The Hindu : Sport : India is bound to dominate: Chappell

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 08, 2005

Sport

Sport

India is bound to dominate: Chappell

SYDNEY: : With its huge population, India is bound to dominate the world in many spheres and cricket won't be an exception, said Australian batting great and new Team India coach Greg Chappell.

Sydney Morning Herald quotes the former Aussie captain observing ``With so many people India is destined to dominate the world in many areas.''

Within a few decades, India would be home to 40 per cent of world's youth and hence the potential is enormous, feels the renowned coach.

While Chappell believes India's rise as the strongest cricketing nation — toppling mighty Australia — is almost inevitable, the batting great insisted India would have to put the right system in place to ensure that.

``It (India's rise) won't happen of its own accord. The numbers can be a disadvantage as much as an asset. It's hard to organise so many people,'' he warned.

India's rise to the top would be helped by the change in the Australian approach to hone the skills of a youngster, Chappell feels.

Apprehensive about the change from backyard cricket to a structured system of net practice in Australia — an academic one — Chappell said, "We've taken a path that no one's really thought through. The old system was very good. Backyard cricket was competitive - kids were under pressure. They had to make decisions in real time. We've replaced it with a highly controlled system based on batting in the nets. It's a totally different mental environment from playing in a game - a very academic approach.''

Last of their kind

Describing Ricky Ponting's men as the last of their kind, he said, "The guys we see playing for Australia today are probably the last of their kind. They learned to play the game before this academic system was introduced.

"Australian cricket has blindly accepted the new system. It's not been tested over the long term, and I think it's got serious shortcomings. We'll know one way or another within a generation,'' he added.

Meanwhile, after assuming the charge of the Indian team, Chappell plans to bring in some new ideas on the playing skill.

He and renowned sports scientist and former Victoria batsman Ian Fraser have studied the methods legendary players like Don Bradman, Graeme Pollock, Viv Richards, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar — to find out what they had in common.

Chappell believes a batsman's initial movements are very crucial. ``The question for the coach is why the batsman got into the wrong position. It usually goes back to his initial movements getting him off balance, and from that point on the body's trying to recover. The problem might be he picked the bat up with the bottom hand first, which changes the whole body dynamic.''

``The brain's job is to keep us upright. If you get out of balance, the brain doesn't care if it's a Test match or the last ball of a one-day international and you need four runs to win; if you're out of balance the brain will try to straighten you up,'' he explained. — UNI

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