Sport - Cricket

Coach Hariharan has a clear-cut plan

Vedam Hariharan

Coimbatore: After having stoked the confidence of his wards last season, Kerala’s cricket coach Vedam Hariharan is now eyeing a berth in the elite division.

The coach, who signed a three-year deal with the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) to train its Ranji squad, told The Hindu he has chalked out a clear-cut plan to achieve his target.

“I have a simple three-step approach. First, we need to find out where we are now, both collectively, as a team and individuals. I have a data on the various parameters of the players such as physical, mental, technical and other areas as well and started working on where we need to be in the next three years,” says Hariharan, who holds both the Australian and the UK coaching qualifications (ECB’s level 3).

He feels the next couple of years will be extremely important for the players’ development. “The team needs to figure in the elite league. So, goal setting comes in here. I see my role in developing the players to fulfil their potential. But, the big question is how do we get there?”

“This is probably the most difficult phase as we need to interweave many aspects that require the full support from all concerned,” he adds.

Even as many of the State associations are busy importing players to add weight to the team, KCA seems to lay more emphasis on developing its own home grown boys by recruiting an experienced professional coach like Hariharan.

And Hariharan, who has coached and successfully worked in England, Ireland, Scotland, Malaysia and Australia, wants to make the best use of his rich experience to change the fortunes of Kerala cricket. And KCA is ready to back him in his efforts.

Earlier this year, KCA sent a select group of talented players to train at the Australian Sports Gateway Cricket Academy in Brisbane for six weeks.

“The boys were pushed to the limit. In fact, this is where they learnt that their journey to success was not a bed of roses. They trained hard and were quite innovative and challenging all the time,” he says.

He is happy that the boys look a lot tougher in recent times.

“I feel this experience has brought about some change. They have started to play well in recent domestic tournaments. A pre-season tour to Sri Lanka, early October, is also on the cards. Hopefully all these must help the team perform even better.”

Hariharan admits he enjoyed working with the team last season.

“It probably was the most successful season in recent years. It gave me an insight to the talent available. The work ethics were good and we worked hard with special emphasis on improving batting skills.

He says last season’s training revolved around this specific focus.

“Each session was challenging, and the method — new to the boys — improved their decision-making capacity and enabled them to raise the performance bar. We had five centuries and 15 half tons last year. Quite a few records were also broken.”

“Our bowlers showed discipline as well. They bowled with ‘fire in their bellies’.

In fact three of them took 23 wickets each with Sony Cheruvathur, the skipper, topping the charts with 28.

“To be frank, we never had so many local boys performing so well in recent years. It’s only going to be good from here. And, I am confident a place in the elite division is not far off,” he concludes.

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