers. You are looking to think ahead. What is the kind of cricket India plays over the next eighteen months and know what the kind of cricketers they are going to need. That is the kind of discussion that you are having with the national coaches and the team management on the national setup. It is about saying these are the kind of players that we are looking at and the tours we have and just getting them ready for the bigger scheme of things. We have always produced a lot of batting talent and the challenge is to develop some good bowlers. Spinners seem to be a bit of a concern with only a few of them coming through. These are the little areas and challenges that you face from time to time. But if you look at the overall talent, it is very exciting. Would you be watching a lot more cricket now that you need to keep a tab of a big pool of cricketers? I think I will be more guided initially by the selectors. They are the ones who will be picking the teams because they have the idea and vision of what they see over the next twelve to eighteen months. They are the ones who would have watched a lot of domestic cricket and I will be guided by the senior and the junior selection committees. They would have watched a lot more cricket than what I have at this stage. I will be around and will be taking a lot keener interest of what’s happening. I see my job as coaching the squad that the selectors pick.