The unassuming Adrian Le Roux, seen as a vital ingredient in India's cricketing resurgence, may have spent just one year with the team, but in the short span he developed a special bond with the players, a fact reflected in the bundle of fond memories the team now cherishes.
A disciplinarian to the core, Le Roux managed to develop a close rapport with the players, and they have no hesitation in acknowledging his role in raising their fitness level.
"He worked magic for the team. He played such an important role and improved the fitness level beyond recognition," said ace off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, as he prepared to leave for England to play county cricket for Lancashire.
Other members of the team, including captain Sourav Ganguly, had similar words of praise for the Indian trainer, who decided to take up the job of fitness trainer with the South African national team last week.
Le Roux, who joined the team in April 2002, introduced innovative methods to train the players. A hitherto uncommon scene of cricketers warming-up with a game of volleyball before practice had become quite a routine during his tenure.
His strict training regime saw the fitness level of the players improve considerably and it reflected in their performance. The hard-task-master that he was, the South African did not spare anybody, a fact revealed by captain Ganguly himself.
"I remember a side game in the West Indies last year. We were playing a first class game at St Lucia and Sachin (Tendulkar) and I opted out of that game.
"Le Roux then made us run almost the entire island. We could only curse ourselves, as playing the match would have been a far easier option," Ganguly had said before Le Roux's decision to shift to South Africa.
"You only have to look at how lean most of us -- Sachin, Anil (Kumble), Zaheer (Khan), Veeru (Virender Sehwag) -- became during Adrian's tenure. Also, how significantly our muscle content improved," he added.
Le Roux kept a strict, personal watch on the cricketers, monitoring their diet and fitness charts, though there were occasions when he asked them to take it easy, as was the case in England last summer when he forced Dinesh Mongia and Mohammad Kaif to take a free day as they had been pushing themselves too hard.
Left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra is proud of the fact that he went through the entire last season without missing a single Test or one-day international match.
"I hardly missed a game for full one year, starting with the tour to West Indies in April last year and it was largely due to the efforts of Le Roux," said Nehra, who is now in London, going through a rehabilitation schedule after undergoing surgery on his left ankle last month.
How much Nehra's fragile frame had turned for better was apparent during the World Cup, when the left-armer ignored the pain barrier in his left ankle and wrecked England with a six-wicket haul in a league game.
Zaheer Khan was similarly effusive in his praise of Le Roux when India defeated England by an innings at Leeds. In the match, the left-armer bowled for three days at a stretch without a drop in pace.
"Zaheer was bowling faster on the last day than he had done on two previous days -- regularly touching 90 kmph," said Ganguly then.
So remarkable was the influence exerted by Le Roux that towards the last few months of his association with the Indian team, stocky cricketers like Sehwag came to be regarded as one of the fittest in the team.
Having developed a close bond with Le Roux, the players are now a trifle worried as they fear the new trainer would have to start all over again.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has asked coach John Wright to suggest a "suitable" new trainer for the team for the season ahead and the New Zealander, who has also gelled well with the players, will be keen to rope in a trainer who has a similar style so that the players do not need to adjust much.
Since India has no international engagements till October, when New Zealand play a home series, the BCCI has time to find the right man.
