India, Sept. 21 -- Indian cricket fans of the 2000s revelled watching the scoresheet go caught Parthiv Patel bowled Zaheer Khan. Or c Dinesh Karthik b Ashish Nehra. Or stumped MS Dhoni b Yuvraj Singh. Empowered to dream, fuelled by Sourav Ganguly's fire; under Dhoni, India turned those dreams into reality.

Now, Indian cricket's entire class of 2000s are guiding forces to Gen Next. Zaheer's announcement as Chennai Super Kings head coach on Monday only extends the trend.

The general direction behind the move is refreshing. For long, the Indian Premier League had become accustomed to having overseas head coaches. Not always by virtue of being the best cricket brains, but because Indian coaches were considered lesser man managers. It's chan...