Serious concerns have been expressed by many about the future of Test
cricket. But neither the nature of pitches nor the one-sidedness of
matches will kill Test cricket as quickly as will the flawed attitude of
players. The manner in which huge sums of money are being given to
young players will have a direct bearing on their attitude.
When, in 2002, a 14-year-old, curly haired and extremely hyper Ravindra
Jadeja joined the Cricket Club of India academy his first glimpse
reminded the coaches of the talent of Salim Durrani, who hails from
Jamnagar, the same place as Jadeja. The coaches: Nari Contractor,
Hanumant Singh and Vasu Paranjpe would call him junior Salim.
Not only did Jadeja have loads of talent, he had the guts to perform in
crunch situations. Once, in a match against the Mumbai under-22 team, he
kept telling the coaches to send him in at No. 3, but to no avail.
Eventually when he did go in, the required rate was very high.
He hooked, pulled and lofted the tall bowlers with ease. Some bowlers
engaged in sledging, but Jadeja gave it back to them by winning the game
comfortably for his side. The cocky guy that he was, he proclaimed to
the coaches that he was better than his colleagues.
Jadeja's talent in whatever he did made Raj Singh Dungarpur think of
playing him for Rajasthan, just as Kailash Gattani did when he was 14.
Very impressive
So impressed were the coaches that they were confident Jadeja would play
Test cricket for India before he was out of his teens. He showed
amazing wicket-taking ability and was a very good fielder off his own
bowling. While batting he not only displayed a wide range of shots but
also knew how to tackle situations. He had a lovely pick-up and throw as
well.
A school drop-out, the only thing he knew was that he had to make
cricket his livelihood. He did exceedingly well for Saurashtra and says
Shane Warne's advice helped him in his approach towards the game.
The money factor made him master the art of succeeding in the shorter
formats of the game, thereby giving the impression that he was not cut
out for bowling long spells, which is not true. Sadly, it is the ‘more
money for less work' mindset that he seems to be happy with.
Nari Contractor has a point when he says, “Jadeja is good enough to play
the longer formats but if his mindset remains at restricting the
batsmen rather than getting them out, he can't be successful in Tests.
For the IPL, we must pick players who have performed in a certain number
of first class matches. This is the only remedy to work on their
mindsets.”
By taking into consideration only the performances in the shorter
formats of the game, we are letting talented youngsters think solely of
monetary gain. This is affecting the skill level that we see in Tests.
If we go by Contractor's logic, we will get to watch talented players
develop further by playing in the longer format of the game, as it
really tests all the vital aspects of the game.
Jadeja has hit the jackpot. Hopefully we haven't seen the last of this
player because not many have succeeded in handling fat cheques.
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