Venkatesh Prasad prefers back seat

If you can forget the brawl against Aamer Sohail duringthe 1996 World Cup, Venkatesh Prasad can best be described as a low-profile man.Tall, lanky and with virtually no airs, he was more than happy to grant thespotlight to his pace partner Javagal Srinath during his playing days. Even asIndia's bowling coach, he prefers to stay behind and quietly do the hard work."I didn't do anything special," he told, shortly after the bowlers' amazingturnaround in the Lord's Test. "I just told them that this is England. You don'tneed to do anything extra here, just bowl to your strengths," he explained.Following the Trent Bridge victory too, he was quick to creditSachin Tendulkar with the plan of attacking Vaughan from around the wicket."Sachin made the suggestion to Zaheer after noting that Vaughan was not toocomfortable against the left-arm pacers. But RP, who also adopted the same line,picked it up on his own," he explained.For some time on the fourth day, it looked like Sree Santhhad lost it. The temperamental fast bowler was clearly struggling with hisrun-up and slowly but surely losing his cool too. He barged into Vaughan,slipped in a beamer at Pietersen, over-stepped the crease almost by afoot-and-a-half and on at least once occasion stopped in his tracks whilebowling. In the end, he was even penalized half of his match fee.But all that didn't seem to bother him. He was happily posing for photographs,signing autographs and enjoying himself after India posted the victory. For amoment, one thought he was the architect of the win. But then, suddenly, he sawRavi Shastri and became very grim. Even as the former India captainwas getting ready for the final shoot, Sree Santh came up to him and said, "I amsorry, Sir." For a moment, Shastri didn't understand. Then he remembered: "Oh, Ihad given him a blasting for the way he behaved yesterday. He was apologizingfor that." In a minute, turning smugly towards Sree, he said: "I will have along chat with you later." Sree Santh clearly needs it.The Indian team may or may not have become better at playingthe game since a foreign coach first stepped into its terrain, but it has becomevery good at playing with words. Wittingly or not, it has come up with onecatchy phrase after another to motivate itself in important series. "Now ornever" was John Wright's call in the 2003 World Cup; Greg Chappell too came upwith his own lines. Chandu Borde, our own man, is never one to beleft behind. He is the inspiration behind the big phrase for this important tourin England: "We will win." He told a TV channel that the theme came up during ateam meeting before the second Test. "I simply told the boys we must win. Soon,it became the motto. We had pinned it up in the dressing room," he added.