BY BIKALPA GAUTAM
Once again we have promised a lot; and once again we have failed to deliver and returned empty handed. I know that apart from Malaysia, other opponents in the group (India and Pakistan) are the cricketing powerhouses, who have won the U19 World Cup a couple of times each. I also know that expecting our boys to win against them is asking for impossible to happen. But still, being a Nepali cricket nut, I was expecting at least some serious fight back.
What really amused and, more importantly, made me angry was that very little has been done by Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) to address the age-old problem of Nepali cricket – the batting. Failure of Nepali batsman in major international tournament is not a new phenomenon and yet our authorities have done next to nothing to figure out what is causing this and how it can be solved.
All the hard work done by our bowlers to restrict opponents within the getable score had been wasted by our batsmen playing senselessly. Just have a look at scorecard of the match against India, all the hope and excitement created by our bowlers by restricting famed Indian batting line-up to mere 173 was wasted by our batsmen. There are many more instances where we have shown incompetence while batting.
Some people might say that centralization of the cricketing infrastructure is main reason forcing Nepali cricket to slump. Afghanistan is a good example to learn how a country without any cricketing infrastructure whatsoever has managed to establish itself as a cricketing power. While Taliban were ruling their country, these players were getting valuable exposure playing quality cricket for various clubs and teams in Pakistan.
The reason for raising this topic of exposure is that no matter how much amount of money you pour into developing cricketing infrastructure, no matter how talented player are, if players do not know how to adjust in real match situation, they will ultimately succumb under pressure. Exposure will not only help to overcome the nervousness in the match day but it will also help to expand the creativity by understanding opponent’s tactics.
Hereby I have listed some ways, by following which our cricket player can gain valuable experience and exposure needed badly
Start domestic first class competition: If you look at the matches in which Nepal batted first, against good opponents, you’ll notice that we had usually got all out before the completion of allocated overs.
Unlike conventional one-day match, a first class match last for more than a day (2, 3, 4 or even 5 days with each team playing two innings).
Playing this kind of matches will help our batsman to learn the art of spending time in the middle of the pitch and as great Sunil Gavaskar has said – “runs will start to flow once you learn how to spent time in the crease”.
Identify key impact player: If you observe any good cricket team, you’ll notice that there are at least five player key player who can have positive impact in the outcome of a match (I am not saying other six are useless). We should also pick out five player (three batsmen and two bowlers) based on their past performance and talent and nurture them for future.
Ask for help: Nepal is quite fortunate to have four of the world best cricket playing countries as our neighbors. They have rich cricketing history and are well advance in term of the cricketing infrastructure. Their centre of excellence like MRF Pace foundation in Chhenai, National Cricket Academy (NCA) Banglore, NCA (Lahore) and NCA (Colombo) are among the best in the world.
If we could use our diplomatic channel effectively, it wouldn’t be that difficult for these countries to allocate couple of scholarship each year for aspiring Nepali cricketers. Impact players that have been identified earlier could be sent to these centers. The tricks and trade of fast bowling that Binod Das could learn under the watchful eye of Dennis Lilee could be invaluable. And equally important could be batting skills that Sarad Veswakar could learn from Javed Miyadad at NCA, Lahore.
These cricketing heavyweights (India, Pakistan, Srilanka and Bangladesh) have done enough to promote cricket in their country. Now its time to fulfill their corporate social responsibility by advertising and sponsoring cricket in their neighbours.
Invite teams: CAN should initiate the tradition for inviting quality foreign cricket team at least 3-4 times of the year. All of the teams that play first class cricket in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan plays good cricket and each of them have their own style of playing.
Logistically it won’t be that difficult to organise tour match of first class team like Mumbai Ranji team or PIA from Pakistan. Playing against Nepal in Nepal will also be a good learning curve for these teams. By playing against these teams, our players can gain that valuable exposure which they lack.
Professionalism: Standard of cricket that Nepal has in age group is very good among the non test playing nation. As these boys become mans and play for national side our standard nosedives.
Experts have pointed out the lack of professionalism for its main cause. When you are young cricketer, you do not have to think about your living and earning. But as a cricketer grows up, he then gets concerned about his sources of income. If we could take out the fear of low or no income from their minds then it will be easier for them to concentrate more on cricket then non cricketing issues.
If three departmental teams (Nepal Police, Armed Police and Nepal Army) could form their own cricket teams, then at least 50 to 60 Nepali cricketers can play without fearing about their jobs.
The author writes blogs at Ghatana ra Bichar.