We NEED Greg Chappell. Greg Chappell is right for India. One cannot and should not blame the coach for the WC debacle when our so called professional players couldn't put away Bangladesh or Sri Lanka when it mattered. One can blame the captain or the coach for not inspiring the team, but these are professional players. They should be disciplined enough to play to win. That said, I don't think players are completely at fault either. I think what we lack is proper infrastructure to foster competitiveness, professionalism, discipline, desire to win, desire to be the best, mental strength, and the pride.
What we need is a 10 year plan to put in place a viable cricket infrastructure. While we are at it, we should do the same for hockey, soccer, and tennis. Ahh, now I am dreaming. But it%u2019s a must. Here%u2019s what I think we need:
Organized leagues at elementary, secondary, and high school levels:
* District wide tournament & championship * Winner of district plays for state championship
College tournament & championship modeled after US%u2019s NCAA (National Colligate Athletic Association)
* Colleges and Universities divided by Conferences (one tier to start out with and couple more to follow in later years) * Inter conference tournament & championship * National championship based on conference champions
Each team to have a head coach, assistant coaches, specialized coaches, trainer, physical therapist, and maybe even a sports psychologist.
* Establish training school for coaches, trainers%u2026 etc * Foster independent thinking
Of course to put this kind of infrastructure in place we need capital%u2026 lots of it. That%u2019s where state government comes in place. If state cannot provide necessary capital then have commercial companies sponsor schools fields, college stadiums, donate equipments (Nike and Rebook do it regularly in other countries), supply expertise and training.
Building an infrastructure like this will be painful and time consuming, but the benefits are plenty. Not only we%u2019ll instill disciple & professionalism at an early age, we will also develop mental capacity to compete. Furthermore, as much as we need our players to be smart, athletic and professional, we also need smart and resourceful coaches. A system like this one will force our coaches to think differently, to think smart, to apply different strategies, to make pitches support their own players. Think about it this way, if my opponent has couple of good spinners, I will have a seaming pitch; vice versa. A system like this one will foster strategies, plans and competitiveness.
All this is fine and dandy yet useless if you don%u2019t have a professional league based on the similar principle. We desperately need a professional cricket league. Now we are talking about a touchy issue here. If couple of private companies were to get together and start a league, BCCI may put a ban (to play for a national team) on any player playing in that league. Personally I don%u2019t care if BCCI owns the league, yet have the private ownership of the teams. I am sure we can easily have a league for cricket, hockey, and soccer modeled after US%u2019s NFL, NBA, MLS, or MLB.
