Australian physio John Gloster served Bangladesh cricket for four years before moving over to India early in 2005 to Team India where he was for three years. He has since settled in Mumbai working with individual cricketers and also with top names through the IPL, PSL, MCL tournaments, etc.
Gloster also takes pride in training youngsters and is associated with KOOH Sports — an education, training and technology company — to nurture talent. He talked to this newspaper about his time in the India team, the importance of fitness and experience with youngsters in an interview. Excerpts
You have been associated with Rajasthan Royals since inception. How has it been working with the likes of Rahul Dravid, Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson It’s always a pleasure to work with athletes who want to continually improve their games even at the end of their careers. Dravid consistently tried to improve.
The way he adapted to 20-20 cricket shows the young guys like Rahane etc. trying to improve their game, the discipline it takes to perform at all levels of the game these days and in all formats. Players like Watson struggled with injuries throughout their international careers and I tried to help them in some small way to be consistently on the field.
Does the role of physio’s change in shorter formats My main role especially T20 cricket has been preparation of individual players and not the team as a whole because everyone has to be managed as individuals, and then recovery of those players. So physios, sport scientist and other health professionals around the team play a hugely important role in the holistic wellness of athletes during the season as well as off-season.
You have been nurturing youngsters. How has the experience been It’s very interesting to note that Rahul Dravid has taken on the role nurturing and moulding the next generation of Indian cricketers which I think is hugely important arena to manage and only few individuals have the ability and temperament to succeed in this. I still work for a lot of individual cricketers, Indian cricketers one on one; I still work with some of the greats of the game through the IPL, PSL, MCL tournaments, but one of the great pleasures is about educating young players outside of cricket also or more what we can do to develop the game.
How was your time in the India team and what challenges did you face I started with John Wright as coach and Sourav Ganguly as captain and I think by the end of it I had been through Greg Chappell era, then a year with no coaches, just managers of the team for example Ravi Shastri etc and then the early part of Gary Kirsten era. From a captain’s perspective, Sourav to Dravid to Anil Kumble and then to Dhoni, four very different characters so it was very fascinating
Is the current India cricket team much fitter Fitness levels of the India team specifically have improved remarkably and with someone like Virat Kohli at the helm where fitness is very high on his agenda and the examples and discipline he sets will ensure that stays on the agenda in the years to come. We are also very fortunate to very good people like Anil Kumble, who has said that fitness plays a huge role.
