What do Indian cricket and English football have in common? Gary Kirsten and Fabio Capello - both are foreigners about to take charge of the national teams of the most passionate sport in India and England - cricket and football, respectively. And that’s not where the similarity ends.

Couple of months back, in a surprising move, Gary Kirsten was chosen to be the manager of the Indian cricket team, ahead of other luminaries such as Dave Whatmore (appointed as head of NCA instead), John Buchanan and Martin Crowe. He has no previous coaching experience but had a glittering test and ODI career for South Africa.

Meanwhile, after Steve McClaren was sacked following England’s disastrous exit from Euro 2008, the English FA said they would appoint a world-class manager and courted ex-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho before the latter rejected the job. The FA has settled for Fabio Capello, an Italian with a great CV, and who has won trophies with big clubs such as Milan, Roma, Juventus and Real Madrid.

Before we look at their challenges, let’s look at some of the similarities between Indian Cricket and English Football…

1. Cricket is by far the most popular sport in India and the pressure on the Indian team and the manager is huge. The media and the fans expect the team to win every game.
The same goes for the English football team.

2. India have been under-achievers in the game and have won the World Cup just once, in 1983. Despite a great team consisting of Sachin, Dravid, and Ganguly, India has failed to claim the ultimate prize in the sport and has never won a test series in Australia, the powerhouse in World Cricket.

The last time England won the Football World Cup was at home in 1966. Since then, they have had superstars such as Shearer, Linekar, Gascoigne, Hoddle, Keegan, Beckham, Owen, Gerrard, and Lampard but they have not even reached the final of a major Championships.

3. India looked strangely out of sorts at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean and crashed out in the group stage itself. The 2006 Football World Cup witnessed the English footballers’ wives create a bigger impact than their spouses. And, in 2007, the English team failed to qualify for next summer’s European Championships.

4. The Indian cricket team and the English football team have often been described as chokers on the big stage lacking mental toughness.

5. Indian cricket and English football are run by powerful governing bodies - the BCCI and the English FA respectively, consisting of officials, mostly old men, who have never played the sport professionally.

6. Indian cricketers and English footballers are often considered over-paid, and lacking the willingness to fight for each other. Are the sports being ruined by too much popularity, hype and money?

Real Challenge

It’s a terrific challenge for Kirsten and Capello. While Kirsten, who has previously criticized everything about India during his playing days, has neither the ego nor the dictatorial attitude of his predecessor Greg Chappell, he is a regarded as an intelligent cricketer. He not only has the task of instilling confidence and mental toughness into a team that has a new-found resolve following the Twenty-20 win and recent series victories over England and Pakistan. His other main task is to phase out ageing stars and blood a new, talented group of youngsters for the 2011 World Cup.

Capello too has the task of removing the mental block that England players seem to have when it comes to crucial matches. He has the balls to drop Gerrard or Lampard if he thinks it would benefit his team. This is the guy who has dropped Totti, Del Piero, Davids, Ronaldo, and Beckham during his long and productive club career. Moreover, the FA has to utilize his skill in such a manner that it benefits the whole coaching framework in England.

But there are certainly mixed feeling about these appointments. why does India, a nation of a billion-plus people and numerous ex-stalwarts in cricket, have to appoint a foreign manager? Why does England, the nation that takes pride in inventing football, lack world-class English managers? Do you think this is indeed a good trend?