Sacking Nobbs is no solution

The catalogue of sacked hockey coaches is enlarging. While the advocacy from many sections continues to see the foreign coach as a panacea, the results are proving contrary.

Four coaches have endured uncomfortable tenures, each leaving a trail of unpleasantness, complaining of maltreatment by officials, bureaucracy and the players.

There is no surprise how the Michael Nobbs episode played out. The Aussie was under pressure to show results after India finished last in the London Olympics. The recent failure in the HWL in Rotterdam only hurried his exit.

Apart from a victory at the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy at Ordos (Mongolia), Nobbs’s record is anything but exemplary even granting the success in the Olympic qualifier against mediocre opposition.

Starting from the adventurist appointment of Gerhard Rach before the Athens Olympics, the saga of foreign coaches is a poor commentary the administration’s vision. Ric Charlesworth’s brief tenure and that of Spaniard Jose Brasa ended in failure. The latest in the procession is the hapless Aussie.

Showing the door to coaches for failures is no remedy. A combination of factors makes foreign coaches feel shackled from day one. There are too many command structures to confuse them. Constant scrutiny from former coaches/players, media and administrators inhibit them a good measure.

The failure has also been on account of the meagre talent available to them. Whatever the input, it is extremely difficult to mould a team that is basically mediocre, deficient in fundamentals and in poor physical shape to counter the energy, enterprise and efficiency of European outfits. India struggles to share points even with a country like Ireland.

The Nobbs era is behind us. It is time to look ahead. What course Hockey India is charting remains unclear.

The ball is in Roelant Oltmans’s court. The High Performance Coach will be the caretaker till the Asia Cup next month at Ipoh where India faces a must-win situation to seal a place to the World Cup 2014.

On credentials, the Dutchman is more than a substitute to Nobbs. But he must deal with the same situations and circumstances as Nobbs. He has no magic wand to transform everything. His stint in Pakistan was a flop compared to that of his colleague — Hans Jorritsma — who steered the team to win in the 1994 World Cup at Sydney.

No sustained effort

Hockey India cannot escape blame for the current impasse. There has been no sustained effort to enlarge the base. The dual administration and separate national tournaments have scattered talent and destroyed many. HI should seriously consider granting amnesty to players who figured in the PHL. Only this will bring more players to the national fold for the coaches/selectors to evaluate.

It would be naïve to assume that no differences existed between Nobbs and Oltmans on matters of coaching. Both were together for the last few months with the national teams.

One is tempted to recall the famous quote of the stalwart coach, Balkishen Singh who said: “Coaches are like watches, no two of them agree.” That probably rings true today.

Curing cricket’s attention deficit disorder

In this instant digital age of the iPod, iPad, iPhone, SMS messaging, Twitter and Facebook, is it any wonder that people find it hard to stay focused? When one throws in television, I am not surprised that the attention span of young people today has supposedly dropped to around seven minutes; the average time between ad-breaks in most TV shows.

The common refrain that I hear from cricket coaches around the world is that young batsmen are so exposed to short-form cricket that they don’t know how to play a long innings. Many of these coaches have tried myriad ways to get their young charges to learn to bat for long periods.

If one wants to develop the skill of concentration, then one has to practice it as assiduously as their physical skills. We know that the human body reacts well to diet and exercise; so does the human brain. Our brain, like our body, is a product of its training.

Batting for long periods is about focusing on the process, rather than the outcome.

Michelangelo , for instance, did not think about the finished article when he painted the Sistine Chapel; it was about the subject, light, colours and personal flair. Each little process was conducted with great diligence, the end result is just that... an end result... but what a result!

Modern players such as Cook, Trott, Amla, Kallis, Jayawardena, Sangakkara, Clarke and Pujara have developed their mind-power to play long innings as did Dravid and Laxman before them.

Breaking it down

My own experience was that, to bat for long periods, I had to break my innings down and train myself to play one ball at a time. Once I acquired this skill, I found batting for long periods became easier.

Prior to this, I had tried to concentrate non-stop by forcing myself to focus fiercely from the time I walked in until I got out. During this period, I tried to follow the bowler and the ball for the whole over so that I didn’t lose concentration.

What I found during this phase, was that I tired very quickly and actually began to make mistakes after a relatively short period of time. If I did succeed using this method, I was usually so tired that I couldn’t relax easily afterwards and I was generally ‘flat’ for a few days.

On reflection, it dawned on me that this method was bound to fail and I had to find an alternative method. The alternative I chose was to train myself to concentrate for one ball at a time.

Concentration is the ability to focus on what is important at that moment.

From that point, my practice sessions became a contest with myself to see how well I could manage the conflicting messages in my head. Training was no longer an exercise in polishing my technique, but a mental exercise in engaging with the bowler at the appropriate time.

