No man is a hero to his valet

Neither is he a hero to his coach it seems. Here is one instance.

The autobiography of former England cricket coach Duncan Fletcher, awaiting release, will claim that an England practice session on the last tour of Australia had to be cancelled because Andrew Flintoff had been drinking.

Here is another:

Revealing his sour relationship with Shane Warne, former Australia cricket coach John Buchanan said he had urged the spin wizard to own responsibility for his actions after his drug suspension in 2003.

Somehow these revelations leave a bad taste. Firstly, the revelations are usually in the form of a book. Secondly, it comes almost as soon as the coaches quits.

Let’s take the first one. Whatever, be the motive, it still looks as if it is an attempt at sensationalizing and making a book sell. It is underhand and reveals a mercenary mindset.

The second one seems illogical. One of the primary jobs of a coach is to gain the confidence of his players. If the coach is going to write a book as soon as he completes an assignment, how will he gain the trust of his players?

There is nothing wrong in revealing the behind- the – scenes happenings for the sake of truth provided sufficient time has elapsed for the player to redeem himself and it gives the public time to digest a player’s career in full.