I have just finished a stint of coaching the Australian Cricket Board's junior players at Chennai for the second year in a row. This has become an annual feature for the ACB to expose their Academy wards to some expert guidance. One has to experience it to believe the forward planning of Australian cricket.

Before I touch upon how the coaching went off, I must say the Indian Board has shown tremendous imagination under the present Board President AC Muthiah and Raj Singh the Chairman of the National Cricket Academy. These two administrators have extended the wings of the NCA by having zonal centres. This is an excellent move. The five zonal academies will now give mofussil players in their respective regions access to quality infrastructure. Cricket as we all know is the most popular game in this country. Most parents these days want their sons and daughters to don the Indian colours and the sight at various cricket camps is actual proof of that.

I was lucky enough to be involved with the NCA last summer as a consultant. The Board's step of setting up the Academy is an open platform for aspirants and the results of the effort are there for everyone to see, with five trainees taking part against Australia in the recent series. I have noticed that the NCA has a plan based on the ACB's own Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy which means it is not too far fetched a dream that the Indian team will be as successful as the Aussies in the near future.

Here I must mention my experiences of interacting with the junior Australians who went through a camp for two weeks under Bishen and me. They had been briefed well about their visit to Chennai. They were told about whom they would be interacting with and the respect that coaches enjoy in cricketing circles here. Above all they had read many articles by Australian as well as English critics. Their inquisitiveness was amazing. They didn't have any inhibitions about the type of question they asked. At times it looked ridiculous but they were not shy. They wanted to learn and had realised the ACB had invested on them so that in a year or two they would be playing for Australia.

To quote an example we advised one of the left arm spinners to bowl round the wicket to a right hander to get the advantage of the ball drifting in and leaving the bat. The boys realised the advantage but to get the doubt cleared they asked me, "Do you go round to a left handed batsman"? Even though I was foxed for a couple of seconds I appreciated their logic but told them that unless the off spinner can take the ball across the stumps, the lefthander will get the ball away with the meat of his bat. Also by going over the wicket to a lefthander I can make use of the batsman's blind spot when his eye, elbow and the pitch of the ball are all in line. That's why I always preferred to bowl over the wicket even to a lefthander. However if the wicket is responsive and the ball is turning I would put in a request to bowl round the stumps. This illustration is only to show how keen their interaction was. On the other hand I find the Indian boys more reserved and whenever I stood next to an off spinner at the nets they wouldn't even like to talk to us. The same sort of initiative to learn is not there on our side.

When the youngsters have been provided such a fine platform, their progress depends on how effectively they interact with the coaches and make use of the available expertise. If they are not convinced on any point they must request coaches to demonstrate what they say. The boys must put their heart and soul into the effort to graduate as confident and thinking cricketers. The Board is doing everything to upgrade the profile of this glorious game all over the country so that it will continue to thrive and throw up many competitive players. We are all here to learn more and give back something to this game. After all no one is greater than the game itself.

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