da aposte e ganhe： I have just finished a stint of coaching the Australian CricketBoard’s junior players at Chennai for the second year in a row
EAS Prasanna25-Apr-2001I have just finished a stint of coaching the Australian CricketBoard’s junior players at Chennai for the second year in a row. Thishas become an annual feature for the ACB to expose their Academy wardsto some expert guidance. One has to experience it to believe theforward planning of Australian cricket.Before I touch upon how the coaching went off, I must say the IndianBoard has shown tremendous imagination under the present BoardPresident AC Muthiah and Raj Singh the Chairman of the NationalCricket Academy. These two administrators have extended the wings ofthe NCA by having zonal centres. This is an excellent move. The fivezonal academies will now give mofussil players in their respectiveregions access to quality infrastructure. Cricket as we all know isthe most popular game in this country. Most parents these days wanttheir sons and daughters to don the Indian colours and the sight atvarious cricket camps is actual proof of that.I was lucky enough to be involved with the NCA last summer as aconsultant. The Board’s step of setting up the Academy is an openplatform for aspirants and the results of the effort are there foreveryone to see, with five trainees taking part against Australia inthe recent series. I have noticed that the NCA has a plan based on theACB’s own Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy which means it is not toofar fetched a dream that the Indian team will be as successful as theAussies in the near future.Here I must mention my experiences of interacting with the juniorAustralians who went through a camp for two weeks under Bishen and me.They had been briefed well about their visit to Chennai. They weretold about whom they would be interacting with and the respect thatcoaches enjoy in cricketing circles here. Above all they had read manyarticles by Australian as well as English critics. Theirinquisitiveness was amazing. They didn’t have any inhibitions aboutthe type of question they asked. At times it looked ridiculous butthey were not shy. They wanted to learn and had realised the ACB hadinvested on them so that in a year or two they would be playing forAustralia.To quote an example we advised one of the left arm spinners to bowlround the wicket to a right hander to get the advantage of the balldrifting in and leaving the bat. The boys realised the advantage butto get the doubt cleared they asked me, “Do you go round to a lefthanded batsman”? Even though I was foxed for a couple of seconds Iappreciated their logic but told them that unless the off spinner cantake the ball across the stumps, the lefthander will get the ball awaywith the meat of his bat. Also by going over the wicket to alefthander I can make use of the batsman’s blind spot when his eye,elbow and the pitch of the ball are all in line. That’s why I alwayspreferred to bowl over the wicket even to a lefthander. However if thewicket is responsive and the ball is turning I would put in a requestto bowl round the stumps. This illustration is only to show how keentheir interaction was. On the other hand I find the Indian boys morereserved and whenever I stood next to an off spinner at the nets theywouldn’t even like to talk to us. The same sort of initiative to learnis not there on our side.When the youngsters have been provided such a fine platform, theirprogress depends on how effectively they interact with the coaches andmake use of the available expertise. If they are not convinced on anypoint they must request coaches to demonstrate what they say. The boysmust put their heart and soul into the effort to graduate as confidentand thinking cricketers. The Board is doing everything to upgrade theprofile of this glorious game all over the country so that it willcontinue to thrive and throw up many competitive players. We are allhere to learn more and give back something to this game. After all noone is greater than the game itself.