What I learnt to do was to switch-on to the bowler once he reached his bowling mark. The fiercest concentration was saved for the time that the bowler reached his delivery stride until that particular play was finished.

In between balls, I had a quick look into the crowd to give my mind a break before returning my attention to the field of play. I re-engaged with the bowler again once he got back to his mark.

The look into the crowd was an important part of my concentration routine. If I was playing at home, I would pick out someone whom I knew to look for. I astounded my family and friends when, at the end of the day, I could tell them what time they had arrived at the ground, who they had spoken to and what time they had a drink or something to eat.

Once I perfected this routine, I was never fatigued during play nor was I exhausted at the end of a long innings. Effectively, I had only concentrated at full intensity for a matter of minutes, even if I batted all day.

One of the challenges for me during net sessions with multiple bowlers was not to face up to the next ball until I was switched-on to the next bowler. It took me a while to get my routine down pat, but once I got into the flow of it, I found it easier to get into the ‘zone’.

Interestingly, I actually faced fewer balls in my allocated practice time once I started doing this, but actually felt that I was getting more out of my net sessions. Once I perfected my mental routine, I found it exciting to see how long I could bat before I made a mental mistake.

Mental training a must

At an elite level, the challenge for coaches is to understand that this mental training is the most important thing that a batsman has to learn. For a batsman to turn potential into consistent performance, he must first learn the ‘inner game’ of cricket, which is the ability to keep his mind from wandering from the key issues.

Most batsmen get themselves out long before the bowler does it. I learnt early in my career that I was getting myself out 90 per cent of the time. No doubt the bowler played his part by putting me under pressure, but, if I was to be honest with myself, it was invariably a mental mistake that brought me undone.

The other important insight that I had during my introspection was that I was unlikely to change those percentages. If I was to make enough runs to keep being selected, I had to learn how to delay the inevitable mistake.

It was after this epiphany that my career took an upward turn and only nose-dived during the periods that I got distracted from my routine.

In these periods of distraction (or inadvertent neglect), batting became more difficult to resolve than Fermat’s last theorem.

Eventually, I would come to my senses, revert to my routine and, hey presto, the runs would flow again!

It reminded me of what Yogi Berra, the former New York Yankees baseball player, coach and clever quip artist said of his sport: “Baseball is ninety per cent mental; the other half is physical.”

If today’s coaches want batsmen to occupy the crease for longer periods, they need to cure their attention deficit disorder first.

Things to be learnt from the Indian model

As Albert Camus put it: “You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.”

I have long believed that the best way to learn how to play cricket is to play a lot of it. As I watch the under-19 tri-series between India, Australia and New Zealand, currently underway in Darwin, I am even more convinced.

The gulf in experience between the Indian players and the Australian and New Zealand lads here seems as wide as the geographical distance between South Asia and Australasia. It will only get bigger unless we can replicate what India is doing.

Simply put, young cricketers in India play more cricket than their antipodean peers. At the youth level, India is years ahead of countries like Australia and New Zealand because they play so much more cricket. Also, young athletes in Australasia have multiple sports vying aggressively for their participation and involvement.

To compound the disparity, cricket has a monopoly on the best talent in India, and has hundreds of thousands of players to choose from.

What keeps Australia competitive is its proud cricketing history and a highly developed combative instinct.

At the youth level, the deficit in experience is swinging the pendulum further towards the sub-continent.

The young cricketer in India has access to better equipment than ever before and the BCCI is investing dramatically more resources at the youth level, than previously.

Better coaches, more support staff, increased competitions and pay for playing, all add up to a very attractive environment for young cricketers in India. Those who get through to the national u-19 team have almost experienced the life of a professional cricketer from the age of 14 or 15.

Those who survive the rigours are hardened young cricketers by the time they play in a youth World Cup.

Current Indian u-19 player, Sarfaraz Khan, for instance, has a score of 439, four scores of 300-plus and six scores of 200-plus to his name already, and is only 15 years of age! He trains and plays cricket nearly every day.

The Australian boys, by comparison, come out of school cricket having played a few hours a week, for a few months of the year.

Cricket clashes with the most important academic years of their young lives, and in some cases it may even be their second or third sport at school.

The chance to score 400 in a single game just does not exist because games here do not last long enough.

Widening gap

Resources for young Australian cricketers are adequate, without being exceptional. Much of the drive for their career development must come from the individual and a supportive family environment.

The State Associations in Australia do an excellent job of identifying the best young talent.

They are then exposed at national championships at u-17 and u-19 levels. From there, the best will go on to a four-day u-18 talent camp from which the u-19 national squad is selected.

It is from this point that the previous lack of playing time is compensated for, with training camps and the odd series — such as the one underway in Darwin — to prepare them for the Youth World Cup.

