Shailaja Jain hopes to coach the Indian team one day, but on Friday she made history with another tricolour. The Iranian women’s team she coached claimed their first Asian Games gold, beating India 27-24 in a tense final. It is also the first time neither India’s men nor women have returned with gold.Jain has been working with the Iran women’s team on and off for 18 months. “In actual time, I got only seven months with them,” Jain said. “But these girls play a lot of different sports: rugby, football, martial arts. So their fitness levels are better than Indian players, and they pick up technique faster.”Jain has been involved with kabaddi for nearly two decades. Raised in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district, her mother played kabaddi, and the young Jain picked it up. It was also how she met her husband - he saw her photo in a magazine, and was impressed by a young woman from the Jain community being a sportsperson.After getting married in 1980, she spent a year at NIS, Patiala studying coaching. “There were many struggles. My husband did not earn much at the time, but my father-in-law would send me money orders while I was there.”The education earned her a job with the Maharashtra government as a coach in Nashik. When an offer came along to head a month-long camp in Ichalkaranji, Jain left her nine-month old breastfeeding daughter in the care of family and took it up.After years of churning out quality players in Nashik, she was approached by Iran to head their women’s team in 2008, but declined as it would mean quitting her job for a thin paycheck. But when she retired in 2014, they asked her again in 2016. This time, the 61-year old accepted. “I went for a month at first, but as soon as I came back I got a call from them, offering a longer contract. Within seven days, I was back in Iran,” she said.Jain’s first order of business was polishing techniques. “I taught them how to fall back after grabbing the ankle, not fall towards the mid-line. If you’re going for the thigh, how not to move the back leg in front.”The players weren’t the only ones adjusting - Jain is a vegetarian, and struggled with the food there, and wore a dupatta around her head while outdoors. Even courtside in Jakarta she wore a cap despite being indoors.But she was given full control by the federation in matters of selection - a WhatsApp group with 42 players to begin with was whittled down to 12. They were then put through training in swimming pools, on beaches, and made use of the salt therapy available there to help in recovery. And the results are there to see.Jain is not the only Indian coaching a foreign team to success at Jakarta. The South Korea men’s team who handed the Indians their first ever Asian Games defeat is coached by Ashan Kumar, who coaches one of the teams in the Pro Kabaddi League. The league itself has been a big contributing factor in the globalisation of the sport. Most Indian viewers would have recognised Korea’s Jang Kun Lee and the two Iranians who were central to India’s semifinal loss, Fazel Atrachali and Abozar Mighani.Cricket’s IPL and Women’s Big Bash League have shown how glitzy leagues can raise global standards. But all the glitz cannot hide the fact that India’s kabaddi federation is just as plagued by nepotism and corruption as others. A sample: The Indian teams will have to play trial matches after they return from Jakarta due to a court ruling in a case that has challenged the merit of the players selected.Meanwhile, more and more countries may opt for Indian coaches and this is good for the bigger picture of the sport, which dreams of Olympic inclusion. Jain put it best, “I love my country India, but I also love kabaddi.”(The writer is former India cricketer)