Cricket selections - Cricket is a mind game; is'nt it?
The Indian cricket team is a target of many. All media men, all SMS typists, all email forwarders, all bloggers and even Narayan Murthy, chief mentor of Infosys(who was invited by Times of India to opine. With the world cup debacle, I am sure there are more that will join the bandwagon. I get the feeling I am being left out. That is the main reason for the existence of this blog.
Unlike most of the opinions, my line of thought is something I've stuck to. I've been telling this to all my friends for a long time now.
Before we move to the Indian cricket team, we must understand the game of cricket. Cricket requires three important skills:
- cricketing skills, like hand eye co-ordiantion, wrist turning etc., This will turn you into a good cricketer, giving you the flair that is required. Saqlain mushtaq came up with a different skill, the doosra, it was some time back, but he's nowhere to be seen now. There have been many players who have had a sparkle in their game that has taken them to the international level, because of their cricketing skill. Usually this alone cannot take you beyond a season. The first season, the cricketers will find a new skill slightly difficult, but laptops will come up with an answer sooner than later. There have been cricketing geniuses like Azharuddin, GR Vishwanath, Shane Warne, Muralitharan, Jayasurya, Tendulkar for whom the laptops had no answer. They tend to herald the art of cricket.
- physical stamina and endurance, some guys like Flintoff, Jayasurya etc., have great physical stamina. Players like Robin Singh could even get above the lack of cricketing skills with lot of physical stamina and determination. Its usually the younger guys that have better stamina. This kind of a strength usually results in highly energetic individuals acting like springs on the green surface. Makes for great viewing.
- The last but not the least is the mental stamina and fortitude. With the limited resources of cricketing skill and physical strength, a player can take his game to the next level by sheer mental strength. These players win matches, they might not score the most elegant four, they might not catch in the most acrobatic way, but they never fail in the crisis situations. Steve Waugh, Rahul Dravid, Viv Richards, Mohinder Amarnath, Sunil Gavaskar, Anil Kumble, many more come to my mind. Not as talented as their skilled counterparts, they make up for what they don't have by their mind play.
With these strengths in mind, if I were to design a system to select the best team (best here means - the one that will win most; not the one that is most acrobatic, not the one that is most elegant or artistic), I would put in mental stamina and fortitude as high on the requirement as possible. I would divide the selection into three major parts:
- I would probably make sure that state level associations have enough cricket games in short periods before they are selected to represent their states. I would make sure there are gyms and other facilities in each and every ground. Concentration would be on fielding. Thereby I would make sure that every guy who puts up his hand for state level selection is a physically fit person.
- The state team should consist of only talented individuals. Good selection committee members should be picking up talented individuals from a physically fit lot. For this a couple of changes that I would suggest are: make sure the selection committee decides on the basis of a camp or a short period instead of track records. Make sure the committee comes from outside the state concerned. Make sure the committee is appointed by BCCi and not the state board. BCCI can have a body of state level selectors who get rotated from state to state. This body can be a paid professional body. This would mean everyone who plays for the state is not just physically fit, but also the best skilled in the state.
- The final national team should be selected only on the basis of mental strength and attitude. After players have proven their worth in many many games at Ranji levels, they can be selected. Mike Hussey got selected after long years at Australian cricket, so did Mathew Hayden. In India we have a tradition of selecting people who do not have any sort of Ranji experience. Take Parthiv Patel for eg., he had not played even one Ranji trophy match, when he was selected. This selection should also take in an ability to relearn. ie., the player must have got out of form atleast once and should have regained form at Ranji level. This makes sure that at the national level, we do not waste time on people who do not know to reinvent themselves. The selection team, if you ask me should have atleast one psychiatrist who will tell you from observation if the player will perform under pressure or not. I can tell you of atleast one person Arjuna Ranatunga, who was the least fit in the Sri Lankan team, but he was mentally the strongest. We need people of such mental strength.
Implementing all these changes is not going to be easy, but its surely the way to go.
On an after thought, let me try and classify the different adjectives we use on cricketers:
Nice to have:
- Great physical fitness
- Lightning quick
- Elegant
Must have:
- Cricketing skills
- Mental strength
- Ability to perform under pressure
- Ability to come out of bad form
- Invent a new strength when your old one is invalid
Not important:
- Handsome
- Most artistic
- Powerful
After all, cricket is still a mental game; is'nt it?
