Abu Dhabi: Former South Africa all-rounder Eric Simons, who was the bowling coach of the India team that lifted the World Cup in 2011 and is now assistant coach of the Delhi Daredevils, believes the Indian Premier League (IPL) has got big lessons for all players.
“One of the greatest lessons of the IPL is that it helps people to understand each other, understand the different cricketing and life cultures for everybody involved in the IPL. It has been a learning experience not only about cricket but also life, and that is one of the things that I really enjoy about [the] IPL,” he said.
Simons jokingly calls the build-up to the start of the IPL as the honeymoon period.
“This time is always an exciting period and we call it the honeymoon period, when everyone gets to know each other and are excited to be in a new team,” he said.
“When we got to the auction we devised a structure on what we wanted in terms of skills and we put names to those skills and we bid and made sure we’ve got left-arm seamers, right-arm seamers, off-spinners, leg-spinners and left-arm spinners. So we covered as many bases as possible.
“I am very happy with the auction — if we happen to lose someone to injury, we’ve got replacements. The balance is most important to us.”
Simons feels that a scenario where players come into the IPL after an intense battle in the recent Twenty20 World Cup is very good for the tournament as well as the players.
“I have noticed in the past that, whenever players come from a very tough Test series or T20 series where they have been under a lot of pressure, they hit the ground running. I feel the guys who have come from there [the T20 World Cup] and played tough matches are generally the better prepared ones and that is going to be very important for any team,” he said.
When asked about how much his experience as India’s bowling coach helps him in the IPL, Simons said: “My years as India’s bowling coach were tremendous years. That learning and understanding hopefully helps me in my role with the IPL team because our role as coaches is to bring different, diverse people together and form one team.
“One of my objectives is about understanding the different ways people think as it is crucial. So the Indian days were very important.”