Whilst Australia is doing this very well, I expect that what India is doing, at this level, will leave its competitors in their wake.

However, the biggest challenge for Indian cricket is to get better at converting junior cricketers into international representatives at the senior level. Currently less than one in four makes the grade — which is far too few.

One of the reasons for not achieving a higher conversion rate must be indifference.

This indifference is not punished because there are so many Indian youngsters playing the game and with myriad competition, others, including those who mature later, come along and fill the gaps.

Australian cricket does not have any such luxury. Once they have identified a promising youngster they must be very efficient with their conversion rate to senior ranks.

Recent results suggest that Australia does this quite well with bowlers, but have not been as successful in transitioning young batsmen.

James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, all recent graduates from the youth programme, have made their mark on the international stage.

There are great challenges for all countries to keep producing talent, but the one lesson that we can all learn from India is that the best way to do it is to play as much competitive cricket as possible at the youth level.

England hits back after the Siddle show

A breathless opening day to the first Ashes test at Trent Bridge saw Australia reach 75-4 at stumps on Wednesday, trailing England by 140 runs.

In an electrifying evening session, the hosts were dismissed for 215, with Peter Siddle claiming 5-50, only for England to roar back into the contest as James Anderson (2-25) and Steven Finn (2-37) ran through the tourists’ top order.

Steve Smith, Australia’s top-scorer with 38 not out, survived to the close with Phillip Hughes, who was unbeaten on 7.

Earlier, paceman Siddle tormented England’s top order before James Pattinson took 3-69 and Mitchell Starc 2-54 to mop up the tail.

Jonathan Trott was England’s top-scorer with 48, from 80 balls with nine fours, while Jonny Bairstow made 37 from 51 balls. Australia took England’s last four wickets for just two runs in the space of 14 balls.

Australia’s selectors sprang a surprise before the toss by giving a debut to 19-year-old Ashton Agar a left-arm finger spinner who has played only 10 first-class matches, but it was Siddle who stole the show.

England, which preferred Finn to Tim Bresnan and Graham Onions, won the toss and opted to bat on a slow track with a rapid outfield, a decision that looks to have backfired.

Pattinson made a jittery start, bowling the first ball of the series so high it was called for a wide, but he atoned in the ninth over.

With the ball swinging around in the overcast conditions, Alastair Cook (13) was living dangerously until Pattinson tempted him to drive away from his body and nick the ball to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

Trott, however, belied his reputation for caution with an aggressive innings and stroked Agar’s first ball in test cricket a full toss through the covers for four.

Siddle was innocuous and expensive in his first four overs, but his first delivery from the Radcliffe Road End brilliantly yorked Joe Root for 30 to lift Australia’s spirits.

Kevin Pietersen edged Pattinson down the leg side in the 23rd over, but although Haddin’s diving attempt at a catch failed, the batsman perished in the second over after lunch when he edged Siddle to Clarke at second slip for 14.

The prize wicket of Trott came when he chased a wide delivery from Siddle in the 36th over and dragged the ball onto his stumps.

A livid Trott made a move to smash the stumps with his bat and stopped himself.

England made a partial recovery as Bairstow and Bell put on 54 before Bell was out for 25 when he edged Siddle to Shane Watson at third slip.

Siddle claimed his fifth wicket when Matt Prior tried to drive another wide delivery through point and was caught by Phillip Hughes.

Stuart Broad began the evening session with a counterattacking 24 from 30 balls before he holed out to Pattinson and was caught and bowled although only after umpire Aleem Dar checked Pattinson hadn’t bowled a no—ball as the bowler’s foot skidded over the crease as he released the ball.

With the first ball of the next over, the 58th, Bairstow’s off stump was sent cartwheeling by Mitchell Starc, who had Finn caught behind off his next ball, a decision the batsman unsuccessfully referred.

Anderson survived the hat-trick ball and a referral for lbw on the final ball of the over, but the innings was wrapped up when Graeme Swann wafted Pattinson to Hughes at cover.

Australia made a bright start with Shane Watson racing to 13, but in the fourth over he edged Finn to Root at third slip and the contest was turned on its head.

Finn was bowling only because Broad was off the field receiving treatment for a shoulder injury , but his next ball removed Ed Cowan for a golden duck, caught at second slip by Swann and the hat-trick ball missed Michael Clarke’s bat by millimeters.

Clarke survived only to the seventh over, when he was bowled by a superb delivery from Anderson without scoring.

Chris Rogers (16) was lbw to Anderson in the 15th over after an unsuccessful referral.

The tourists were teetering but Smith carried the fight to England, hitting Swann over his head for six, leaving the test fascinatingly poised at stumps.