False start for India coach Fletcher?

London: 'Duncan Fletcher's long term goal was to make England the No 1 Test team in the world. He has achieved that.' Among the many sardonic remarks posted on Twitter, that surely was one among the nasty ones on the India coach.

Next week, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is hosting 'everyone' responsible for the team's rise to No 1 Test position over a dinner. Now, one can see what is coming.

There could be comments that Fletcher too should be invited for the event, slated for the fifth day of this Test. For the record, Fletcher and former captain Nasser Hussain are credited to have planted the seeds of England's recovery from the depths of despair in 1999.

After the pounding from England, Fletcher will now have to plant the seeds of recovery for the Indian team as well, but the point is, will he have a free hand? More pertinently, will he get enough time? He spent seven years with the England team.

There has not been a formal discussion on Fletcher's performance among the powers that be of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as yet but the coach has not exactly received rave reviews. The initial feedback on him was positive but not extraordinary.

Fletcher earned good points from the tour of West Indies, his first assignment with the Indian team. He is deemed to be a good insightful coach who provides quality inputs to the players. One official said the information they received on him was that he is a good reader who is trying hard to gel well with the team.

It is believed that Fletcher is leaving no stone unturned to ensure there is no communication gap with the players. At 62, he may not enjoy the same wavelength with the young batch that Gary Kirsten, his predecessor, had. But then Kirsten is 42. He had even played against a few players of the side.

There is also difference in Fletcher's approach towards the players. Kirsten used to mix with the players cracking jokes and throwing balls at the nets and openly discussing points.

Fletcher appears more like an imperious football manager ' long coat, collars up, grave face etc. He is more of a conductor of the band rather than a part of it. Fletcher, however, has done well to avoid ego-clashes in the dressing room that Greg Chappell's tenure was known for.

One positive aspect of Fletcher has been that he managed to hit it off very well with skipper MS Dhoni and seniors like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. The captain and the players have openly praised the coach for his inputs.

'I think Duncan has done really well with us. Whatever time he had with us ' in the West Indies ' it was a different side and then here, a few players joined us. I think he did whatever he could to prepare us well,' Dhoni said of the coach.

At this stage, not many in the board are willing to blame the coach for the debacle in England. The heat is more on the selectors rather than on the coach. One official said there could be some sort of a review on the series in the first week of September but this piece of information could not be independently corroborated with informed officials.

Review or not, there will come soon an occasion, when Fletcher will have to do some answering to his bosses in the board. In his defence, he did not have time to plan for the series but a better showing in England would have put him in a more comfortable position to make his points.

He has not exactly created a great first impression but then he can sleep well that the first impressions, more often than not, are not exactly accurate.