Abhishek Nayar on the intricacies of coaching in the Women’s game as he continues to learn on the job at UP Warriorz.
Prior to the current WPL season, Abhishek Nayar took over as head coach of UP Warriorz (UPW). He acknowledged that his first few days on the job have “not been easy” and that women’s cricket has made him more “hands-on” than he had anticipated.
Before defeating the Mumbai Indians (MI) on Thursday, UPW had a difficult start to the season, losing three straight games. Although he had participated in a few training camps with UPW over the previous few years, this is Nayar’s first full-time employment with a women’s squad. He has previously coached prominent men’s teams, including the senior India team and the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.
“I’m wrapping my head around it,” Nayar said. “I think a lot of coaches that I spoke to before taking up this job told me, ‘listen, be direct’. In men’s cricket sometimes, because you’ve worked with them for a long time, there is that trust. So you say a certain thing, if you say ‘listen, go over covers’, they will know which ball to do it to, how to do it. In women’s cricket, I think the attention to detail is a little more, so sometimes you need to sort of break it down in a lot of ways, and it’s not as obvious as you think it is. So I feel it’s a more hands-on job.”
Nayar cited the recent retirement of Harleen Deol as an example of one of the difficulties he encountered, stating that teaching women required more communication than coaching men.
“I’m also teaching myself every day that, ‘listen Abhishek, open your mouth, talk’, and you sometimes have to do it,” he said. “They [players] are so receptive to it, it’s amazing, in men’s cricket you have to be wary about ‘what to talk, what not to’. I think in women’s cricket, they are very receptive, so you can actually talk to them, you can get into those details. But I think trust takes time, and I’m working around that. I mean, Harleen and these things happen, and things come out [and] it becomes harder for me. It’s different, it’s fun, it’s challenging, it’s testing me in every which way, and sort of preparing me for the IPL also, in a different way. But I would say it’s not been easy.”