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| Sunday, 11 September 2005 |
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Adding muscle to the national drive is the correct thing - Trevor Chappell by Ranjan Anandappa Trevor Chappell, the younger brother of the illustrious Chappell brothers Ian and Greg believes that the Sri Lankan cricket authorities are on the right track to take the game which is the number one sport here, to world heights by developing its indoor facilities the 'academy' concept. Chappell, who is here on a coaching stint with the Fingara Cricket Academy told the Sunday Observer cricket is the main sport in Sri Lanka where it is a different situation in Australia where tennis, swimming and water sports are as competitive as cricket, Sri Lanka cricket gets the pick of the athletes," he said. "Sri Lanka has made vast progress in cricket. In the one-day game, they are presently being rated quite high at number two in the world. In Test cricket they are ranked somewhere in the centre, having progressed in the past number of years. So it is the right thing that Sri Lanka Cricket is doing where the situation needs to bring in such indoor facilities to add muscle to its national drive," added Chappell. He reiterated that since Sri Lanka had made vast progress in the last 23 years since gaining full Test status, it was time for the next step to be taken in developing the cricket academies. Fingara Cricket Academy, with an Australian flavour in just two months, have shown tremendous progress by the intake of cricketers from ninety students to two hundred and eighty and it is dedicated to supply the cricketers that the country needs in the future. Tony Opatha, the Executive Director has gone a step further as he will be making a tour to Bangladesh, and the Far East in search of new avenues for cricketers in those countries like Singapore, HongKong etc. to reach higher levels in today's competitive game of cricket. He will be looking forward for a player-exchange programme so that it could benefit all inspiring cricketers in those countries. Besides Fingara, Opatha would like to welcome many academies that will benefit the cricketers. The multi-million project financed by the Ceylinco Group and headed by Tony Opatha a former Sri Lanka fast bowler who has all the credentials to be the Executive Director of the Academy, having represented the country in two World Cups and having the distinction of being a regular member of the national side during his days, has the backing of a dynamic team of officials and coaches to fulfil their aim in producing quality cricketers. The Academy has most of the modern equipment. It includes the bio-mechanism, specialised people to handle the players, VCD filming so that the players could study their progress, three bowling machines, five nets, a cricket shop, library, gymnasium, swimming pool, facilities of a coffee shop, viewing gallery for the parents, TV sets for the parents to watch their sons in action while at practice. Once in three months there is a parent-coach meeting and a progress report will be submitted to the parents on the players development. "These players are extremely lucky, the players in years gone by did not have the opportunities of enjoying this sort of thing. We are also planning to help under - priviledged children," said Opatha. "Cricket is not only emphasising one hundred percent on technique, it is about fifty percent technique and the rest is a mental game where you should build mental toughness to overcome pressure situations during a game. A batsman could be technically perfect, but it is of no use if he hasn't the ability to master the pressure situation , the Aussies are the best in dealing with this type of situation and that's why most of the countries employ them as coaches to improve the skills of the players," he said. The Fingara Cricket Academy wishes to have at least one overseas coach all the time. Earlier they had John Dyson and now he has been replaced by Trevor Chappell, the youngest of the Chappell brothers who was once the Sri Lanka national team's fielding coach. Talking about players with potential, Chappell said that he had come
across a few, basically all youngsters looked good, but to tell whether they
are going to represent the country or not is difficult. The potential is
there and it is really upto the individual to make best use of the
opportunities. You can't coach that, instead we can talk to them about the
technique and so on, but the will to want to go on and do it, is left to the
individual," Trevor Chappell said. |
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