The accent looks to be on quantity rather than quality

THE RANJI Trophy final marks the end of the season 1999-2000 in Indian cricket. The crowded international fixtures make it difficult to pinpoint either the start or end of a season. On the whole, this season can be dubbed as one that is best forgotten. The national side went through a rough time for most part of the season and even the victory in the one-dayers against the South Africans is under a cloud. The Delhi police, by stumbling on to a taped conversation, has opened the Pandora's box.

The `Cronjegate' may not be a problem for Indian cricket but the shortage of talent definitely is. The BCCI will execute its much spoken about plan into action as the National Cricket Academy is earmarked for opening on May 1. The personnel nominated to run the Academy may raise a few eyebrows here and there but they are capable enough. The debatable aspect is the selection of the trainees and numbers involved. The decision to start the National Academy is a step in the right direction,but obviously the objectives of the NCA must be clear.

The first list has been announced comprising 24 cricketers and a second list is awaited.As it is,the number seems to be on the higher side and the second list will only make things difficult for the coaching staff involved.

Once again, the accent is on quantity rather than quality. This has been one of the main reasons for the standard of cricket dipping. There is no way the boys can get enough attention individually from the coaches. In effect, overcrowding the NCA is going to make it another organised nets session and this will undermine the purpose. One would imagine the purpose of the academy was to fine tune cricketers rather than provide a mega scale nets facility.

First of all,the weaknesses and the needs of the Indian team have to be identified and then the working of the NCA should be directed in addressing those needs.This should be the main objective of the Academy rather than satisfying people who protest about their state players being ignored.

The inclusion of a few members of the triumphant Under-19 team is laudable but there are a few in the list who have not even played first class cricket. All the policies currently seem to be arbitrary and no specific guidelines have been formulated so far.

One of the brighter side of things is that Roger Binny is involved with the academy. This makes sense as he is slated to take over from Kapil Dev and he has seen all the players who have been in the limelight in the junior ranks.Binny's fellow coach Vasu Paranjpe has been in this business for a long time and his dedication to the game is incredible. He can talk cricket endlessly and he is highly respected by cricketers who have come across him.

His sense of humour is well known and would do a lot of good to the trainees after a hard session. Gavaskar along with Bedi, Kapil Dev and Prasanna will be involvedin the NCA as specialist consultants and the trainees cannot ask for more. The fund of knowledge these great cricketers possess have to be drawn out by the trainees with a genuine willingness to learn.

Roger Binny did a coaching course recently in Australia along with Madan Lal, Ashok Malhotra and yours truly. The course was an eye opener in more ways than one and it clearly underlined the difference in the thinking process between a coach and a player.

A lot of aspects were covered with people from various disciplines delivering relevant lectures and suggesting how they can be utilised to enhance the skills of a cricketer. Hopefully Binny would apply all the knowledge he has gained from this course to good effect in the NCA. The NCA should be given a fair bit of time before its success is measured. Then, of course the attitude of the trainees as also the officials will play a major role for NCA to succeed.

Talking of attitude, one can never cease to admire Tendulkar's commitment to this game. The semi-final of the Ranji Trophy was postponed to enable his participation and he fully justified the move. I am sure the Tamil Nadu boys would not share the same sentiments about the postponement of the game but they can consider themselves unfortunate. The difference was the Little Master single-handedly ensured Mumbai's passage into the finals. He followed it up with another century in the final, which was won by Mumbai.

Things like attitude, mental toughness cannot be inculcated into anyone if aptitude is found wanting. Generally the glamour and the earning capacity of Tendulkar is what is splashed across, but the promising cricketers would do well to analyse the ingredients which have made Tendulkar what he is today. One can only hope that a lot of attention is paid to the mental aspects of the game in the NCA.

WOORKHERI RAMAN

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