The Hindu : Sport : The first batch completes camp

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Saturday, Sep 02, 2006

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Sport

The first batch completes camp

Principal Correspondent

MIXING PLEASURE WITH BUSINESS: Pathan, Kaif and Yuvraj Singh apparently found time for a bit of fun and frolic during the camp. _ PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

Bangalore: Greg Chappell was in good spirits. The coach was obviously happy with the manner in which the cricket-skills camp has progressed and his relaxed air was evident when he spoke to the media after a long morning session at the National Cricket Academy here on Friday.

Chappell toyed with the microphones on the table, pointed out one which had its connecting wires missing, smiled indulgently and asked, "is someone missing here?"

And then another microphone fell, the coach clapped his hands, smiled again and waited for some more time and once a semblance of order was struck, he immediately expressed his satisfaction over the progress made with the first batch of five players.

The players — Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Ajit Agarkar and Irfan Pathan — will now return home while a fresh batch consisting of M.S. Dhoni, R.P. Singh, Suresh Raina, Munaf Patel and S. Sreesanth will assemble here for their three-day training commencing on Saturday.

"We are very happy with the first camp. We have had a lot of time with each of the players and have worked on specific areas. We have also been able to work on specific simulation exercises for the sort of things we expect to be confronted with in the next few months. From my point of view and from the coaching staff point of view, we have achieved what we wanted to achieve. The feedback from the players has been positive and we hope that the next two camps will go just as well. We are grateful to the NCA's facilities that has helped us cover a lot of things in a very short span of time," Chappell said.

Sufficient time

The coach also stressed that three-day training stints for a smaller batch of players, does work. "Three days is sufficient, I think anything else will be overkill. I think it is important that we get quality and not quantity and we have got the quality that we have been looking for," Chappell said and it was an opinion that was later echoed by Yuvraj Singh. "Time is never enough for practice. It can be three days or it can even be 10 days but the camp has been very helpful. It is about learning about yourself as a player and about improving," Yuvraj said.

Chappell also pointed out the need for flexibility. "Everybody is looking to play their role well and the roles can change from time to time, from game to game and from opposition to opposition. It's a matter of being flexible and to be able to adjust to different conditions. We really don't know what we are going to be confronted with in Malaysia (for the tri-series) but we expect the wickets to be on the slower side. We have to wait and see and we have to adjust once we go there," he said. "The two matches we have in Chennai will be very important in terms of translating what we have been working on in this camp into match conditions," he added.

Effusive in praise

The players have appreciated the current camp's innovative ideas and Mohammed Kaif was effusive in his praise.

"I have played for my country for five years and I have never experienced something like this camp before. We start with yoga at seven and finish by about five or six with some swimming in the evening and whole day we are at the ground. We interacted with the coach, captain and as players we got a chance to know each other better.

"In three days, I mean eight hours daily, that is 24 hours and the experience has been good. The drills were challenging. Especially while practising with the golf ball, you have to focus hard. We challenged ourselves at practice by playing on different wickets — slow, fast, good and bad. We also used the new ball, old ball, used the machine with some spin on the ball. In the long-term this camp will benefit us," Kaif said.

Yuvraj meanwhile praised the technique of practising with golf balls. "Practising with a golf-ball which is smaller in size helps in our timing and when we go out there in the middle and practise with normal cricket balls, it helps us middle the ball very well. It was also a good experience playing against bowling machines placed higher as it helps us in getting adjusted," Yuvraj said.

The southpaw also stressed on the importance of his sharing the fifth bowler's slot. "The fifth bowler's slot is shared between Sachin, Sehwag and me. We also have Powar bowling for us at times. It is important for us to keep performing and help the team," he said.

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