Grassroots thread: Basics for youngsters...

[fineleg]

Often times when India gets a promising youngster into the playing 11, we find that his fielding is atrocious. The same thing we are seeing from R. Ashwin now. We have seen with many others in the past too. We would also see that many of them have no basics - grounding the bat while doing a quick run between wickets, calling right to your partner for a run, knowing who's call it is for deciding if the run is a Yes or No...Fielding, throwing to the right end, backing up at bowlers end etc. Why aren't these basics being strengthened at the grass roots level in Indian cricket? Just what in the bloody heck is BCCI doing? This is 2010, even if the grassroots training had started properly in 2000, we would be having better basics in our new players now. Its like we have to pick these players like Ashwin based on raw talent, and then have to work on fielding basics, running basics, calling (the partner) basics, throwing basics etc etc :mad: Cant BCCI do something to improve such grassroots training at school, Uni, state levels!??

[Jersey #10]

Stop complaining dude! Whatever we have is best in the world. Stop picking at weaknesses instead appreciate the strengths. There is not much you or I can do

[fineleg]

^ You are missing the point, if you dont want to look at certain things then feel free to look past them. I do agree that you and I cannot change BCCI, but that does not stop folks from talking abt pitches, itineraries etc. Same thing here. And these basics are important for any cricketer. So, it is worth mentioning.

[EnterTheVoid]

I always wondered why Indians were such poor outfield fielders (barring Kaif, Yuvraj) but Australia, England and South Africa produce some excellent fielders -- I mean, they jump, dive to save 1 and 2s, let alone 4's. Is it the hard outfield and the fear that if they dive, they may damage/tear a muscle ? I am really hard pressed to think of any other reason.

[Jersey #10]

I always wondered why Indians were such poor outfield fielders (barring Kaif, Yuvraj) but Australia, England and South Africa produce some excellent fielders -- I mean, they jump, dive to save 1 and 2s, let alone 4's. Is it the hard outfield and the fear that if they dive, they may damage/tear a muscle ? I am really hard pressed to think of any other reason.

I think most of Indian players start off their Cricket initial bits in their respective gullies, roads, streets and etc where kids play cricket for fun. By commonsense they learn not to jump on these surfaces to not get hurt. Most domestic grounds in India were not well maintained in the past hence the fielders were not tempted to dive or jump for just a single or a double. Therefore, jumping or diving never came naturally to Indians. Same occurs for all subcontinental teams. Now a days, the cricketing facilities have improved and the grounds are well kept and maintained at international standards where it's safer to dive for every run. This could be a reason why we are seeing more youngsters like Raina, Kohli, Rohit Sharma diving more often than not.

[f.b.m]

This is hardly a mystery: Its the general lack of athleticism that leads to this. India plays only one sport seriously (ok I know football is emerging, hockey, etc but hardly to the same extent). All the countries where contact sports (football, rugby, etc) are popular are top fielding sides. So the solution to India's fielding woes is you playing football with your friends and not whinging from an internet forum with a bag of crisps and the bottle of coke that was on the dominos tuesday offer.

[Jersey #10]

So if XYZ played a lot of Football/Rugby. ABC would be very good at fielding in Cricket. This makes a lot of sense

[f.b.m]

So if XYZ played a lot of Football/Rugby. ABC would be very good at fielding in Cricket. This makes a lot of sense

I'm glad that you understand. If we all eat enough four cheese pizzas, we can create an extremely healthy sporting culture. Then again, there are some exceptions like AB de Villiers and Adam Voges who come from countries entirely devoid of a sporting culture and tradition.

[EnterTheVoid]

I think most of Indian players start off their Cricket initial bits in their respective gullies' date=' roads, streets and etc where kids play cricket for fun. By commonsense they learn not to jump on these surfaces to not get hurt. Most domestic grounds in India were not well maintained in the past hence the fielders were not tempted to dive or jump for just a single or a double. Therefore, jumping or diving never came naturally to Indians. Same occurs for all subcontinental teams. Now a days, the cricketing facilities have improved and the grounds are well kept and maintained at international standards where it's safer to dive for every run. This could be a reason why we are seeing more youngsters like Raina, Kohli, Rohit Sharma diving more often than not.[/quote'] Yeah, all fair points. That also might explain why India produced some terrific slip fielders, for instance, Azahr, Dravid and even Manoj Prabhakar for that matter, but produced some very poor outfielders. For a little while, players like Kaif, Yuvraj provided a breath of fresh air but now no longer ... kaif is not in the ODI team and Yuvraj has fitness issues :/

