Sid Lahiri: Rajasthan Royals Cricket Academy's coach with an eye for talent

 By K.R. Nayar

Sid Lahiri, the Rajasthan Royals Head of Academy Cricket Development, has groomed some of the rising stars in England. This cricketer-turned coach’s journey, which began in Kolkata, is an inspiring one. He has groomed England’s rising Test star Ollie Pope and now works closely with some of the best players in the Rajasthan Royals' team such as Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, and Liam Livingstone. In his role as Head of Academy Cricket Development, he is set to create Rajasthan Royals cricket academies around the world.

Sid Lahiri

It was during the final of the Maxtalent Summer Cup Under-10 tournament on July 17, 2021, at Kent College, Dubai, that I met Sid Lahiri, who was the chief guest of the evening. What impressed me was his speech to the young cricketers where he said: “When we were all playing cricket at your age, we went out to bat to save our wicket.  Now we see that all of you go out to score runs, hit sixes and boundaries…. you have taken out the word fear from your lives.”

Lahiri is the Head of Academy Cricket Development of Rajasthan Royals Academy. As a journalist, one comes across many special people, and there are times you get curious to know more about them. I later learned that Lahiri is a cricketer-turned coach who has in him a special skill to spot and groom talent. He has groomed some of today’s most talented and future stars of the England team.

Sid Lahiri shaping youngsters from a young age

 
It was Lahiri who shaped Ollie Pope from the age of eight. Today 23-year-old Pope has already played 19 Test matches after his debut against India at Lord’s in 2018 and has gone on to crack an unbeaten 135 against South Africa in 2020. Some of the consistent performers in English county cricket such as Ryan Patel, Daniel Douthwaite, Amar Virdi, Alex Milton have all trained with him from a very young age. Twenty-four-year-old Douthwaite has been awarded a contract to play in the 100-ball cricket in England.

Some of the rising talents at the Rajasthan Royals Academy. Sid Lahiri is flanked by  Amar Virdi (left) and Ryan Patel

I met up with Lahiri on July 27, and on that day Ryan Patel cracked 131 for Surrey against Nottinghamshire. Off-spinner Amar Virdi is likely to make his debut for England very soon. In January 2021, 23-year-old Virdi was named a reserve player in England’s Test squad for their series against India. Twenty-four-year-old all-rounder Daniel Douthwaite, who plays for Glamorgan, and 25-year-old allrounder Alex Milton of Worcestershire are all catching headlines.

After playing professional cricket in Kolkata for some of the top clubs in the city, Lahiri moved to England and went on to become one of the most respected coaches there. Lahiri’s rise is a tale of determination and hard work. “After coming to England, I used to distribute newspapers and also worked as a groundsman in order to chase my dream of becoming a coach. I started off with Parkside School in Cobham, Surrey, as a groundsman and went on to acquire my England and Wales Cricket Boards (ECB) Level 1, 2, and 3 coaching qualification.  I took up cricket coaching at Parkside School where I shaped many of England’s present talented county players from the age of eight, readying them all the way through. Soon I launched the Star Cricket Academy and became its Director and Head Coach, and at times played cricket too.”

Incidentally, while playing for a club side, Lahiri once hit a century against an Australian visiting side that had Jason Gillespie as one of their bowlers. “I was an opener and had scored heavily in Kolkata, but my aim was to become a coach who can nurture talent. In September 2018, Rajasthan Royals showed keen interest in brand partnership with Star Cricket Academy. We moved from Parkside School to Reeds School and in January 2019 signed the brand partnering with Rajasthan Royals. Shane Warne inaugurated the academy on February 2019 at Reeds School, and thereafter Star Cricket Academy came to be known as Rajasthan Royals Academy. I am immensely thankful to Manoj Badale, who is the owner of Rajasthan Royals, and the management of Rajasthan Royals such as the CEO, Jake Lush McCrum, Chairman, Ranjit Barthakur, and Technical Director, Zubin Bharucha. They saw potential in my academy and hence that brand partnership took place.”

