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It was on the 8th of November 2000 that John Wright's stint as
coach of the Indian team began in right earnest. Zimbabwe,
touring India to play a two Test and five One-Day series took
on an Indian team with a new coach. The former Kiwi skipper
took over as coach of the Indian team from stand-in appointee
Anshuman Gaekwad. Having coached Rahul Dravid at Kent, and
interacted a fair bit with Sourav Ganguly, who was playing for
Lancashire, Wright got a taste of what it was like to coach
top Indian cricketers. Being selected for the post after Geoff
Marsh and Greg Chappell were eliminated, Wright had a tough
job on his hands. The soft-spoken Kiwi went about his work
methodically and predominantly behind the scenes, in stark
contrast to his Indian predecessors. Putting solid drills into
place for the players, Wright introduced a system that did not
differentiate in any manner between players. One Indian
cricketer remarked, "We've never been made to work so hard in
our lives".
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