Pakistan’s deserving young talent needs grooming, education
From Waheed Khan
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COLOMBO:** Listening to Sri Lankan all-rounder Farveez Maharoof talk about his cricket targets and ambitions in a confident and fluent manner here on Tuesday left one in no doubt that there is a lot of work to be done at many levels in Pakistan cricket if we are going to have a bright future.
One does not want to sound critical of the existing cricket system in Pakistan because there is no doubt that plenty of talent is being produced at the grass roots level but the area of concern is that it’s not being tapped properly nor are any efforts being made by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the affiliated units to start mentally grooming players for international cricket from an early age.
Which leaves one with a scenario that the Pakistan team today has the lowest number of players confident enough to speak not necessarily in English and inter fluently with the media and no representation from the last two youth World Cups.
For the last few years Pakistan surprisingly has done away with its policy of tapping talents at the under-19 levels and then showing the confidence to blood them at the highest level.
For the last few years the selection criteria for the senor team has revolved around the same bunch of players who have been playing domestic cricket for years now.
What is surprising is that while Pakistan have won the last two under-19 Youth World Cups in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, neither the national selectors nor the Board have been able to identify even one player from these two tournaments who is thought capable enough of graduating to the senior ranks with proper grooming and encouragement.
There are some players in the present Pakistan side like Faisal Iqbal, Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal who have represented their country at the under-15 and 19 levels but that was sometime back.
In contrast Sri Lanka and even India have gone for a policy of blooding youngsters from their recent under-19 teams. For example India played leg-spinner Piyush Chawla against England while there are four players in the current Sri Lankan pool — Maharoof, Upul Tharanga, Chamara Kapugedera and Nuwan Kulasekara — who have either played in the last two youth World Cups or at the under-19 levels recently.
“Sri Lanka is being served well by its schools cricket system. We not only get players confident enough to play at the highest level but confident and well-groomed to deal with the media attention that comes with national recognition,” a senior Sri Lankan journalist noted. Unfortunately in Pakistan the scenario is bleak in this regard and while one should never make fun of someone’s lack of education but we’ve reached a stage where the Board seriously needs to start thinking about evolving programmes that can groom and prepare players from rural and non-educated backgrounds to adjust to their roles as international professional cricketers.
One has heard too much light-hearted banter on the inability of most of our players to speak confidently and eloquently before the national or international media to now take this issue non-seriously anymore.
Many Sri Lankan administrators, players and journalists are surprised that the Pakistani selectors have not found any member of the under-19 team that recently won the World Cup in Colombo capable enough to start grooming by getting them attached with the senior team.
“Pakistan showed the way to the cricket world by investing heavily in young players a policy that paid rich dividends for them. It’s strange that now your selectors are reluctant to show confidence in your youngsters,” a former Sri Lankan player said.
One can only agree to such views because while continuity in selection is fine there is nothing wrong in channelling young blood into the team even as reserve players, something that was the hallmark of Pakistan cricket until recently. One gets a feeling that for example Pakistan’s search for a sensible and consistent opener could end at the junior level if the honorary selectors back home take time out from their jobs and focus on this issue. Sri Lanka has done it by focusing on Tharanga and unearthing a special talent.
After all it’s time the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and its regional units back home started serving their purpose instead of being white elephants by being centres for exploring young talent not only in cricket terms but also in terms of education and grooming.
No bhaari posts this time around.
