So Gary Kirsten is back in Capetown, feeling doubtlessly like a bride in a swayamwar fending off suitors of varying pedigree and searching for the right one. Kirsten was very good but he was brave too. He knew what he wanted and was willing to sacrifice opportunity for it. Not all of us have priorities that are as clear, not all of us are selfless enough. Maybe, that is why he made a good coach. We must wish him well and look for another.

But the position of India’s cricket coach is not an easy one to fill because we are a landscape of the most diverse cultures existing within one country. We can bewilder easily, we are too heterogenous to understand. We pass legislation in favour of the gay community and within us also reside people who murder their aunt on suspicion of being in a same sex relationship! We accept hunger and give in to hunger strikes. Our young players come from poor families and grow exceedingly rich in very little time. Understanding India isn’t easy and yet that must be a primary requirement for the coach of the Indian cricket team.

And so, whoever it is that is finally appointed, must be willing to embrace our culture; not loan himself to it but marry into it. For if he is unwilling to do that, he will not understand the young men who play the game, the administrators who run it, the media that covers it incessantly and the people of India who smile and cry, who deep within live and die with the sport. It is not about whether it is right or wrong, a coach cannot be judgemental about a culture, but about how it is.