Unlike most of the opinions, my line of thought is something I've stuck to. I've been telling this to all my friends for a long time now.
Before we move to the Indian cricket team, we must understand the game of cricket. Cricket requires three important skills:
- cricketing skills, like hand eye co-ordiantion, wrist turning etc., This will turn you into a good cricketer, giving you the flair that is required. Saqlain mushtaq came up with a different skill, the doosra, it was some time back, but he's nowhere to be seen now. There have been many players who have had a sparkle in their game that has taken them to the international level, because of their cricketing skill. Usually this alone cannot take you beyond a season. The first season, the cricketers will find a new skill slightly difficult, but laptops will come up with an answer sooner than later. There have been cricketing geniuses like Azharuddin, GR Vishwanath, Shane Warne, Muralitharan, Jayasurya, Tendulkar for whom the laptops had no answer. They tend to herald the art of cricket.
- physical stamina and endurance, some guys like Flintoff, Jayasurya etc., have great physical stamina. Players like Robin Singh could even get above the lack of cricketing skills with lot of physical stamina and determination. Its usually the younger guys that have better stamina. This kind of a strength usually results in highly energetic individuals acting like springs on the green surface. Makes for great viewing.
- The last but not the least is the mental stamina and fortitude. With the limited resources of cricketing skill and physical strength, a player can take his game to the next level by sheer mental strength. These players win matches, they might not score the most elegant four, they might not catch in the most acrobatic way, but they never fail in the crisis situations. Steve Waugh, Rahul Dravid, Viv Richards, Mohinder Amarnath, Sunil Gavaskar, Anil Kumble, many more come to my mind. Not as talented as their skilled counterparts, they make up for what they don't have by their mind play.
With these strengths in mind, if I were to design a system to select the best team (best here means - the one that will win most; not the one that is most acrobatic, not the one that is most elegant or artistic), I would put in mental stamina and fortitude as high on the requirement as possible. I would divide the selection into three major parts:
- I would probably make sure that state level associations have enough cricket games in short periods before they are selected to represent their states. I would make sure there are gyms and other facilities in each and every ground. Concentration would be on fielding. Thereby I would make sure that every guy who puts up his hand for state level selection is a physically fit person.
- The state team should consist of only talented individuals. Good selection committee members should be picking up talented individuals from a physically fit lot. For this a couple of changes that I would suggest are: make sure the selection committee decides on the basis of a camp or a short period instead of track records. Make sure the committee comes from outside the state concerned. Make sure the committee is appointed by BCCi and not the state board. BCCI can have a body of state level selectors who get rotated from state to state. This body can be a paid professional body. This would mean everyone who plays for the state is not just physically fit, but also the best skilled in the state.
- The final national team should be selected only on the basis of mental strength and attitude. After players have proven their worth in many many games at Ranji levels, they can be selected. Mike Hussey got selected after long years at Australian cricket, so did Mathew Hayden. In India we have a tradition of selecting people who do not have any sort of Ranji experience. Take Parthiv Patel for eg., he had not played even one Ranji trophy match, when he was selected. This selection should also take in an ability to relearn. ie., the player must have got out of form atleast once and should have regained form at Ranji level. This makes sure that at the national level, we do not waste time on people who do not know to reinvent themselves. The selection team, if you ask me should have atleast one psychiatrist who will tell you from observation if the player will perform under pressure or not. I can tell you of atleast one person Arjuna Ranatunga, who was the least fit in the Sri Lankan team, but he was mentally the strongest. We need people of such mental strength.
Implementing all these changes is not going to be easy, but its surely the way to go.
On an after thought, let me try and classify the different adjectives we use on cricketers:
Nice to have:
- Great physical fitness
- Lightning quick
- Elegant
Must have:
- Cricketing skills
- Mental strength
- Ability to perform under pressure
- Ability to come out of bad form
- Invent a new strength when your old one is invalid
Not important:
- Handsome
- Most artistic
- Powerful
After all, cricket is still a mental game; is'nt it?
posted by Vinay Murthy at 3:38 AM
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