‘Gautam Gambhir may be a manager and not a coach’, what did Kapil Dev say?

By Samira Vishwas On Dec 20, 2025

The former Indian opener has been facing a lot of criticism after the Men in Blue lost 0-2 in the Test series against South Africa at home last month. Gambhir’s coaching journey with the Indian team has not been easy. Under him, India has faced defeats in Test series against Australia, New Zealand and now the Proteas. In such a situation, Kapil suggested that the word ‘coach’ is often misunderstood in today’s cricket. According to the great cricketer, players get coaching when they are young.

Speaking at the Indian Chamber of Commerce ICC centenary session, Kapil said, “Today, this word called coach has become very common. Gautam Gambhir cannot be a coach. He can be a team manager. When you say coach, coach is the one where I learn in school and college. Those were the people, my coaches were there. They can manage me. When they have named someone, let’s say, a leg spinner, then how can you be a coach? Gautam is a leg spinner or How to be a wicket-keeper coach? I think it’s more important as a manager to tell them that you can do it because when you become a manager, the young boys look up to you.”

Kapil further said, “How can my manager or captain give me that rest and that’s the job of the manager and captain. To give rest to the team and always say ‘You can do better’. That’s how I look at it. I think people who are not playing well, you should console them. If someone has scored a century, I don’t want to have drinks and dinner with him. There are too many people out there. As a captain, I would like to have drinks with those people or those people. I would like to have dinner with people who are not performing well.”

He concluded, “You have to give them confidence and that’s what happens. So I think as a captain it is very important and your role is not just limited to your performance, it is also about keeping the team together.”