Play the game as it should be played, Binny tells juniors

Just before the Indian team leaves for Malaysia to play the Asian Cricket Council Under-15 tournament, coach Roger Binny was at his energetic best. CricInfo caught up with Binny at the MA Chidambaram stadium at Chepauk after a long practice session with the team.

With two World Cup victories under his belt, one as a player in 1983 and the other as the coach of the Under-19 team, there is no one better qualified to coach this group of youngsters than Binny. Having spent a week with this group at Pune, Binny is in an ideal position to shed light on the promising cricketers in the group, the preparations they have undertaken and their chances in the forthcoming tournament. In a short chat, he did just that.

AV: Surely, this a great experience for this group of young cricketers. It is a stepping stone for them.

RB: Absolutely. From here they have to start working on their careers. It's a good opportunity for them, representing India outside the country. They're playing good opposition and because of that we'll get to know the strengths of these players straight away.

AV: How has your relationship with them been?

RB: Most of them couldn't have seen me play. But I must say they've taken well to me. I've just tried to get them together. We've become very comfortable with each other already. They've all shown a great amount of respect for me, and that makes it much easier for me to coach them.

AV: What aspects of the game are you focussing on here?

RB: It's too late to really treat this as a camp. Basically I'm just trying to get them acclimatised to the conditions. The conditions in Malaysia should be pretty similar to the conditions here at Chennai. So I gave them an extra work out. Made them do a bit of extra fielding practice. In the end I taught them some concentration and breathing exercises as well.

AV: Most of these boys are unfamiliar to us, can you tell us a bit about the promising players in the group?

RB: Most of these boys have excelled in last year's Vinoo Mankad Trophy for Under-15 cricketers. Ambati Thirupathi Rayadu, an opening batsman from Hyderabad and Swapnej Suhas Thakur from Mumbai both scored more than 400 runs last year. The vice-captain, Mirgen Talukdar is a good all rounder. Irfan Pathan bowls brisk left arm medium pace. I must also add that Nikhil Rathod is a very promising leg spinner.

AV: Who do you think will be the toughest opposition in Malaysia?

RB: I think Sri Lanka and Pakistan will be the toughest opposition. Sri Lanka have a very strong junior programme. Schools cricket is very strong there, and they have some very good development programmes as well. Pakistan ahs always been a good side.

AV: I noticed you talking to the boys in a sort of team meeting after practice. What did you tell them?

RB: I think motivating them is the key. I also like to remind them of their programme for the day. I tell them exactly what they should do in the nets. They need to practice with purpose. There's no point coming to the nets and routinely hitting the ball. They have to have a plan and work towards it.

AV: What would you say is the difference between these boys, and yourself at the same age? When you were 15 how were things different?

RB: The key difference is exposure. These kids have played more matches and traveled much more than I had at their age. When I was 15 I played only inter-school cricket. At that age I didn't play any club cricket at all. Most of these youngsters have already played club cricket in their respective states. Overall they're much more mature cricketers than we were at their age.

AV: Finally, you've won the World Cup yourself, coached the Under-19 team to victory. You must be looking to make it a hat-trick with these boys?

RB: At this stage winning really is not of prime importance. What is really crucial is to get them playing good positive cricket. Obviously we want to win, but it's more important to teach them to play the game as it should be played. When they move on to higher levels, winning will get more and more important. Right now, what's most important is playing good, positive cricket.