On Saturday, former South African skipper Gary Kirsten applauds Duncan Fletcher for his role as head coach of Indian during his stay. Handling a transition phase for any successful unit is a challenge in itself and that’s why the Indian cricket team’s most successful former head coach, Gary Kirsten, feels that Duncan Fletcher played a “huge role” during his four-year tenure, which has now become a footnote.

Duncan Fletcher took over from Kirsten after India’s 2011 World Cup triumph and in the next four years saw doyens of Indian cricket such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan walk into the sunset.

“I really think that former head coach of India Duncan Fletcher and MS Dhoni played a huge role in creating an environment for young players to thrive. This has really helped younger players to deal with the trials and tribulations of international competition,” Kirsten words

Statistics are normally the yardstick to judge on-field or coaching performances and Kirsten feels often a lot of intangibles are not taken into account. “We as coaches often take more pleasure out of watching individuals thrive under one’s leadership,” Gary Kirsten was replying to a question about not being able to replicate his success as international coach in the franchise cricket.