About the Book

A good coach can change a game but a great coach can change a life. Gurcharanji is that great coach. Shah Rukh Khan, who played under Gurcharanji at St Columba’s School, wanted to be a wicketkeeper but was afraid of getting hurt by the pacers. Once, when Gurcharanji reprimanded him for pulling back, Shah Rukh left the field, and never returned to Gurcharanji’s coaching session. Shah Rukh later became one of India’s top actors. Shah Rukh has, however, taken Gurcharan Singh’s name at different forums, acknowledging that he had trained under Sir. Principals of Sardar Patel, Airforce Bal Bharati and many other schools have called Gurcharanji, ‘Guru of Gurus’. Maninder Singh, Vivek Razdan, Kirti Azad are all his students, steeped in cricket as school boys. This is the life story of DRONACHARYA Gurcharan Singh, once India’s national coach, curator of the famed National Stadium Greens, coach to 11 test and more than a 100 first class cricketers whose 60 years of contribution to the game cannot be matched in world cricket lore. From a young boy who rose from the ashes of the 1947 partition, having lost his father and home in the horrible riots; this is a survivor’s tale who, at 85, is India’s most revered mentor. As Kapil Dev says, his life story ‘will be very educative’. In this book he also answers a dozen questions that plague Indian cricket, from match-fixing to IPL and has tips to give the new generation of players.

About the Author

Cricket historian and author Ramachandra Guha describes the roles played by coaches like Gurcharan Singh as: The contributions of these coaches to Indian cricket are both individual and institutional. Gurcharan Singh is perhaps among a vanishing tribe of cricket coaches who still quietly train hundreds of boys in the fine art of cricket – to swell the talent pool of Indian cricket. He has played no mean role in the spread of the game in Delhi and has an immense contribution to enriching the talent pool of cricket in North India. When Guchi Paaji sees sparks of talent in a boy, he goes out of his way to promote the boy, including change of school, so that the player can realise his full potential in a cricket-friendly environment.