The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : A re-assuring and refreshing display of talent

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 19, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Cricket

A re-assuring and refreshing display of talent

It’s the cricketing thinking process that has to be in place, writes Makarand Waingankar

Last week-end when the cricketing world was hailing the completion of two enthralling decades of the great Sachin Tendulkar, dozens of teenagers who are the future of Indian cricket were fighting for a berth in the list of probables for the junior World Cup at Udaipur in the under-19 Vinoo Mankad Trophy.

Watching the display of talent was both refreshing and re-assuring. The future of Indian cricket is not bleak as many think.

But the spin department is still a worry. There again the good news is that the on-field umpires made the life of bowlers with suspect action miserable. Such bowlers were immediately stopped from bowling.

Sixteen-year-old left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh, who was picked by the Mumbai selectors for the Ranji Trophy, was the best of the spinners. With a smooth run-up and lovely well balanced action, he has the potential to succeed at the highest level if he is left to himself.

Most of the spinners were neither spinning the ball nor were they accurate enough to contain the batsmen. Some of the coaches made things difficult by forcing the spinners to bowl flat and fast to gain accuracy.

If the new Director of NCA Sandeep Patil had been present to watch the tournament, he would have been able to pinpoint the problems. Because if at 19 a player is building his career on wrong notions, he could be corrected before he gets into senior cricket.

Thinking process

It’s the cricketing thinking process that has to be in place rather than constant technical inputs from the pavilion.

Patil has his theories in place for guiding youngsters. He is not the one to spout technical jargon because he firmly believes that one can achieve more if one is allowed to play a natural game. As a coach he instilled confidence in the players and handled each boy as per his strengths and weaknesses to get their act together as a team.

There was a distinct Patil style of play in Punjab’s Mandeep Singh’s unbeaten 157 off 127 balls with eleven fours and seven sixes in the final against Maharashtra. Quite a few players showed that if nursed properly they could make an impact on senior cricket.

While Karnataka’s 17-year-old K.L. Rahul is a Rahul Dravid in the making, Ganga Shridhar Raju, the left-handed 16-year-old opening batsman of Tamil Nadu was the most promising opener who played the new ball the way it should be played.

The core strength of India under-19 obviously is the medium-pace attack which will find the conditions of New Zealand (World Cup venue) conducive.

Saurashtra’s Jaydev Unadkat and Gujarat’s Harshil Patel, who were impressive on the Australia tour, will now have further backing from a few more genuine swing bowlers. Even in a limited overs match how accurate, intelligent bowling can be destructive was shown by the two Punjab medium-pacers Sandeep Sharma and Baltoz Singh.

Udaipur, also home town to India under-19 captain Ashok Menaria, ensured that ideal cricketing facilities were provided to youngsters even though there is a fight for power in the State association. It’s the small centres which need encouragement.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport