Sid Lahiri: A journey from Kolkata maidan to Royals' global coaching role

The name of Siddhartha Lahiri as one of the assistant coaches of Birmingham Phoenix for the upcoming The Hundred franchise league in England may strike as little unfamiliar in the company of a Shane Bond or James Foster. However, dig in a little and one would find that the 55-year-old from Kolkata boasts of a distinguished coaching CV where it’s just another feather in his cap.

‘’It’s been a dream story for me. I am extremely thankful to the Rajasthan Royals management to let me make a foray into The Hundred—an unique tournament in more sense than one,’’ remarked Sid Lahiri, as he is referred to by his players and colleagues. No prizes for guessing that Phoenix, based in Edgbaston, is one of the four franchises acquired by owners of IPL franchises this year in a move which would raise the profile of the men and women’s franchise league conducted by England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

While The Hundred does not have any Indian men’s player as per the BCCI mandate of not allowing them to turn out in overseas leagues (unlike the Smriti Mandhanas & Deepti Sharmas)—Lahiri, along with Dinesh Karthik and Hemang Badani are the handful of Indians who will be sitting with the teams in the dugout. Speaking to National Herald over phone, the globetrotting coach gets candid as to why he is a rather unique case: ‘’While the likes of DK and Hemang are established international stars who graduated to coaching, I bring more than 20 years of coaching experience with me from my days of Star Academy in Surrey. The journey from a club cricketer in the Kolkata maidan to fitting into a global role for the Royals has been a hugely rewarding one,’’ remarked Lahiri, one of the proteges of the late Gopal Bose, a former Bengal captain and hailed as one of the finest openers who didn’t get his due in India colours.

Lahiri is currently the Head of Academies of the Royals group, which boasts of a well structured set-up with two new additions in Dubai and Melbourne late last year. The first overseas one in the family was when Lahiri’s Star Academy came under it’s umbrella in 2018, followed by two in the US (Washington & New Jersey); Jaipur, Pune and their Centre of Excellence in Nagpur which is famous for honing the skills of the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel and the teen sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi.

Widely regarded as someone whose strength is working with grassroots talents, the Royals management has entrusted Lahiri with high profile roles like being the performance coach in the IPL, batting coach with Paarl Royals in SA T20, Barbados Royals in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and the upcoming one with Birmingham Phoenix. The job of handling the stars, he admits, is a different cup of tea from grooming youngsters as well as the coaches for making them aware of the best practice.

‘’Yes, I have been a part of the system in IPL for five years. However, the Royals academy is not just an avenue to groom the next Jaiswa—rather it’s all about having an eye to spot the next budding talent. If we can’t do that, we can’t produce champions,’’ said Lahiri.

Looking back at his formative years, he felt that it takes a ‘mad man or woman’ to be a good coach—irrespective of the sporting discipline. ‘’I would like to relate a story here when as youngsters, some of us trained at the Dakshin Kalikata Samsad in south Kolkata under Gopal da. His son, then an aspiring cricketer, was also a part of our group and it was during the Durga Puja—when nothing moves in the city—he had scheduled our practice for both morning and afternoon on a Saptami day. First, we couldn’t believe our ears but then Gopal da was nonchalant,’’ he recalled.

While the coaching roles with Royals’ co-owned global franchises gives him the recognition, Lahiri’s prime passion is to innovate and develop uniform coaching templates for all their academies. Speaking about his new project in Dubai, where the Royals have adopted the well known Maxtalent Academy under their umbrella, Lahiri said: ‘’Sudhakar Shetty, with whom we have joined hands, has decades of experience of working with the children of the Indian diaspora and develop them. We will try to do our best to ensure that the project stands the test of time.’’

Lahiri has been the brain behind putting together Royals Hub, an online course for the aspiring cricket coaches. When pointed out that in the past, a number of ambitious coaching projects of several big names had failed to take off in Dubai, Lahiri said he was aware of it: ‘’See, the challenge is to find the right people as ultimately it’s the local coaches who will execute. The Royals online course is also a step in that direction,’’ he signed off.