March 15, 1999
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PAVILION END Ground Realities Our batting has to make up for our fielding in the World Cup.
Whenever the topic of Indian fielding is raised, tempers flare and eyebrows shoot up, Understandably. After all, everyone's most recent memory is the five catches we dropped off Jayawardene in Sri Lanka (of course, no one remembers the great catches we've taken in the past two months). But yes, there's no argument -- we are clearly not as good as the South Africans, the Aussies and Zimbabweans, but at least we are competitive as far as teams in Asia are concerned. That doesn't make me happy, I'm just stating a fact. This team isn't any worse than its predecessors. Even during my playing days we had an average fielding side. At best there have been exceptions like Brijesh Patel in the old days and Mohammed Azharuddin now. Earlier average fielding was ignored. Today with the mushrooming of one-day matches and constant television coverage that highlights mistakes, average fielding has become a handicap. Yet there are reasons for our frailty. Unfortunately while comparing teams no one cares to compare ground conditions. Most fields in India can't boast of the soft turf of Eden Gardens or Mohali -- try a sliding dive like you see the Aussies do on television and you'll be carried off in a stretcher with half your side scraped off. We also cannot improve overnight especially when we are playing matches every third day. Learning takes time and we don't have it. I am also not willing to jeopardise my team. When Ajay Jadeja and Rahul Dravid, who know how to dive and skid, tried teaching the other members of the team recently the exercise had to be called off after one of them had a very bad fall. There is always the worry of players overstraining or injury. What that means is we can improve only while playing matches. Western players seem to have mastered this new technique of diving, but only because it is developed when they are pre-teenagers. Their junior coaches put considerable emphasis on the athletic aspects of cricket; here coaches seem more fascinated by the elegance of batting and bowling. Western coaches also push their wards into playing multi-sports, like rugby and football in Australia, which helps develop toughness and agility. Yet this is not some unstructured "go have a good time" routine; there is a certain professionalism to their approach. Young and experienced players are taken through an entire slew of scientific tests. After each muscle group is assessed, the player is told which area of his body requires strengthening. In the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy in Adelaide such testing is normal. All this helps build a better athlete. In India, however, we expect our national team to produce miraculous dives without realising the players haven't been privy to such training as kids. Our children seem to shy away from physical-contact sports which is unfortunate, for it hardens the spirit. Also, we have no academies where young people can be herded in to train. But we haven't given up the fight. Everyone in the team follows a prescribed diet set by Dr Ravinder Chaddha and Andrew Kokinos, which basically stresses on no fat, no oil, no red meat. Andrew tests their body fat occasionally and their weight often. Once in a while when we get a week off, like after the Test in Sri Lanka, Andrew gives the boys an individual training program, charting how much running, weights, sit-ups they should do during their time off. We also try to keep our fielding drills varied during practice, but again time is at a premium. Still, we're not suddenly going to evolve into a team of Jonty Rhodes by the time the World Cup begins. So tactically we have to make an adjustment; the shortfall in our fielding has to be compensated for by our strong batting line-up. For instance, we know the South Africans will stop and save 20 runs in the field which is often the margin between winning and losing. All that means is that our batting has to score 20 runs more. We haven't done a bad job of it either, or how else could we have won so many tournaments in the last year and a half? And remember one thing more, all those so-called teams which can't field (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India) have won three of the past four World Cups. But still, this much you can be assured of. My team will put in the required mental and physical training to ready ourselves for the World Cup. They know that good bowling makes fielding look good and good fielding makes bowling look good. (Anshuman Gaekwad, coach of the Indian
cricket team, will be writing a weekly column |
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