The recipe for redefining Indian cricket

It is yet another final for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. Mumbai will be facing a team in the finals whom they haven’t in decades – Saurashtra. Whether Saurashtra will have their best man Cheteshwar Pujara in their final line-up remains to be seen.

The domestic system of Indian cricket seems to be robust. But the question that needs to be addressed here is whether the system is producing quality cricketers or not? We might have batsmen who are world-class, but the problem seems to be the Indian bowling contingent. India has struggled to produce fast bowlers who perform consistently over a period of many years. Who is to blame for this?

Further, many of the Indian batsmen, including one of the best finishers of the game, M.S. Dhoni, seem to struggle in overseas conditions. Though India’s performance on foreign soil has improved drastically, a lot remains to be desired. How do we generate players who perform equally well on foreign soil as they do on the Indian soil? I believe that the solution to this conundrum lies in redefining the process of identifying and grooming potential talent in the country. I have fathomed a new regime or a training program which aims at producing world-class cricketers just as they enter international cricket. It is a sequential process and we should approach it in a step-wise manner.

STEP 1 : Identify talent.

Sachin Tendulkar doesn’t happen everyday. Therefore, I don’t intend that any player will make his international debut at the tender age of 16. BCCI should put in a process to identify the best players at U-16 level in the country. A batch of roughly 20 players, which includes 9 batsmen, 9 bowlers and 2 wicket-keepers should be made. I will refer this group of players as the ‘batch’ in this article.

A complete in house-training program sponsored by BCCI should be in place. This training program should consists of current and retired Indian players to share their experience and expertise with the batch. Further, players from visiting teams and other players around the world must be invited to share a few words of wisdom with the budding cricketers. Like we have visiting faculties in management schools, we can have visiting coaches to train the players. It seems to be a capital intensive program, but the dividends are equally promising.

The skills required in a good cricketer must be inculcated right from the beginning. The habit of diving while fielding and completing the run, imbibing a strong fielding culture, inculcating patience, pressure handling, leadership qualities and enforcing team spirit should be a part of academic curriculum. Under the expertise of coaches, the players should improve upon their technical skills.

Ample emphasis is required on physical fitness and strength. We have seen the brute force of Chris Gayle and M.S. Dhoni. It is very important for the batsmen to have a strong built so that they generate maximum force behind every shot. Similarly, the muscles which enhance the bowlers’ speed must be identified and worked upon.

The training program should aim at building the technical expertise of each and every player. The batsmen should be able to identify the nature of the ball bowled when released by the bowler, the bowlers should learn the entire set of variations and work on swing and bounce. A young mind is like clay, you can mould it in the shape you want.

This is the best time to employ the best practices of the game so that they become a natural part of their game in the coming years.

It is equally important to keep the batch isolated from the media buzz. Psychologists should ensure that the players have sufficient mental strength to complement their physical strength.

STEP 2 : Create overseas conditions.

The nature of pitches beyond the sub-continent is entirely different than that found in the sub-continent. Indian batsmen invariably struggle when they leave Indian shores. The idea here is to create pitches identical to what we find in other parts of the cricketing universe. I will refer the pitches outside the Indian sub-continent as ‘secondary pitches’. This will not only give them early exposure to the varied nature of pitches, it will provide them with ample time and opportunity to be comfortable with such pitches. This should be the first 18 months of the training program.

The bowlers would learn to extract bounce from the pitch, while seaming and swinging the bowl into and away from the batsmen. Similarly, the batsmen will learn to play short balls, defend swinging bowls and evade bodyline balls as they appear in a random manner.

STEP 3: Find contract for these players to participate in the domestic circuit of other countries.

After the players have had their first exposure to secondary pitches, it is time for them to get some real hands-on experience on secondary pitches. It will be a test of their skills and will enable them to absorb in the nature of the game in other countries.

This will further help the players when they visit these countries as a part of the national squad. This will surely prevent the first time jitters the players usually have. After an exposure to different domestic circuits for a year or so, it will be time BCCI to prune the batch by promoting the promising players to the next level while leaving out those who couldn’t live up to the expectations.

STEP 4: The U-19 World Cup.

So it is time for the players who have been sponsored by BCCI and trained by multiple mentors to taste glory for the first time. Playing together as a unit and participating in the World Cup is the perfect test for the batch.

Hopefully, India finds some heroes and is able to identify players who promise long term career at the international level. This is the crucial time when they should be kept away from IPL and other money-making leagues. The objective behind this act is to make playing good cricket the primary motive rather than making good money. In the end, the sport should be left alone as a sport only.

STEP 5: Rigorous training for 1 year.

The idea is to create enduring and market-ready products. Despite numerous successes, these players should be further trained by the best in the world. With the training of last three years behind them, working on further physical strength while fine-tuning their skills further will help them gain competence. The players should be spend an year overseas participating in domestic tournaments outside India while spending a quarter of the year in India.

STEP 6: Release into the Indian domestic circuit.

After 4 years of training, these players should be tested in the Indian domestic circuit. I hope that their performance would definitely be superior to their compatriots and they could be easily differentiated from other players. The batch should be allowed to participate in the cash-rich IPL so that they can rub shoulders with international cricketers before entering international arena. The ideal time of this phase should be one year.

STEP 7 : Wish the batch adieu.

After 5 years of monitoring the performance of the batch closely, the players should be released from the academy and made available for national selection.

I am sure that the above structure might have certain flaws and many of you will have valuable inputs which can strengthen the framework. But I hope to provide a basic structure which can be worked upon so that India sustains itself at the pinnacle of international cricket. This should be an ongoing process and BCCI must identify a new batch every year. With the first release after five years, I hope the Indian squad would be able to add at least 3-4 world-class players every year and generate a moderate pool of consummate cricketers.

Your opinion is solicited.