[fineleg]

Take a look at the simplest of catches that R.Ashwin messed (Ross Taylor - ODI#2) That did not require diving/groundfielding brilliance or athleticism. Just basic catching technique and concentration. But he goofed it. Even in ODI-1, R.A.'s fielding was below par. Running between wickets - grounding the bat, calling the partner - these are not related to grounds being hard or lack of athleticism (well some of it yes, but not all of it). These are basic techniques. Yusuf Pathan slogs a six (so he thinks) and stands there GAPING mouth open instead of running - turns out its not a six - and they get a single, instead of two/three runs. Thats just stupidity and lacking basics. These things need to be sorted out earlier, rather than waste the time of a National Team coach like G.Kirsten to work on real basics. Even Sehwag daydreams while running, and M.Vijay has a start-stop-start-stop style to running between wickets.

[Jersey #10]

Take a look at the simplest of catches that R.Ashwin messed (Ross Taylor - ODI#2) That did not require diving/groundfielding brilliance or athleticism. Just basic catching technique and concentration. But he goofed it. Even in ODI-1, R.A.'s fielding was below par. Running between wickets - grounding the bat, calling the partner - these are not related to grounds being hard or lack of athleticism (well some of it yes, but not all of it). These are basic techniques. Yusuf Pathan slogs a six (so he thinks) and stands there GAPING mouth open instead of running - turns out its not a six - and they get a single, instead of two/three runs. Thats just stupidity and lacking basics. These things need to be sorted out earlier, rather than waste the time of a National Team coach like G.Kirsten to work on real basics. Even Sehwag daydreams while running, and M.Vijay has a start-stop-start-stop style to running between wickets.

Some of these things should come with natural instincts. After all, Cricket is a sport and not a science book. You can not learn everything from a coach or a book perhaps. Some of the things come with self discipline and instincts. The coach can not go around addressing simple things such as this for every player. On the other hand, trying to teach every player everything would just add the pressure which would then cause bad performances. Every player should be allowed to play their natural game till some extent. Whoever has the least "weaknesses" should be selected in the team and thereafter should get the chance to polish their strengths under the National coach. If there is a better spinner with better fielding abilities than R Ashwin then Ashwin must be kicked in the back. If not then we have to stick with him. No coach has the magic wand to make Ashwin an overnight fielding sensation. He can try to learn all the fielding tricks during team fielding practice session but that's about it because he would be doing his bowling drills for most of the practice anyways. It would be pointless to make him do fielding drills more often than bowling drills. If everything can be learned from a coach then everyone would be as good as Kapil Dev and Jack Kallis. The likes of YP, Uthappa, Pollard etc are not proper batters so it's stupid to expect them to think sensibly. They are only there to hit out of get out anyways.

[Sachin=GOD]

Another thing which is completely atrocious is when you see a batsman playing with a tail ender and on the very first ball of the over he takes a single and gives the tail ender 5 balls to negotiate. In tests the tail enders may somehow block and survive but in ODIs they generally get out due to such silly mistakes by the batsman and the team does not get enough runs also.

[Jersey #10]

Another thing which is completely atrocious is when you see a batsman playing with a tail ender and on the very first ball of the over he takes a single and gives the tail ender 5 balls to negotiate. In tests the tail enders may somehow block and survive but in ODIs they generally get out due to such silly mistakes by the batsman and the team does not get enough runs also.

We all know which loser does that every match. He builds on the tail like a weak spineless idiot.

[diegovegaz]

hey finey, i was thinking about opening a similar thread too but i guess you called dibbs, hahahah the issue you have pointed, is very valid and needs immediate attention

[King Tendulkar]

Kohli/Raina/Pujara/Vijay are superb fielders! Our fileding amongst new players is so much better now, things have improved dramatically. But yes some of the bowlers sre less good.

[Sachinism]

Its frustrating to see players getting basics wrong. I agree its something which needs to be sorted at grassroots level. Sliding the bat, backing up should become second nature to the players

[fineleg]

Kohli/Raina/Pujara/Vijay are superb fielders! Our fileding amongst new players is so much better now, things have improved dramatically. But yes some of the bowlers sre less good.

Yes, its mostly the bowlers who are really poor. But sometimes even M.Vijay does basic mistakes in fielding.

[King Tendulkar]

Nah Vijay is a top fielder. Now you being hyper critical. The young batters all seem to be really top fielders, the bowlers are poor. Ashwin is poor, Nehra is a disgrace to humanity. Munaf moves like he is 80. Bhaji is good though:--D