It's not a case of mollycoddling, though. Hussain and Duncan Fletcher were excellent at basically doing what most would call mollycoddling but not allowing it to come accross that way. Hussain also commented on how, under their influence, Caddick made far more effort and was perceived as a "team man" in every respect where he hadn't been earlier.
Yeah exactly. What Richard is essentially advocating goes beyond just treating him well but treating him more well than the others which is pretty de-stabilising to the team. Psychologically it doesn't promote good performances in the person who's being treated excessively well because it alwasy spirals towards the person demanding more attention with it becoming their motivation. Fawning over egos is what poor man-managers do.
It doesn't, really. If someone needs a bit more than some others, then you give them it IMO. Simple as that. The trick, as I said, is to do this without others thinking "he's getting the special treatment isn't he?"
As evidenced by the fact England beat everyone they faced when Caddick was in the side.
England beat most teams they faced during the 2 years in question. Only failure was South Africa in 1999/2000.
And anyway, as I've said hundreds of times - team-spirit isn't what earns victories, good players is. If your oppo is better than you, it doesn't matter how good your team-spirit is. This was emphatically the case with South Africa in the series in question. Don't judge a team's spirit by its results. It's highly unfair. Judge it by more reliable methods.
