There are those who can express their pain. And then there are those who cannot. Debu Mitra falls into the second category. And just who might Debu Mitra be? Well, he is the coach who trained the Ganguly brothers, Snehasish and the Indian captain Sourav when they were young. In fact at one point of time, Mitra concentrated only on Sourav so that he could make a comeback to the Indian team after his disastrous tour to Australia in 1991-92.

Whenever Sachin Tendulkar has a problem with his batting, he still calls up Ramakant Achrekar, the man who had taught him the basics. The relation between a student and his first coach always goes a long way in solving problems that may creep into one's technique. Mitra, who has seen Ganguly from his early days, is however not in a position to help the Indian captain. He does not want to talk about a cricketer, who was once his student. He suffers in agony as he sees Ganguly failing time after time. He has the answers to Ganguly's batting problems. However, he refuses to talk about them. "Why should I tell you," he asks. "Will it help Sourav to score runs." In fact, he does not even want to talk about his famous student. However, one can feel the pain that comes out with every word. "No, I do not want to talk about his cricket. He is the Indian captain now and he may misunderstand me if I go out of my way to tell him anything," he says.

All through the 25-minute discussion, Mitra was adamant on one issue. "I cannot impose myself on him. Unless he asks me, I cannot talk to him," he says. "There are quite a few people who will cry foul if I approach him with suggestions. I do not want that to happen. There are times he talks to me. But it is rarely on his batting."

During the course of the discussion, Mitra made it clear that the failures may continue to torment the Indian captain. "Certain minor defects have to be corrected," he states. "But then as I said before, I cannot go to him." He disagrees that as Ganguly's first coach, it is his responsibility to point out the faults he has noticed. When persisted on this point, he maintains silence.

There are times when a person has to return to his roots to re- discover his own identity. Who knows, Ganguly may need just that. He is already under pressure regarding his form over the last few months. A couple of more failures will have the critics baying for his head. Perhaps the time has come for Ganguly to return to his roots, even if it is for a short time. Maybe in the long run, he will benefit. Mitra is waiting but is Ganguly listening?

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