AB de Villiers Critiques Emotional Coaching Style

Former South African captain AB de Villiers expressed his thoughts on India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir, who has come under fire after the Men in Blue were humiliated by the Proteas in a two-match Test series earlier this week.

According to de Villiers, Gambhir was an extremely emotional player. The cricketer-turned-expert stated that continuing to be an emotional coach may not be beneficial to the Indian squad. According to De Villiers, some players feel more at ease around a head coach who is a former cricketer, but others will open up to someone with more coaching experience.

“Speaking on behalf of the Indian side, it’s really difficult. I don’t know what GG is like when it comes to leadership. I’ve known him as an emotional player and if that is the case in the change room, generally an emotional coach is not a good thing to have. But it’s not to say he’s that kind of a coach and the kind of leader behind the scenes. There’s no right and wrong. Some players will feel comfortable with a former player. Some players will be comfortable with a coach that’s never played the game before but he’s got a lot of years of experience of coaching the game,” De Villiers said on R Ashwin’s YouTube channel.

AB de Villiers said that he loved playing under Gary Kirsten, who is among the finest South African openers of all time.

“It’s a tough question because I’ve never played under Shukri and I’ve never been in the Indian dressing room with GG, Morne Morkel and Ryan ten Doeschate. It looks great on paper but I don’t know what the dynamic is like behind the scenes. What I can say is it is different for every player. I absolutely love playing under Gary Kirsten; he’s a former player and similar to Gautam Gambhir. Some players might find confidence and feel comfortable with a former player being there, a great of the game and find some extra inspiration to put extra yards for the team and for the coach,” de Villiers said.