The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Robin happy with Hong Kong stint

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 24, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Robin happy with Hong Kong stint

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 23. Robin Singh is busy sharing his experience with cricketers in Hong Kong and hopes to see the team qualify for the Asia Cup to be held in Sri Lanka in July. The journey for Robin and Hong Kong is long and the destination quiet distant to qualify for the World Cup in the West Indies three years from now.

Robin, an astute cricketing brain and a committed team man whenever he donned the India cap, had played the inspirational role in the India under-19 team's Asia Cup win in Pakistan. His valuable inputs as coach saw the team win in style and it also allowed Irfan Pathan to showcase his talent in a professional manner.

It is to Robin's credit that he pushed the case for Pathan's elavation to the senior team. The National selectors were convinced once Robin put in encouraging words for the left-arm bowler from Baroda. "I was only doing my job,'' he says with humility.

Robin, who served Tamil Nadu for close to a decade and half, is doing his job equally efficiently in Hong Kong as the coach of the team that comprises cricketers who are keen to make an impact. The captain of the Hong Kong team is Rahul Sharma, who played first-class cricket for Delhi in the 1980s before migrating to Hong Kong. Rahul is 42 now but then most of the players in the team are in their 30s. "The average age of the team is 32,'' informs Robin. In Robin's opinion, "Hong Kong has a good chance of qualifying. The only problem with these players is their fitness. As far as skills are concerned, I think they can match most of the teams in the region.''

Since the players cannot skip work to play, the fitness factor gets affected. "If only they can get more time to practice together the team could become quite competitive. Most of the players (expats from India and Pakistan) have played some level of the game, they understand the finer points. They make every effort to improve.''

A major handicap the team faces is lack of proper grounds. "There are not many grounds and mostly they play on astro-turf. It is not easy to get them together on working days. But it has been a different experience for me. Teaching them has been a challenge but I must say that the players are very receptive and have shown signs of grasping the nuances of the game faster than I would have imagined,'' says Robin, pleased with his assignment thus far. Robin is not the only Indian cricketer to land up a coaching job this summer.

India `A' coach, Sandeep Patil, is in charge of the Oman team. "I have not seen them play but then I had not seen the Kenyans play either when I took up the job,'' said Patil. Former Test wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia is coaching Thailand. The ACC Trophy in Malaysia will pit these former India stars against each other, with each sounding as confident as the other.

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