The Hindu : Gnaneswara Rao looking forward to England tour

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 05, 2002

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Sport - Cricket

Gnaneswara Rao looking forward to England tour

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM JULY 4. The Indian under-19 cricket captain, Y. Gnaneswara Rao, is looking forward to the England tour with confidence.

He had the experience of being vice-captain of the Indian team in the Junior World Cup campaign and the England team's tour to India in the recent past.

Almost all players are familiar to them, and the match the Indian team selected for the England tour played with the National Cricket Academy team at Bangalore recently helped him see in action a couple of players who were new to him. The team coach is Robin Singh, under whom Gnaneswar had spent one month at the NCA's South Zone camp held here recently.

Almost all the players are all-rounders, said the Indian under-19 captain, with the confidence of doing well on the tour consisting of three Tests and three one-dayers apart from practice matches.

``As a captain I have to be more responsibility now'', said Gnaneswar on Thursday before leaving for Pune where the team will gather for a six-day camp before leaving for England.

Since he will be playing in England for the first time, Gnaneswar, like his elder brother Y. Venugopala Rao (who was a member of the Indian `A' team and represented India in the Junior World Cup and played an important role in Andhra topping the South Zone Ranji league last season) is a dashing batsman and a off-spinner, was told to show some patience and understand the movement of the ball.

"Do not throw away the wicket because conditions are different", is the advice Gnaneswar received from his seniors here. Dilip Vengsarkar told him not to be aggressive but to play straight bat first to get his eye in and then play his strokes.

Gnaneswar and Venugopal learnt the basics from their elder brother Y.V. Saikumar, who represented Andhra in the under-16 and under-13 age groups in the past and is now employed with the Railways. Then many local coaches helped him and the former Andhra captain, R.V.V.K. Prasad, the secretary of the Andhra Cricket Association, N. Venkata Rao, secretary of the Visakhapatnam District Cricket Association, K. Parthasaradhy, and P.V. Krishna Rao of the Krishna District Cricket Association, who was coach of the Andhra age group teams when Gnaneswar was in the teams, took special interest in him.

Gnaneswar started playing cricket at the age of 10 and from the next three years played for Andhra in the under-13 age group tournament, then graduated to under-16 and led Andhra twice to the knock-out stage in the under-19 tournament.

Saikumar and his father, Matcheswara Rao, wish that both Venu and Gnaneswar play for India in the seniors team soon. Saikumar, a left-arm spinner, felt that both should slow down a little and stay at the wicket. He felt that both his younger brothers should score more runs. While Gnaneswar had some chances, Venu was not fortunate enough to bat more number of times.

Gnaneswar, along with Venu, is playing for Sanmar Chemplast in the Chennai league. The new India under-19 captain will be entering his second year BA degree course at the Dr. Bullayya College when the academic year opens in a few days.

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