Prasad calls for 'patience and trust' in team

Venkatesh Prasad, the coach of Bangalore Royal Challengers, has asked for patience and trust in those who are managing the team after the Indian Premier League's second-richest franchise sacked its chief executive following a string of poor performances in the inaugural season of the Twenty20 tournament.

Terming Charu Sharma's dismissal as "unfortunate", Prasad feared it could send the wrong signal. "It was the management's decision to sack him," Prasad told Cricinfo. "Having known him, he is a fantastic individual. But it was unfortunate and it could send a wrong signal to the individuals.

"The hire and fire policy might work in the corporate world, probably," Prasad said. "But we are building a team which came together two days before the tournament. So what is very important is to have a lot of faith in the team and build the trust and faith factor. You need to show patience and trust the people who are managing the team."

Asked about pressure from the franchise on the team, he said, "I understand the franchise has put in loads of money and for them what is important is the performance, the outcome basically. You can't do anything when performance is the key and so much is at stake."

Prasad also said that though he was the designated coach of the team, he effectively "started handling the duties of the bowling coach as Martin Crowe, the Chief Cricket Officer, and Rahul (Dravid, the captain) handle the team selections and all the other duties". He revealed that he had briefly thought about resigning from the job following media reports that the franchise wanted to sack him too.

On Tuesday, the Bangalore franchise replaced Sharma with Brijesh Patel, the secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), which runs the game in the team's home city. A Royal Challengers spokesperson said that the CEO had stepped down due to personal reasons, but Sharma said that he was dismissed by the franchise, which is owned by Vijay Mallya, the chairman of United Spirits Limited. Mallya later clarified that he had complete confidence in Prasad, the "bowling coach" and the team.

"There was confusion in terms of my role and how to define it," Prasad, the India bowling coach, said. "But both Rahul and Martin have supported me throughout. My job was more about making sure specific strategies were being worked out during the net sessions while they took care of the overall running of the team."

Prasad said that he was upset over the media reports which suggested that he was being sacked, too.

"The thought (of resigning) did cross my mind when the rumours surfaced. But I didn't want to take a decision in haste. I did chat with Rahul and the support he and the team showed in me was tremendous," Prasad said. "I was angry as the fingers were pointed towards my commitment and integrity which I'd built over a period of a time. And now suddenly I was in the middle of this. As I said, there is a lot of money at stake but for me what matters more than the monetary aspect is being committed and organised. And as far as I'm concerned, I do it to the best of my ability."

Prasad, a former India swing bowler, admitted that it was "extraordinary" that the Challengers have not been able to get their act together in the tournament - the team lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by five runs on Thursday and is at the bottom of the table with just two wins from eight games.

"With the players we have, we don't belong to the bottom of the table," Prasad said. "In fact, we should be in the first two for sure. It's extraordinary that we are not getting our act together as a team, even if there have been a few individual performances which doesn't help much in a team game. We need to get our act together. Our bowlers have done well and we have one of the best bowling units in the IPL with five international bowlers."

The Royal Challengers will take on Kings XI Punjab in Mohali on Monday.