Cricket Time with Ex- India A Cricketer

Please don't accept any request from Instagram because it seems that there is a fake account created in my name. Thanks. Arindam Sarkar.

Old Memories

A GREAT CONGRATULATIONS TO MY FRIEND DEVANG GANDHI ON HIS NEW ROLE

Firstly a heartiest congratulations to the New Zealand boys for lifting up the First WTC. They planned exceptionally and executed it to perfection.
But arguably I saw a lot of technical errors in judgement, assessment and application on our part. Let's start with a few which I observed, the first was we forgot where we were playing, England not South Africa or Australia. In the UK the most difficult part is to adjust to the moving ball as far as batting is concerned, pace here is not much of a worry, we have seen over the years Kapil Dev, Sir Iain Botham, Terry Alderman were not super quicks, but were very effective in fact the great Past Malom Marshall said when I bowl in England I cut down on pace and try to make the ball move. so not picking Bhubaneswar Kumar( who can also bat) was a mistake, Looking at the conditions and the forecast, playing 2 spinners was a legacy, we also didn't think about the ball we were playing with, "DUKE" not "KOOKABURA" the Duke ball holds it hardness and shine for a lot longer period hence playing against a KOOKABURA ball gets easier as the innings progresses unlike the DUKE ball. Except for Shami all our 2 quicks were similar hit the deck bowlers. we have now got used to playing power cricket and bowling at 145kmph, forgotten how to play the moving ball at 135kmph, hard hands, front press., forgotten soft hands and going back and across, rather keep our feet planted because now we are used to clear our front leg to play T-20 cricket. The Kiwis were picture perfect with their planning and none of our batsman were let to drive, the got plenty to score of the back foot but the fault in their feet movement didn't allow them to do so.
Having played cricket in the Uk for 20 years at different levels it is essential to mix patience and aggression, we lacked there, we were too defensive, look at the yester years of batsmen who were successful in England, Sourav and Sachin none of them were over cautious, Rahul was an exception as none of our players can back up with the kind of flawless technique which he had.
Remember England's Test series win in India in 2013 where we couldn't handle Monty Panesar and Greame Swann, they were prepared and applied their plan.
It is going to be torrid time in UK for the next 5 tests, we have the firepower and the ability but need better application if we are to do better in the tests to come.

Following my comments on strength and fitness which has taken over everything from the morden sport the reason I think kids u-17 + should not hit the gym is we first have to train our minds to the rotary movements of the sport i.e. bowlers should try and bowl as much as they can as it develops the bowling muscles and batsmen to try and hit as many balls possible to get their hand eye co-ordination going. We should not forget that the sport is all about repetition if we can manage to bowl a perfect delivery or hit a a perfect cover drive and if we can repeat the same over and over again day after day we will not have to bother. We can get a hundred when we bat or 5 wickets when we bowl . However that doesn't happen as our body reacts differently from a day to day basis. Moreover so in our growing years which is till 18. I have seen over 30 years so many young prodigies fade away in adult cricket. As the game they play as teenagers tend to change on a regular basis. Hence my take on strength and fitness till you are 17+ is use your body weight for strength and fitness, stretching exercises to keep your muscles relaxed, focus on cardio exercises, and rotary muscle movements which can build your cricketing muscles... Thank you for your patronage and keep following me for more views and what I have observed on the sport.....

If you can marry . Technique, Talent, and experience, you become exemplary, keep following for the next post about strength and fitness...

Cricket Time with Ex- India A Cricketer Interactive sessions about coaching with the Coach

I last time shared about strength and fitness in coaching cricket, as a BCCI Match Referee I had observed that in today's cricket batsmen are hitting sixes far more than we use to in our days may it be younger u-16 year kids or definitely the older ones and bowlers are generally bowling 135 + kmph or more. In order of my observations I had a word with one of India's finest strength and fitness trainers and many more knowledgeable people about it. Thru my experience with my playing days and coaching now I find a lot of parents think that for strength and fitness hitting the gym is essential. I unfortunately beg to differ on that point and think that it is not necessary to hit the gym before you are 17+. Rather use your own body weight and do strength exercises, there are plenty of things you can do without hitting the gym. Cricket is a game of rotary muscle movement, rather a static one. More to follow on this in the next post......... Take care and keep following me for my next post..

Some time now I have been thinking how and what the game changes possess challenge to us as coaches, one thing I have found out is strength and fitness, please follow my next post at my observations....

Why is our parents of future cricketers running behind IPL and not make their kind a good player, is the sport all about MONEY......