CHENNAI: Former Tamil Nadu player and former chairman of the state selection committee M Senthilnathan has been named as the head coach of the state senior men's team. Former TN players Tanveer Jabbar and T Kumaran will be taking over as batting coach and bowling coach, respectively.
Senthilnathan has years of experience as the chief coach of the MRF Pace Foundation. Additionally, he has been in charge of the Globe Trotters team in the First Division of the TNCA. Senthilnathan will take over the reins from former India pace bowler L Balaji. "Very pleased and happy to get an opportunity to serve Tamil Nadu cricket. It is a huge responsibility and I will give my best shot," Senthilnathan told this daily.
Tamil Nadu last won the Ranji Trophy in 1988 and have been struggling to go past the knockouts in recent years. Last year they went down to Vidarbha in the quarterfinal and the year before, TN lost to Mumbai in the semifinal. Senthilnathan wants to instill a positive mindset to overcome the obstacles.
"I am aware of it. The first thing I want to do is do away with the negative mind set. Bring in positivity and self belief. I would like the Tamil Nadu boys to be positive and play aggressive cricket. Take the negativity out of their mind. To give them that confidence is my job and work with them as a team. Improve their skill sets and manage them well. And then make each and everyone feel wanted in the team. Only when I give them confidence will they be able to play positive and aggressive cricket. That is my mantra'' elaborated Senthilnathan.
"We have a very talented bunch of youngsters and we probably need to streamline them. For example, I would like to see them not play for their place. Once they play for their place, then there is negativity. My job as a coach is to give them confidence, play as a team, play aggressive and positive cricket. That's all," he added.
A former selector himself, Senthilnathan insisted that he will come into the picture once the selectors pick the team. "Selectors will do the job. My job will start after the selectors give me the team. That's the administrator's duty and the selector's duty. If they want me to come and give my views, I will give. But at the moment, I will wait for my selectors to give me the team and then we will work towards it" he said.
TN have a good crop of spinners in R Sai Kishore, Washington Sundar and S Ajith Ram. Fast bowling has been inconsistent. Sandeep Warrior has been in and out of injury. So this is one area that the new coach would want to concentrate on. "Certainly I have everything in my mind. First let the selectors give the team then we will work towards getting them into a better shape. The main thing is planning, preparation and execution,'' said Senthilnathan. "Once the team has been given to me, my job will be to see them as a unit as a team. Manage them and make them fell and fight as a unit," he observed.
Senthilnathan insists that he shares a good rapport with Jabbar and Kumaran which will make things easier. ''Kumaran, TJ (Tanveer Jabbar), we all played together. They have all been under me earlier with the MRF team. We have a pretty good understanding. So, they know how my operations are. And I know what their operations are. So, it will be easy for us. It is a good team, to be very frank. It is a good team I have," he signed off.