RCB needs Indian staff members for better performance: Virendra Sehwag

Sehwag says Indian players in RCB might experience challenges in effective communication due to team's foreign coaching staff

IPL team Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) must induct Indian support staff members for players to communicate effectively, former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag has said.

"If you have 12-15 Indian players, just 10 overseas and your entire staff is made of foreigners, that's an issue. Only a few of them are international players, rest are all Indians and half of them don't even understand English. How will you motivate them? Who spends time with them? Who talks to them? I can't see a single Indian staff member. At least there should be someone who the players can confide in," Sehwag told a newspaper.

According to The Times of India (TOI), the former opener said that the RCB players need a comfort level. "Players go blank in front of captain Faf du Plessis because if he asks something, they will have to answer. If the leader is an Indian, you can share what's going through your mind. But if you do that to an overseas player, you may be left out of the Playing XI in the next game. RCB needs at least 2-3 Indian support staff."

The RCB is at 10th place in the IPL 2024 points table, winning just one in seven matches. The team will face Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on March 21.

TOI reported that Sehwag raised concerns regarding the foreign coaching staff, led by Andy Flower as head coach and Adam Griffith as bowling coach. He said that Indian players might experience a sense of disconnection and encounter challenges in effective communication.

Former Indian batter Manoj Tiwary too expressed concerns regarding the RCB's form in IPL 2024. "I know where the problem is. From the auction table to the management. All the good players of this franchise leave to go and play for other teams. One of them is the leading wicket-taker this season [Yuzvendra Chahal]. You let them go. You don't persist with Virat Kohli's captaincy. He led them to the 2016 final," Tiwary told the newspaper.

He added that the four costliest players of the franchise, with a collective budget of over Rs 40 crore, were benched. "Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, and Mohammed Siraj were rested. So when you're spending so much money and then benching these players, you know where the problem lies," he said.

On April 15, Indian tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi said that RCB should be sold to a new owner and urged the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to enforce a deal.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Bhupathi said, "For the sake of the sport , the IPL, the fans and even the players, I think BCCI needs to enforce the sale of RCB to a new owner who will care to build a sports franchise the way most of the other teams have done so. #tragic."