Rajput hopes for another stint with Indian team

Lalchand Rajput, who was part of the Indian thinktank till recently, is disappointed that the BCCI did not engage him for a long-term contract but hoped Gary Kirsten, the new coach, would take the team to the next level.

"The team has performed well in the hard tours like Australia and now we have set the platform," Rajput told Cricinfo. "Kirsten's challenge is now to take the team to the next level."

Rajput, who worked as coach from the ICC World Twenty20 till the Australia tour, said Kirsten has begun well by acquainting himself with the team before he actually took over in Chennai this week for the South Africa series. "[Now] he needs to set both long-term and short-term goals to work out his plans," Rajput said.

With Kirsten firm on assembling his own bench, Rajput lost the assistant coach's seat to Paddy Upton, who brings extra dimensions to the job as mental conditioning coach and trainer. "Once the coach comes into play, it's his decision," Rajput said. "Along with a bowling coach he [Kirsten] also has Paddy Upton as trainer-cum-assistant then it might be difficult to fit me in.

Asked about his stint with the Indian team, Rajput said one of his key contributions was in the area of man-management, especially during the controversial period after the Perth Test when seniors like Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were dropped for the subsequent CB Series.

"It was a critical moment in the [Test] series when the team was announced in the immediate aftermath of the Test victory in Perth. Again it was man-management, and I went to Sourav who was disappointed at having been dropped. I told him there's lot of cricket ahead in the season and that he should be hopeful and can come back as he'd done very well at home in 2007."

Crucial moments like those where he had understood his role make him hopeful, Rajput said. For the moment, though, his focus on the IPL where he is the coach of the Mumbai Indians. "I'm a very positive person. For now I'll be concentrating on the IPL with the Mumbai team. Then we just have to wait and see."