Big money will lead young players astray

Serious concerns have been expressed by many about the future of Test cricket. But neither the nature of pitches nor the one-sidedness of matches will kill Test cricket as quickly as will the flawed attitude of players. The manner in which huge sums of money are being given to young players will have a direct bearing on their attitude.

When, in 2002, a 14-year-old, curly haired and extremely hyper Ravindra Jadeja joined the Cricket Club of India academy his first glimpse reminded the coaches of the talent of Salim Durrani, who hails from Jamnagar, the same place as Jadeja. The coaches: Nari Contractor, Hanumant Singh and Vasu Paranjpe would call him junior Salim.

Not only did Jadeja have loads of talent, he had the guts to perform in crunch situations. Once, in a match against the Mumbai under-22 team, he kept telling the coaches to send him in at No. 3, but to no avail. Eventually when he did go in, the required rate was very high.

He hooked, pulled and lofted the tall bowlers with ease. Some bowlers engaged in sledging, but Jadeja gave it back to them by winning the game comfortably for his side. The cocky guy that he was, he proclaimed to the coaches that he was better than his colleagues.

Jadeja's talent in whatever he did made Raj Singh Dungarpur think of playing him for Rajasthan, just as Kailash Gattani did when he was 14.

Very impressive

So impressed were the coaches that they were confident Jadeja would play Test cricket for India before he was out of his teens. He showed amazing wicket-taking ability and was a very good fielder off his own bowling. While batting he not only displayed a wide range of shots but also knew how to tackle situations. He had a lovely pick-up and throw as well.

A school drop-out, the only thing he knew was that he had to make cricket his livelihood. He did exceedingly well for Saurashtra and says Shane Warne's advice helped him in his approach towards the game.

The money factor made him master the art of succeeding in the shorter formats of the game, thereby giving the impression that he was not cut out for bowling long spells, which is not true. Sadly, it is the ‘more money for less work' mindset that he seems to be happy with.

Nari Contractor has a point when he says, “Jadeja is good enough to play the longer formats but if his mindset remains at restricting the batsmen rather than getting them out, he can't be successful in Tests. For the IPL, we must pick players who have performed in a certain number of first class matches. This is the only remedy to work on their mindsets.”

By taking into consideration only the performances in the shorter formats of the game, we are letting talented youngsters think solely of monetary gain. This is affecting the skill level that we see in Tests. If we go by Contractor's logic, we will get to watch talented players develop further by playing in the longer format of the game, as it really tests all the vital aspects of the game.

Jadeja has hit the jackpot. Hopefully we haven't seen the last of this player because not many have succeeded in handling fat cheques.