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Stage set for the cricket coach

Although the captains retain lots of agency, the coach and the backroom will contribute far more than ever before to this process

India captain Virat Kohli, right, gives instructions next to India's Umesh Yadav during the one day cricket match between England and India at Lord's cricket ground in London
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Devangshu Datta
Team games tend to be driven by coaches, psychologists and back-room statisticians. American football is an extreme example. Squad formation and team selection are driven by statistics. The number-crunching indicates the best bang for the buck and the optimal team composition. The coach decides on strategy (again relying on stats), and calls every set-piece play. Basketball is similar. Football and hockey are more free-flowing but even there, strategy is coach-driven. Captains play symbolic roles.

Cricket is an outlier. This is partly because it is an unusual format, as a sequence of head-to-head set-pieces. Two persons are centre stage; the other
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