Sid Lahiri with the legendary Shane Warne who inaugurated the Rajasthan Royals Academy 

Expressing his delight over the growth of Rajasthan Royals Academy, Lahiri said: “We are possibly one of the biggest academies that function 365 days. We are not an elitist academy. We have a huge influx of the next talented brand of exciting cricketers coming through – both boys and girls. As we speak, we have three kids Krish Patel, Aryaman Varma, and Amok Karthe, who are in the Under-15 Bunbury London East Squads. We have a huge representation of kids coming in who are in the Surrey, Middlesex, Sussex and Hampshire county age groups. It is ‘cricket for all’ in our academy. We now have eight coaches, all of whom are Level-2 and Level-3 coaches, and they have all been with me for nearly nine years. The next breed of junior-level cricketers will be  coming through from our academy.”

Lahiri is now working towards setting up Rajasthan Royals Academy in different parts of the world. “As Head of Academy Development all over the world, we are looking to start another six or seven more academies in England and part of the reason is the huge success of this academy that is running there and we really want to really push that and create a difference not only to our brand but also to English cricket. We also have a lot of England representation among our overseas players in the Royals team in the likes of Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Liam Livingstone, etc. We are already in the UAE at the Sevens cricket ground with some very good coaches which include ex- Zimbabwe cricketer Graeme Cremer. We are also planning to open our academies in India and the USA, and we want to take this Royals way of coaching to different parts of the world. I am also actively involved with the Institute of Sports in a remote village called Talegaon, India. That was the brainchild of Zubin Bharucha, along with Romi Bhinder, and Neeta Adhau, a psychologist. We have a very big school there with many tribal children.”

Sid Lahiri with the legendary Kumar Sangakkara 

Lahiri looks forward to connecting with like-minded coaches in the UAE and has hence interacted with Maxtalent Cricket Academy Head Coach Sudhakar Shetty. “I came in contact with Sudhakar Shetty nearly 12 years ago. By that time, Maxtalent was a well-recognized and fully established academy in Dubai, and I was trying to find my feet in the UK. We needed some partnerships abroad. We did a lot of cross-over work where boys from India and boys from my academy in the UK came over to Dubai and Maxtalent organized our matches and training. That relationship became regular and Maxtalent too came regularly to the UK and is now our partner. I greatly admire Sudhakar bhai’s commitment and energy, and the time he devotes to grass-root level cricket in Dubai is exceptional. The man is always on his feet…hugely passionate and energetic.”

Lahiri believes that learning never stops, be it for a coach or a student. “We underestimate the role of coaches and teachers in our society and in our lives. It is we people who can actually make a change to society. The impact a teacher can have in one’s life is tremendous. So the mantra for coaching is patience. You need to be like a child with the child, but yet understand your boundaries so you don’t lose respect.”

Lahiri also believes that a coach must be neutral. “The worst thing for a coach is to have favourites. As humans, it is natural to be more fond of your best student, but other students too must get those positive vibes from the coach and go home satisfied every day.”

Sid Lahiri with Ben Stokes and Trevor Penny  

One of Lahiri’s observations of a coach was impressive. “As coaches, one should not be critical once a player gets out or fails. What we want is for the players to learn from their mistakes. No player wants to get out or perform badly. So once you get out or have bowled a bad over or have had a bad game, it is over. Being upset with that child does not get you anywhere. What we need to do, especially at the grass-root level, is to have an understanding of whether the player is getting the message or not. At the end of the day, the player is one who will be going out to play. I see many coaches standing outside the boundary and directing players during a match. It is not advisable to do that because by giving directions and changing the field settings, that coach may get his team to win that match, but effectively the players would not have learned anything. In the process they get dependent on information coming from outside and the coach is not facilitating improvement. As coaches, one must realise that it is not all about winning or losing especially when you are trying to work with younger cricketers. It is very much important that the ownership is on them, they understand and discuss their strategies. Coaches know that every student will not go on to be next superstar. It is more about learning the game, ensuring they are ready to face competition, and understand that winning and losing is part of that competition. And the more they play the game, the better their realization, irrespective of the level of cricket they play. Some of them may never play professional cricket, but they will still play cricket and that is what you want for the future of the game and for more participation as well as progress towards the elite level.”