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| Sunday, 8 December 2002 |
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Fanie de Valliers says conditions most important From RANJAN ANANDAPPA in South Africa Former South Africa Test speedster Fanie de Valliers said that the South African conditions will be the prime foe and not the player during the cricket World Cup to be staged in February next year. "As long as the teams are aware of the local conditions they are bound to perform well", said de Valliers. "Meet the demands of the conditions. As long as you keep that in mind you are on the right track. The two most important aspects to impress are to play in those conditions and keep away from injury," he stressed. "Whenever we are on tour let it be Sri Lanka or any other country we seek the advice of a knowledgeable player of that country of the behaviour of the pitch and even the stronger points and the weak points of players," de Valliers said. "None of the players or a member of the management of the Sri Lankan team came to any of us to do that as we were readily prepared to assist them," he noted. "In different countries gauging the length of a short pitched ball, bouncer, and full pitched ball differs. There were Kepler Wessels, Pat Symcox and myself to impart our experience to anyone who approached us not only on pitches, but even on the shortcomings of the players like Jacques Kallis, Herschelle Gibbs and Greame Smith to name a few", he said. De Valliers said that the Lankans have two good fast bowlers who could develop into match winners. Dilhara Fernando and Prabath Nissanka should be trained and nurtured well for them to be a real threat to the opposition. Kumar Sangakkara too, had impressed him as a batsman. "Fast bowlers should work to a schedule prepared by the coach and files should be maintained to monitor their progress. Video tapes should be studied. Injury areas, finesse, fitness, strength, muscle development and nutrition are important aspects". "Modern day cricket no longer resembles the cricket played in the past. Everybody plays attacking cricket to win, so when one team attacks how can the other go on the defence?" "You should be innovative to win and take a gamble. Nothing ventured nothing gained," said de Valliers who was a member of the South African team when they toured Sri Lanka for the first time. "However, the approach of the modern day Asian teams are different from the past. They earlier had the belief that they had to struggle a bit while facing face bowlers from countries like Australia, West Indies and South Africa, but now that belief has been dispelled," said de Valliers. |
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