Sri Lanka ideal destination to develop youngsters for big events -Chappell and Hick

By Ranjan Anandappa

INTERNATIONAL CRICKET: Frequent tours by foreign teams will undoubtedly help both the visiting and the home team immensely in developing youngsters in their future endeavours ,and the Australia Under 19 cricketers who are playing a series of limited over games along with a three-day match, are here with two high profile personalities Greg Chappell (Manager) _ the former Australian captain and Graeme Hick (Coach). The Zimbabwe born, English cricketer to assist them in preparation for the next Youth World Cup to be held in Bangladesh next year.

Both, Chappell and Hick who were here earlier this year with a Australian Under 19 team in preparation of the World Cup (2014) which was held in the UAE, feels that Sri Lanka is the ideal destination to prepare for the event sighting the similar type of wickets and conditions.

Like Chappell, Hick is no stranger to Sri Lanka, having toured the Island with the Zimbabwe team prior to Sri Lanka gaining full Test status and thereafter touring with the England Test team under Nassar Hussain. Hick took up the under 19 coaching job two years ago and together with Greg Chappell is confident that he could build a match winning combination for the future.

Born in Salisbury, Rhodesia, (now Zimbabwe), Hick has represented England in 65 Test matches and 120 ODI from the day he made his Test debut for England in 1991 against the West Indies.

He made his last appearance in Test cricket against Sri Lanka in 2001 and had accumulated

3383 runs with six Test hundreds. He had 18 hundreds in his ODI career. Hick is the only cricketer to score three first class triple hundreds in three different decades in 1988, 1997 and 2002).

At the age of 16, he was included in the Zimbabwe 1983 World Cup squad the youngest player ever, but was unable to find a place in the final eleven. The Sunday Observer interviewed Hick exclusively and the excerpts of the interview...

Q: What is the main purpose of the Aussie Under 19 tour of Sri Lanka? It is said to be in preparation for the Youth World Cup to be held in Bangladesh next year.

A: It is to give the kids the opportunities, we will be going to India as well. We also came here before the World Cup which was held in the UAE early this year. Sri Lanka is a lovely place to come and a good place to bring the kids. The people here are passionate about cricket and it is competitive coming over here. The visitors don't come expecting to win, but it is a real challenge for them. Australia will be going to England, and next year in October the Sri Lankan under 19 side will be coming to Australia and it's all about giving the boys opportunities and experience as well and developing them into good players.

Q: In Sri Lanka the schools play a big role in selecting the Under 19 team. What is the criteria in Australia in selecting an Under 19 team?

A: In Australia we have the States. They select their best in the under 17,18 and under 19 championships and select the best players and have the annual State Championship. This year, the Under 17's are at Hobart just before Christmas for two weeks and the Under 19 in January in Adelaide. That's how the team is been selected. When you select them as under 17's you got two years and we will be working towards the Bangladesh World Cup.

Q: In Sri Lanka school cricket is very popular, is it the same in Australia?

A: I have not seen the school cricket system here, but I have heard when the two main schools meet each other annually there is a crowd of over ten to twenty thousand. It is typical Sri Lankan who are so passionate of the game. In that sense school cricket may be a little bit stronger here, in Australia we try to get the kids playing club and grade cricket earlier. We really try to get them if they are good enough at the ages of 14 or 15 years. We get them playing with men and let them grow quickly as a person and to be a challenge.

Q: Since the retirement of Shane Warne, Australia has not been able to produce a spinner of Warne's calibre. Do you think that in the near future or in the present under 19 team you could find a spinner even close to match him among the youngsters?

A: You are talking about one of the absolute legends of the game. It's like trying to replace Viv Richards or Sri Lanka trying to match 'Murali'. These people don't come by everyday. We see some talented lads, they can be very good leg-spinners or off spinners and whether they are going to be as good as the legends or better one could never say. There used to be great bowlers, but they would not end up with many wickets. You could find some high quality players, but great players are very hard to replace.

Q: With the game changing rapidly with the T20's, some people may say that they are not bothered about technique as long as you can hit the ball. Don't you think that technique is the base for any batsman to succeed.?

A: Yes, I have seen players categorised as T20 players and when you watch them play you think that if they had a better technique they would have hit the ball cleaner and perform well in that format of the game. But I feel, coaches may emphasize much on better technique, but in some cases good technique alone doesn't help in striking the ball cleanly.

Q: With the invention of T20, the game has changed rapidly, with even Test matches being more result oriented and the matches ending in three or two and half days?

A: In general the game has got a bit faster. With high scoring . Australia really forced that issue a few years ago when they had their great side and had the players who could do that. The combination of that , for me of course a lot of players coming through have lost the the art batting all day. It may be due to lack of patience, or lack of technique, certainly you don't see many players out there batting the whole day as we use to see. Test cricket is all about posting big innings and big scores. We see more in the sub-continent, you can look at the domestic game here and in India, we see scores over 500 or 600 plus runs being made, but you don't see this often in the rest of the world cricket.

Q: Tell, something about the ICC's stand on the bowlers with suspected actions and bringing them to book?

A: Yes, the rules are there. I am really glad that the ICC's stand having the courage to pull-up some bowlers on the issue. The rules are there and cricket is an honest game and the players have to abide by the laws. If some one's action is suspect you got to test it, and if it's proven clear, it's fine and he can continue playing. If not, it should be rectified, and the player then can play or otherwise shouldn't play. It's simple as that. The rules are there and play the players should abide by the rules.

Q: As a player you have been playing in Sri Lanka on a couple of occasions. How do you see the progress of the Sri Lanka national team then and now?

A: The Sri Lanka team fluctuates around three or four great players. As they come and go, at the moment, Jayawardene has just retired from Test cricket and with Sangakkara, Murali retired and Malinga in, the team is a nucleus formed of four or five quality players, with the rest of the team rallying around them. It just depends on how those players perform. I do not know how long Sangakkara is going to carry on. May be, he has another couple of years.

Obviously when he retires, there will be a gap. But Sri Lanka is going to fill it because they have enough players out there. You hope that some of those youngsters will come through and convert themselves into great players. At the moment Herath is bowling beautifully, very accurate and getting a lot of wickets. Sri Lanka was very competitive, especially in one-day cricket and in Test cricket played here, it is very hard to beat them.