Former India cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar on Thursday said that the performance of a team did not depend on the coach but on the players themselves.
"Coach cannot perform magic. He is not a magician. Performance depends on every team member," Gavaskar, one of the six members in the committee formed by the BCCI to appoint a coach for the Indian team, said.
Former Australian Test players Greg Chappell, Tom Moody, Mohinder Amarnath and Sandeep Patil have been shortlisted for the post left vacant by John Wright of New Zealand.
The selection panel was to interview the candidates on May 19 or 26.
On the outgoing coach, Gavaskar, participating in 8th anniversary celebrations of LG Electronic in Bhopal, said Wright was a "good man".
Stating that tour of West Indies in 2006 would be a shot in the arm for the Indian team, the cricket legend said the players would get opportunity to familiarise with the weather conditions, wicket and players, which would assist greatly in their World Cup campaign in 2007.
"The India-A team should also tour the country as some of players will get opportunity to play in the World Cup," he said.
Gavaskar, also a in the ICC panel to select the World XI squad for the Super Series against Australia later this year, said "we want to pitch the best team against Australia during the upcoming series".
"The world XI will have an edge over Australia XI in both forms of cricket - one-dayers and Test matches," he said.
Seven Indians feature in the 30-member initial squad which would be pruned to 20 in July and further trimmed to the final squad in August.
On row over suspect bowling action, Gavaskar said players like Harbhajan Singh, Mutaiah Murlidharan and Shoaib Akhtar came under the scanner because of variety of balls bowlers from the sub-continent are able to bowl.
Among other countries, only Shane Warne has the variety, he added.
On lack of consistent performance by Indian team, Gavaskar said teams like Australia play with a different temperament. There is a stiff competition among players to gain foothold in the team.
"They don't relax, unlike their Indian counterparts who tend to become complacent," he said.
He lashed out at the media for allegedly adopting double standards on Saurav Ganguly. "A month ago, the media wanted him (Sourav) out. Now the media is questioning his exclusion," he said, adding a bad patch comes in everybody's carreer.
Stating that Sachin Tendulkar's bad form was temporary, Gavaskar said the Indian team was however, playing under less pressure with players like Virendra Sehwag and Rahul Dravid among others, contributing well.
