India’s former Under-19 and India A coach Rahul Dravid is well known to get the best out of young players.
Dravid has guided the young guns on the right track and he has done an amazing job in producing the next generation of players.
Dravid stated that he promised the young guns that they will not leave without playing a game if they come on India A tour with him. The former Indian skipper added that he didn’t get a game on A-tours during the nascent stages of his career and he used to feel a lot frustrated.
It is crucial to give the exposure of playing a game to the young players, so that they can learn and grow in confidence. In fact, it is well said that there is nothing like match practice and the confidence of scoring runs in the middle is different from batting in the nets.
“I tell them upfront, if you come on an A tour with me, you will not leave here without playing a game. I’ve had that personal experience myself as a kid: going on an A tour and not getting an opportunity to play is terrible. You’ve done well, you scored 700-800 runs, you go, and you don’t get a chance to show what you’re good at,” Dravid was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo on The Cricket Monthly.
“Then you’re back to square one from the selectors’ point of view, because the next season you have to score those 800 runs again. It is not easy to do that, so there is no guarantee you’ll get a chance again. So. you tell people upfront: this is the best 15 and we are playing them. This is not about the supposed best XI. At U-19, we make five-six changes between games if we can.”
On the other hand, Rahul Dravid stated that a lot has changed in the recent past and he didn’t get the same facilities during his career.
A lot has changed from technology to fitness of players and the same point was discussed recently by former Indian opener, Virender Sehwag.
“Playing on the beach and playing on the road doesn’t make you a cricketer. It makes you someone who loves the game. That’s what we had. We had a lot of people who loved the game.
Unless you give that guy a proper matting wicket or a turf wicket, unless you give him some half-decent coaching, some half-decent fitness assistance… where was all this in the 1990s and the 2000s?” Dravid pointed out.
“There was no access to it. We were starved of knowledge. Even in terms of fitness, we used to look at the Australians and South Africans and we used to look at their fitness trainers, and what did we get? ‘Don’t do too much gym, your body will become stiff. Bowl, bowl and bowl. Run rounds and laps.’”
