Australian coaching course was an eye opener
It is summer time, which denotes the only place cricket will be at its peak, is the United Kingdom
Woorkheri Raman
22-Apr-2000
It is summer time, which denotes the only place cricket will be at its
peak, is the United Kingdom. There will be a congregation of
cricketers from all over the world in various leagues spread across
the length and breadth of the country. With the counties restricting
the number of overseas professionals to one, it is matter of real that
three Indians are representing in county cricket. The focus of the
entire cricket world will be in England as it is off-season in most of
the countries due to either winter or summer in other places.
The hot weather in India virtually makes it impossible to play cricket
at this time of the year. The one thing that is hotter than the Indian
weather currently is the betting/match fixing scandal. Revelations are
flowing from all over the world and from people involved in various
capacities. The ICC is slated to meet early next month to get to the
bottom of this affair, which has been simmering for a while until the
bubble burst recently. One can only hope that the findings are
helpful in finishing off this menace once for all in order to preserve
the image of this game.
This is the time a lot of coaching camps to mushroom all over the
country. The holidays give young kids the opportunity to gain some
skills in this game. A lot of former cricketers involve themselves in
coaching and that is their way of giving something back to the
game. One of the inexplicable things is that despite a lot of coaching
camps going around the country, most of the cricketers in the junior
ranks are not very conversant with the basics of the game. It is
difficult to pinpoint as to where the problem is but the coaches would
well to ensure that the trainees comprehend what are they are told.
It is a different type of mentality involved as far as coaching is
concerned. As a cricketer one picks up a lot of knowledge as a result
of his experience. But the key to becoming a successful coach is in
the manner knowledge is imparted to the trainees. Recently I had the
opportunity of attending a coaching course in Australia conducted by
the ACB. Roger Binny, Madan Lal and Ashok Malhotra were the other
participants. A lot of former Australian cricketers have done the
course over the years. The Chappell brothers, Doug Walters, Allan
Border and Dean Jones are the few who come to mind with David Boon
being the latest to join the list.
The course was all about thinking, planning, evaluation etc and the
coaches were sort of educated as to the way they should handle various
situations. The Indian quartet straightaway realised the reason behind
the success of Australian cricket. A lot of aspects were covered and
several lectures were delivered which included scientific aspects like
biomechanics. Greg Chappell was asked to talk about the mental aspects
of the game and his approach was a revelation. Dean Jones spoke about
the art of playing spinners and his ideas about the same was amazing
in the sense that not many of our own players seem to have given half
as much thought as Jones.
The amount of time spent in planning even at the club level in
Australia is incredible. Their approach is more purpose oriented with
a great sense of objectivity rather than ego and emotions unlike in
India. Then, of course, the differences in the cultures have to be
given some allowance. The most important phase of any young cricketer
is during the time he is trying to graduate into the senior level from
being an elite junior level cricketer. This is the phase that has to
be handled very carefully by the coaches if the cricketer has to
succeed. We have seen so many cricketers fading away after dominating
totally at the junior level.
Regardless of the coaching one can get, the bottom line is the mental
attitude and aptitude. A cricketer can't afford to disregard either of
the qualities as one without the other is of no help. Of late the
trend has been to concentrate only on the important selection matches
and the concentration levels of some first class cricketers is of the
on and off variety. Sachin Tendulkar is a great example for all
cricketers to follow as he turned up for Mumbai in their quest for the
Ranji Championship.
He played a highly determined knock in the semi-finals against Tamil
Nadu as though his career and life depended on it. He knew the
fortunes of the team rested with him and he did not let it down. The
Tamil Nadu boys should consider themselves very unfortunate as a year
of hard work was annulled by the brilliance of one man -
Tendulkar. Obviously they can seek solace when they consider the
number of times Tendulkar has single handedly batted out the opponents
in international cricket. Tendulkar, not one easily satisfied,
followed it up with another ton in the finals against Hyderabad and
virtually buried any hopes the Hyderabadis may have nursed about
winning the championship.