When confidence is being instilled in cricketers, it
is mentioned to them by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)
officials that representing your country is a
privilege: You should not take it lightly: Go out and
serve the country and nation with all your patriotic
zeal.
All this is true and indeed needed to bring the
spirits of the players up: However to me at the same
time, it looks odd, since the same PCB has appointed
foreign coach and trainers for these players: I am not
judging professionalism of these coaches and trainers:
But just think about it: How much patriotic can these
coaches and trainers be.
At present, the top four teams are South Africa, New
Zealand, England and Australia and they all have
performed well under local patriotic coaches,
physiotherapists and trainers.
Some how in sub-continental (Pakistan, India, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh), there is this notion that local
coaches and trainers are not good enough for the
national duty. There is this thinking that Lap-Top
Coaching can bring wonders. Yes: It is a good tool:
But then just remember who invented this tool:
Human-Beings. As such Human Brain is essential and far
superior than Lap-Top, otherwise we should begin to
use Robots. What we need is to begin and understand
that human beings can err, but eventually a local
brain understands all the encompassing issues better
than somebody foreign.
What a foreign coach fails to understand is that
people are brought up in different manner in
sub-continent. They are not used to doing weight
training on still machines. Also places where most of
cricket players in sub-continent live do not have snow
and/or extreme cold weather, which may require such
heavy training.
If you observe, even cricket players of western
countries are getting injured very often. In the 1970s
and 1980s, the injury level was 5%, but now it has
jumped to 35%. Look at the shoulder problems Waseem
faced, Saqi had knees problems, Azhar Mahmood has gone
through shoulder problems, Inzi has issues with knees
and back, Anderson has back ailment, Gough went
through painful knees, McGrath had shoulder and ankle
injuries,Anthony Gray back,Ian Bishop back, Mohammad Asif has issues with his
elbow,Shoaib Akhtar has shoulders and knees problems and the list goes on and on.
Why all these consistent fitness problems, which were
not there in the past. One of the reasons is this
weight and gym training on still machines, which is
totally inappropriate for cricketers. It may be
alright for athletes and players of some other sports,
but not cricket. However since going to gym is
considered modern and posh, it has been adopted
as fashion in cricket as well.
Another drawback of this kind of training is what many
of us have observed. A fast bowler starts his career
and has excellent pace. After few years, his speed
goes down. This is because of the extra wings like
muscles of shoulders and biceps that get developed due
to this weight training in the gym. The way these
muscles develop, it becomes difficult to maintain the
same high pace.example Irfan Pathan and Muhammad Sami
During WC’03, we met the famous West Indian Trainer
Dennis Waight, who served well Windies for 25 years.
He told us to avoid the use of weights in gym: Instead
do long jogging, short running sprints, brisk walk,
push-ups and swimming. He said that Viv Richards and
Malcolm Marshall used to do around 900 push-ups and
swim a lot. That is why the batsmen and fast bowlers
of the 1970s and 1980s were more fit; while now-a-days
it has become regular for fast bowlers to get injured.
People feel that it is due to the amount of cricket:
But actually it is due to wrong manner of training.
Another thing a western coach misses is evident from
the way world soccer is being played: In Brazil, they
look around and work very hard in identifying talent
across their country, while Europe has more than
1,000 academies. Yes: Academies are good, but
eventually we do not need to produce robots: We need
to produce world-class cricketers and the local
experience in Pakistan from late 1970s and then 80s is
that Pakistanis were able to excel in this sports
after spotting much of the talent through the services
of several former cricketers, although in late 60s
and early 70s, Pakistani players got much of their
training in County Cricket.
Again I am not disputing that there is no use of
county cricket and that knowledge and experience from
outside should not be gained: The main point is that
eventually the success lies in local development: Good
facilities and streamlined system provided by Pakistan
Cricket Board: And coaches, players and other team
staff perform with devotion and zeal: And this passion
will be possible, only when all of this troupe is
local and filled with patriotism.
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