CHENNAI: The last 12 months have been nothing short of memorable for coach Jaydeep Saha. During this period, he has coached the Pondicherry U-25 team to a stellar run in the men's List-A competition in 2022-23 where they beat Kerala, Karnataka, and Uttarakhand. Started the 2023-24 season with a play-off finish for Madurai Panthers in TNPL 2023, before adding another feather to the cap by helping South Zone, led by Mayank Agarwal, win the Deodhar Trophy title after almost two decades.
Based out of Bengaluru, Saha is the head coach of the City Institute of Cricket (CIOC) where he has been developing young cricketers since 2011.
In the past decade, he has worked with cricketers from several age-groups and has played an integral role in the growth of young talents like G Ajitesh, who lit up the TNPL with Nellai Royal Kings, and Aneeshwar Gautam, who was a part of the World Cup-winning U19 squad, and more. However, working with young cricketers in an academy and senior pros during a stringent tournament schedule are very different and Saha provides an interesting perspective as to how he approaches it.
"First up, you have to believe that the teams have been selected properly. You have to think that this set up is right for me, you just can't think that some of it is wrong. Some of it is not interesting. It might not give me the right result. You have to think this is the best environment you have got, that gives you the confidence," he says, stressing that one cannot get technical during a tournament.
"During that short period, it is impossible to do that. You have to get your tactics right. And it has to be according to the players available in front of you. You cannot have a tactic which is beyond their capability, you have to have practice, which is within the capability of the available."
That is exactly what he tried to do working with a star-studded South Zone side that had players like Washington Sundar, R Sai Kishore, Rohan Kunnummal, KB Arun Karthik, Arjun Tendulkar. And it did wonders as South remained unbeaten through the Deodhar Trophy to clinch the title.
For someone who has been involved in cricket coaching for several decades now, Saha started his cricketing journey in Kolkata as a first-division cricketer. However, he took up coaching soon enough, first in Jamshedpur and then in Chandigarh. Things took an unexpected turn when his wife got a job offer in Bengaluru and he shifted with his family to the Garden City. Since then, his coaching and journey with CIOC too has taken prominence with him focusing on the sport he loves 24x7. Saha admits that it could not have been possible without the support from his wife who is also a working professional.
"For me, success is to let me sit and watch cricket every day. Everybody doesn't have that freedom, right? That space, every day I go to the ground, watch cricket and come back. That is my job. So sitting under that tree and watching that lush green outfield every day gives me pleasure and satisfaction. That freedom is with me. So that is where I feel myself to be very lucky with regard to my wife. And she is the person who will let me do that with a lot of freedom and a lot of pressure on her, she takes it because this (cricket) is what I am meant to do," says Saha.
Even during the pandemic, as soon as the relaxations started coming in, Saha would go and just sit in the CIOC academy, having missed doing so through the lockdown. He, along with Ajitesh, would go to the academy to just spend some time there, for that is the common love they shared for the sport.
"You ask the players and they'll tell you how much we connected emotionally with our common love for the sport. Every year, so many players from across the country come to the academy to train. Several players from Manipur come to CIOC every year. It is not like I have a better technique than others. There are many coaches who have that. It's the mental peace and what kind of strength they can achieve from this. I'll have to show something that is where emotions and that is where the strength comes in. That makes me feel that 'Okay, I am going in the right direction.' Individually, we try to assist everyone. It is not that everybody is making it to the top because the top is a very small place. The base is very huge. That is okay, for there are coaches who have been working with me for the last 10 years and they are there and nobody has left," he says with pride.
While Saha is grateful for the opportunities he has got along the way and is keen to fulfil whatever comes next, he believes that coaches are defined by the next generation of talents.
"What I feel is to do things in the right way for the young generation. To find out more objectives, more players, you can give some direction to their cricket, some entertainment. Today's cricket is, and it was before, entertainment. How much entertainment you can give to the people sitting and watching. Even you need to enjoy it. Without entertainment, there is nothing that can give cricket a different direction. If you are not entertaining people, you are not in the right place."
"I think for this, the way England is playing nowadays, the kind of cricket they're giving, Brendon (McCullum), he's brilliant. I think that is the way people should think because that will help them and all the students get out of pressure. This pressure thing will happen because they are bound to entertain people. To entertain people outside is the most important part. Every time you have a plan to win. Some days it will come good. Some days it will not. Out of 100 if 70 times it comes off, you are a good coach. So that plan to win needs to be there, and that decision-making needs to be there. That is what we are there for. That is how I think," he signed off.