Give our youngsters time

[bharat297]

Can someone please tell me what is the fascination with having 17/18 year olds in all our teams? I mean T20 fine, its a young persons game, ODIs, ok fair enough but you need experience along with youth, but how many careers do we want to ruin by blooding these young players into our test side. Look at our track record of blooding young guys in ... Tendulkar, Kambli, Patel, Karthik, Pathan, Ratra, Sodhi, Nehra (he debuted at age 19) ... now of these people only ONE person became a long-term prospect without having to be dropped, or lost a significant amount of form, or anything else Indian fans dont have the patience to allow these guys to be blooded in slowly. Start with smaller forms of the game like T20 and then gradually after years of consistent performances in ODIs bring them into the Test side. If it were up to most of the fans we wouldnt have anyone over 25 in any of our teams, and even if these guys havent done anything we will keep them in there saying "let them develop". These guys have to develop by going through the domestic ranks and then going through T20 and ODIs in order to get into tests. Guys like Jaffer, Bose, Yuvraj and Gambhir have paid their dues and Gambhir is being rewarded by a spot in the ODI side, where he must now perform consistently to get that spot in the Test side. Jaffer has performed consistently since his rebirth in the test side. Yuvraj is close to the test side, but at the moment our middle order is batting well enough to keep Yuvraj out. Bose is also close to the Test side but Sreesanth, RP and Zaheer bowled well enough in England to get reselected too. People like Chawla, Tiwary, Munaf, Sharma have not paid their dues in domestic cricket yet and it makes no sense to immediately thrust them into the test side as some people are saying on these forums. We have some reasonable young talent as the T20 world cup showed, come on lets be patient here. Lets give our legends the respect they deserve in their twilight years , because 2 or so years from now when those guys retire, thats when the others would be ready to take over. Lets be patient and give our youth time which is extremely valuable. Case in point, take the respective careers of Hussey and Clarke ... one was given an almost direct passage into the test side, the other had to work for years to get a look in . Hussey came in and has become a run-machine, Clarke came in , his star rose, and then he got dropped, and only now is he getting his spot back.

[youngindia]

Its better they are given time for their own good :) Too many people are impatient and blinded/wrongly led by "results". In my life i have seen so many talented peple blundering their way when they lack maturity and eventually coming good. but before they reach maturity they have to take unwanted brickbats from people who cannot see its not abnormal to fail because you are not fully ready.

[The Outsider]

Good post, bharat. Our selectors are looking around for Tendulkars all the time and it's not their fault completely. It's the attitude of a lot of people in India to just let flair and natural talent in any field lead to success. It might happen in the oddball case but ultimately its hard work in a structured and professional manner which produces winners. The selectors and BCCI also don't want to put in the hard yards into a structure which produces good cricketers over a period of time spent in their development, but look for quick fix solutions like unearthing a Tendulkar.

[bharat297]

I also wonder why Ranadeb Bose hasnt been given more of a run in the indian team. From his height, a yorker at the death in an ODI game will be very difficult to get away.

[Rahul Khan]

tfs this beautiful article...one major reason of pulling out is over expectations from the players...say what!

[The Outsider]

say what!

what!

[Chandan]

I also wonder why Ranadeb Bose hasnt been given more of a run in the indian team. From his height' date=' a yorker at the death in an ODI game will be very difficult to get away.[/quote'] I hope you've seen Ranadeb in one dayers. I saw him last year in Deodhar trophy and he was distinctly ordinary even in front of ordinary batsmen. He had no clue as to what to do, when the batsmen started slogging him! It is safe to say that he was a failure with the white ball. But I agree with your original post, and reckon that the selectors agree with you too.:regular_smile:

[King]

Fair enough but Sreesanth, RP, Zaheer, Bhajji and even Anil Kumble debuted young. Most players are introduced young everywhere but for Australia. It's not like Australia wouldn't want young ones but the oldies are doing so well both at international and Aussie domestic the young ones are to line up in a queue for selection. Unlike few decades ago the young ones are not really young to good competitive cricket. These days the 19 year old will already have represented the Á team, Under 19 team in a world cup and would have played even overseas courtesy of academy. The amount of cricket the young ones play these days before they represent their respective country is quite mind bogling. A lot of em would have already played against some very good upcoming international talents by the time they are 19-20. I'm for young ones to get the exposure at international cricket. Test cricket requires a bit of maturing but ODIs are not so much a problem for the young ones, they are cut out for it. Something Indian set up should do of course is give the young ones ample time to develope at international cricket. I have to say some of them like Kaif, Raina, Patel were all accorded fair bit of time but they failed to develop enough. You cannot expect everyone to excel and be Tendulkars anyways.

[beetle]

:hysterical:

what!

I have been wanting to do that too!

[bharat297]

Fair enough but Sreesanth, RP, Zaheer, Bhajji and even Anil Kumble debuted young. Most players are introduced young everywhere but for Australia. It's not like Australia wouldn't want young ones but the oldies are doing so well both at international and Aussie domestic the young ones are to line up in a queue for selection. Unlike few decades ago the young ones are not really young to good competitive cricket. These days the 19 year old will already have represented the à team, Under 19 team in a world cup and would have played even overseas courtesy of academy. The amount of cricket the young ones play these days before they represent their respective country is quite mind bogling. A lot of em would have already played against some very good upcoming international talents by the time they are 19-20. I'm for young ones to get the exposure at international cricket. Test cricket requires a bit of maturing but ODIs are not so much a problem for the young ones, they are cut out for it. Something Indian set up should do of course is give the young ones ample time to develope at international cricket. I have to say some of them like Kaif, Raina, Patel were all accorded fair bit of time but they failed to develop enough. You cannot expect everyone to excel and be Tendulkars anyways.

You are missing a key issue here. They are mostly playing against people with the same level of experience and (usually) the same level of maturity. An extensive run in domestic cricket allows them to play against different levels of experience, and allows them to gain experience in many different conditions, situations. Furthermore, at those young ages they are mostly playing against people that have never seen them before. By the way, RP, Zaheer, Bhajji, and Kumble all had to get dropped back to domestic cricket and then come back into the side before they became better players. Putting them in domestic competition will be a good way to see how these guys perform once teams figure out the players' strengths and weaknesses and put them under pressure. Remember, it is not just about giving them time at international level and letting them develop. We must put these young players through a few years of domestic cricket so that they value and cherish the Indian jersey more. Look at it this way. If they are truly good enough, then 3 or 4 years of solid competitive domestic cricket (which is another issue because our domestic comp sucks) must make them even better players. P.S. To Chandan, to be honest, I have not seen Ranadeb bowl ... I just thought that his hieght might be useful at the death overs.

[youngindia]

Good post' date=' bharat. Our selectors are looking around for Tendulkars all the time and it's not their fault completely. It's the attitude of a lot of people in India to just let flair and natural talent in any field lead to success. It might happen in the oddball case but ultimately its hard work in a structured and professional manner which produces winners..[/quote'] Any systems shud accord priority to flair and talent. Other things are useless if you don't ifdentify the right talent in the first place. how does a guy like joginder end up as a performer? That is the problem .Lack of enough quality players to light up domestic cricket. I would go as far as to say Talent identification is everything.

[zubinpepsi]

:hysterical: I have been wanting to do that too!

Me too... :haha: