|| CF DESK ||

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has advised the ECB's new managing director of men's cricket Rob Key to grow a "thick skin" to counter the "jealous people."

In an interview to UK’s ‘The Guardian’ newspaper, Shastri said that there was a “gang of people in India” who always wanted him to fail.

“I didn’t have coaching badges [either]. Level one? Level two? **** that. And in a country like India, there is always jealousy or a gang of people willing you to fail. I had a thick skin, thicker than the leather of the Dukes ball you use. A real solid hide,”

“And you need a bloody hide over here. Rob will develop this as he does the job, because every day you are judged. And I am glad he has a lot of captaincy experience from his time at Kent, because communication with the players is absolutely paramount,” Shastri was quoted.

From his own experience of working with the Indian team, Shastri felt that national teams across the cricketing world function in a pretty similar fashion.

"Rob may have more work with the domestic game but, when it comes to the national team, it is very similar. The most important thing is getting among the players and setting a tone from the outset: what you believe in, what you think of them and changing the mindset to compete and win,”

"You have to be bullish and brutish in wanting to achieve that. For us, and now England, it was about setting the challenge of winning abroad, big time. I was very firm when it came to team culture: all the prima donnas and all that sh**, that had to go out of the window early," he added.