Former Indian Cricket Coach Gary Kirsten Dons New Role As An Educator And Coach For Kids To Succeed In Life News24 –
Lakshmana Venkat Kuchi/Aditya Mallick
Former Indian cricket team coach, Gary Kristen, who helped Dhoni’s boys with the 2011 World Cup, has taken guard for a new innings on a different pitch, along with his long-time partner and fellow South African all-rounder Russel Symcox — selling luxury villas in Goa.
His sojourn into real estate for the first time in his public life and career spanning three decades with his constant support system in Russel, is a prize catch for the promoters of this venture — Cricket Front Villas — as they promise a luxurious living with the globally best education and sporting facilities. And it is not just sports.
The announcement of Gary Kirsten as the key strategic partner for Yugen Infra’s sports – Luxury Villas at a premium was made on Friday by the real estate developers top officials on Wednesday.
Located conveniently near Goa’s MOPA international airport the residential complex will not only house cricket coaching facilities run by the South African pair of Kirsten and Symcox – Gary and Russel — but also global standard Golf courses and as well as facilities for all sports disciplines. And more important the partnership will be seen in a global standards school to be part of the first project that Gary himself is personally staking his stature, reputation and leadership abilities to “bring about a holistic development of the children as the main motive.”
“Partnering with Gary Kirsten is more than a business move. It’s a celebration of India’s cricketing soul. These villas symbolise a dream, where the spirit of the game lives in every breath and breeze, said Sheeshram Yadav, Managing Director of Yugen Infra.
Gary himself told News24 that his endeavour would be to bring about the South African models in achieving excellence in sports and in fact the stress will be on all-round development of the individual child, as he goes about establishing the facilities and modules for training students, not just in cricket but all sports.
Gary and Russel showed why they were a dependable pair in South African cricket and even much later after they left the playing field, so to speak, in their togetherness and complimenting one another in fielding the question thrown at them during the fireside chat where the Cricket Villas project was announced.
Responding to a question, Gary and Russel said in tandem, that “there’s so many wonderful parallels in life lessons, business life lessons from sport. So if we all, no matter what level in corporate society, we operate, and we all are fans, and we’re all fanatical about our sport, so to use those lessons that we learn and the context through sport, and apply those to business, to education, to anything. Which is why all the principles and practices that proved valuable in sports will be taken to the classrooms.
Gary reiterated that he was passionate about education. “We are rooted in education. We really do. We believe in it. Be passionate about it. We want people to succeed in life. And to do that, we’ve got to provide the education in schools that prepares them for life up ahead, in all spheres and not just in sports. “We will strive to achieve that balance between academics and sports,” Gary said, promptly endorsed by his running mate, Russel.
“There is an appetite to try and integrate sport into the school environment. So, sport is looked at as part of your educational day. You don’t leave school at the end of your classes. You go into your extramural activities within the school, every kid’s playing in some sort of a team, and they’re playing in the school league that goes until the event. So sport is a very important component of a child’s education in South Africa, and there seems to be an appetite to grow that in India. So we’re very excited to be part of that journey as well,” Russel said.
Both Gary and Russel sounded very confident that this unusual outing of theirs on an entirely different field would be a success. “Very confident!” Was the two word answer from Gary and promptly elaborated by Russel, “I’m excited by this journey and to be part of a very strong team of people who have put a lot of effort into this project. So you made a great point earlier, which for me is sport, why sport is such an important part of education, as well as certainly, cricket, for me, has been a way of life. It’s taught me a lot about how to actually just live every day,” he said.
Gary piped in with his cricket coaching perspective, “We know in cricket, if you decide that you want to become a professional batsman, it’s a perilous career to go into, because your success is determined by how many runs you score every day. In sports, you are learning to deal with disappointment, adversity, failure, a lot in your career.
“I think that was one of the great things that sport taught me in my life as a human being. So there’s a great integration between the development of children through sport and how important it is to them actually going on and doing very well for themselves in life,” Gary said, explaining the need for inculcating a strong sports culture among children.
Russel, again piped in with his take on sports and team spirit, so essential in life for success. “I think in sport and in life, we all need teams. We need people around us. We need communities. And I think sport teaches you that it’s a wonderful lesson that anyone who’s been involved in the sport, whether it be a team sport or an individual sport, we look longer than the size of the teams for individual sports, or in your golfing environment, there’s a there’s a big team that puts these together,” he said sounding excited about the new pitch he has taken a fresh guard.
Do the children coming from super privileged backgrounds have hunger in them to work hard and succeed in the sporting arena, a key company official pointed out that Gary had to coach a team that comprised superstars and demigods, and they too worked hard. And result is there for everyone to see.
“For me that it all centers around the quality of the leadership. So if you put the right leaders in place, you’ll keep their feet firmly on the ground, and you will also highlight to them the importance of the effort that they need to put in to continue their development.
“Talent counts for nothing without hard work, dedication, commitment and sacrifice. I actually get far more excited by less talented players who show incredible discipline and sacrificing commitment in whatever walk of life they are, because generally those are the ones that ask their longest Yeah, an important component to that. But certainly if I can add any influence or value into that space, the appointment of the right coaches and leaders within this environment is crucial,” Gary said revealing his template to be for training children to be good at both sports and education.
All through the interaction during an insightful Fireside Chat entered around building Tomorrow’s Champions, both in the field and in the classroom.
Among those present and participating in the conversations were Aakash Chaudhry, Founder and Managing Director of Sparkl Edventure, and eminent educationists, like Prof Harish Chaudhry from the Department of Management Studies of IIT Delhi, school leaders from DPS Society, representatives from GD Goenka, and Heritage Group of Schools, all doing their bit for sports excellence and transformative education.