Language is not a barrier to coach India: Stuart Law

The Australian is first foreigner to admit to have applied for Team India’s head coach job.

Mumbai

: Unlike Mickey Arthur, who has expressed his desire to learn Urdu while coaching the Pakistan cricket team, Stuart Law may not have intentions of buying Hindi text books, but he believes the language will not be a barrier, if given opportunity to coach the Indian cricket team.

The 48-year-old Law is one among the few foreigners, who has responded to the BCCI advertisement.

Speaking from Australia, he said, 'I am honoured to be named in the running to become the Head Coach to the Indian cricket team. As it is an extremely high profile position, the BCCI have expressed that the candidates be familiar with the national language as well as having had extensive coaching experience either at a domestic or international level with some kind of success.\"

\"Communication skills befitting the coach of an international team are mandatory along with the ability to effectively convey the right messages and must demonstrate proficiency in English. The ability to communicate in an Indian language is desirable but by no means mandatory,\" one of the conditions the BCCI had ratified after initially made it mandatory.

\"This is their wish and still to be shortlisted will be extremely humbling. I don’t know the national language but having spent a lot of time in the subcontinent, you learn how to pick up the mood of the conversation and determine the feelings of the group or individual by observation,\" Law said.

Law has worked with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the past.

\"The majority of words used to talk about cricket are English, so it can be a little easier to communicate to players that aren’t comfortable speaking English.\"

\"It can also be an advantage to have one of the local support staff there to help get a message across in the language known to the player concerned,\" he signed off.