Man behind Dare devils

Sport is often termed as a great leveler. A term that portrays how an individual or a team can be a hero one day and wake up the next, feeling like an absolute nobody. It is this roller coaster of emotions that defines sport and makes it such a desirable commodity. Cricket is no exception to this phenomenon, and that point has already been proved in this season of the Indian Premier League, which has showcased several peaks and troughs.
A recent pop classic that sent the record charts booming was Gotye's "Somebody that I used to Know", and that was exactly how the fans of the Delhi Daredevils would have felt about their franchise after the previous edition of the Indian Premier League, that saw the side slump to the bottom of the table. That feeling, however, has already been shed away with quite quickly this year, as Delhi have romped to the top half of the table and have executed a turnaround as good as any that sport or at least cricket, has seen. Just as any turnaround though, this one too involved some shrewd planning, restructuring and most importantly off loading.
The one man who pulled the strings and was brave enough to risk losing a few friends was Mr. T.A. Sekar, the mentor of the Delhi Daredevils. He decided that it was time for the side to undergo a complete overhaul and it had to start right from the root. As T.A Sekar put it, it was time for a new leader, "the general consensus was to bring in a new coach. Sehwag and the rest of us felt that we needed a new set of thoughts and ideas. Unless a team is doing really well, my opinion is that the coach shouldn't be the same for more than three to four years."
Out went Greg Shipperd and in came Eric Simmons, former assistant coach of the same franchise. A man who had been with the Daredevils through all the ups and downs and had moulded the players into what they are. That solitary change though, was definitely not going to cut it for Delhi, and T.A. Sekar was wise enough to know that. His plan ran deeper than just changing the coach. In the previous season, apart from the skipper Sehwag and Warner at the top, Delhi had shown a clear lack of resources in the batting department. There was a void, a gaping hole that needed to be plugged and Sekar decided to do just that, with a few shrewd purchases. Purchases that were made with some meticulous planning and application of pure cricketing logic.
"During the trading window when Deccan were willing to trade KP, Sehwag said that he would like to include him in the team. I knew Warner was going to play for Australia and that was why we bought KP. So basically KP's exit and Warner's entry was actually very well planned." That statement by Sekar was just a glimpse of the strategic buys that he was on road to making. If the top order was being fortified then there was a need to back it up with a strong middle order as well. That was exactly what DD's mentor did by cashing in on the misfortune of another franchise, "when the Kochi team was disbanded, we thought we needed an experienced cricketer who can anchor the innings and be a good support on the field. That is why we marked Mahela Jayawardene, he is one of the best cricketing brains going around in the world now."
Delhi already had a sound top three and after capturing Ross Taylor in the following trading window, the men behind the scenes could plan out a clear cut strategy. As the former India pacer put it, "we thought of going in with a combination of foreign batsmen and Indian bowlers and hence bought Taylor at the last day of the trade." There was an exception to this strategy though, an exception that went a long way in influencing Delhi's success in the tournament, Morne Morkel. For a bowler who comes in and hits the deck hard at around 140 km/h, the subcontinent wickets might not prove to be the ideal playground, however, Sekar was of a different opinion. "You will see that bowlers who bowl at speeds of 140 are always successful. When a batsmen is trying to hit and you bowl at 140 plus, then it becomes very difficult to hit through long-on and long-off. Morne Morkel is a tall bowler and because of the height, when he pitches the ball he gets a lot of bounce, which makes it very difficult for the batsmen to hit."
Quite clearly the bowling coach had performed a startling make over, one that filled all the gaps and transformed Delhi into a well rounded unit. The most important thing though was that the transformation was done keeping in mind the long term goals and was not performed as a quick fix solution. As the former Tamil Nadu player says, "we built this team for the present, as well as the future." That is a statement of intent, a statement that well and truly shows that Delhi mean business and plan to do it consistently over the years to come.