Haryana Cricket Association to try Sachin Tendulkar's 15-a-side suggestion at U-14 level

Sachin Tendulkar’s idea of 15-players a side in school and college level games will be tried by Haryana

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) might have not thought much of Sachin Tendulkar’s suggestion of having inter-school and inter-college games having 15 players in each side, but the Haryana Cricket Assocation (HCA) are willing enough to try out this offbeat idea during their inter-district Under-14 tournament next week.

It’s believed that Tendulkar had originally discussed this idea with HCA president and current BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary while playing his last ever first-class match for Mumbai against Haryana in Lahli last November.

"I quite liked the idea, because it means that we will get to see more players in 'match conditions' at the junior level. This translates into a wider pool of cricketers to choose from when we select our state U-16 team," Chaudhary told TOI on Saturday.

"Also, at the U-14 and U-16 level, we can still experiment, because beyond it, we will have to go by the BCCI rules while conducting tournaments. And we have received a fabulous response to the idea," he added.

Despite the MCA discarding Tendulkar’s suggestion for the moment, he remains "passionate about the idea" and is "still positive about the MCA considering it".

Tendulkar had spoken in detail about this subject during his felicitation ceremony by the MCA in December last year. He said that this 15-a-side idea had cropped up when he was having an off-the-cuff discussion with his elder brother one day on how Mumbai cricket can improve.

"How can Mumbai cricket step ahead of the opposition. For that, casually, me and my brother were chatting one day at home, I thought this would be the best forum to give MCA that suggestion," Tendulkar had said after being felicitated.

The advantages of 15-a-side matches

He pointed out that having 15 players per side in a match at the junior level allows the lesser talented cricketers an equal opportunity to impress and, thereby, will gradually help in increasing the talent pool.

"When we have the inter-school and inter-college matches in that, instead of the 11-member team can we take 15 players. The boy who leaves his home everyday to play a match with a hope that he will do something, a lot of times he doesn't know whether he is going to play or not," he said.

He further explained, "To avoid this situation, because for a small kid, Prithvi and Musheer are talented but many are on the border line. Many a times, the wicket may be a turning track and having a third seamer has no point. Sometimes there is only one seamer and there is a spinner bowling from the other end. In that there is no fault of the poor 12-year old fast bowler. But he is prepared to work hard for the entire year not knowing that he may not be picked.

"Giles shield and Harris Shield being knock out tournaments, you don't know how many matches you are going to get. I feel how every player can get minimum three matches, it could be Giles Shield, it could be Harris Shield, inter-collegiate, till the time the player starts earning and can stand on his own feet, till that time MCA should give support to these cricketers,"