The inaugural edition of the European T20 Premier League (ETPL) hasn’t gone according to plan for the Dublin Guardians, led by Ravichandran Ashwin. The franchise, owned by Rahul Dravid and coached by Vikram Rathour, finds itself in the second-to-last position with just one win from six games. However, the latest T20 tournament on the circuit goes way beyond victories and defeats, as the main objective is to promote the game in European countries like Ireland and the Netherlands.
Players from the associate nations are getting the chance to rub shoulders with some of the biggest names, such as Ashwin, Glenn Maxwell, Daryl Mitchell and Devon Conway, and this fact is worth its weight in gold. The ETPL also has current and former players as owners, including Dravid, who is in charge of the Dublin franchise, and Maxwell, who co-owns the Belfast Wolves. Steve Waugh, Matthew Hayden, Faf du Plessis, Jonty Rhodes, and Heinrich Klaasen are also involved, making the tournament truly unique.
But how is Dravid, the former India batter and head coach, as an owner? Does he have an active say in picking teams, or is he more of a hands-off guy? Well, according to Dublin Guardians head coach Rathour, the legendary Indian batter is behaving like an “owner” and doesn’t have much involvement in picking teams or devising strategies for opposition teams.
“Rahul is behaving like an owner. I mean, he hasn’t been too involved. So, it’s been good. But I mean, as I said earlier, it is great to have somebody like him on the other side, because he spent enough time being a coach. So, he understands how the teams can go and how the results can go. So, he’s been very supportive through the initial phase of this tournament, where we haven’t won anything. We didn’t win any, no games out of the first five that we played. But he was, he has been very supportive,” said Rathour while replying to a Hindustan Times Digital query during a media interaction.
“He’s been really good, which you expect from somebody like Rahul anyway,” he added.
‘Surprised’
Answering the same question, Rathour added that his job as a coach has been made easy by having someone like Ashwin on board, as the former India spinner knows about players from all around the world.
The former India batting coach added that Ashwin has been a good sounding board and the duo have been bouncing ideas off each other.
“As far as Ashwin is concerned, obviously, he has great knowledge of cricket, of cricketers. He’s basically almost a cricket fanatic, I call him. He watches so much cricket, and he has so much knowledge of players from all around the world. That is like phenomenal,” said Rathour.
“It surprises you, actually, at times, how much he knows about these conditions and these players. So, again, a great help to have somebody like him around. Because, like I said earlier, my time has been spent in Indian cricket mostly. So, for me, it was something very new and very different. But having somebody like Ashwin around has really helped,” he added.
Speaking of the ETPL, Ashwin is not the only Indian cricketer involved as Ajinkya Rahane and Vijay Shankar are also part of different teams in the competition. The T20 league started on August 26 and the final is scheduled for September 20.
