Don’t replicate one-day stars straightaway!
THE exciting displays of power hitting that have been on TV screens on an almost daily basis during the Champions Trophy will persuade a lot of youngsters to take up the game of cricket.
However, they look set to be in for a shock, when they turn up for the first time for net practice at their local cricket grounds.
For a top London club coach has told TCP that before they can start trying to switch-hit sixes over the third-man boundary they have to get a good grasp of basic batting techniques.
Dave Burton is one of the coaching team at Richmond where around 500 boys and girls aged between seven and 15 turn up for net practice twice a week and play matches on Sunday.
And he has witnessed many instances where they have tried to play shots which simply do not figure in many traditional coaching manuals.
“I often see kids trying to play shots they have seen on TV and when they are trying to hit the ball back over their own heads it can often be painful when they miss it,” said Burton.
“I just ask them where are you trying to hit the ball? And why? Yes, as they get older and have got all the basic batting skills some can develop these new shots.
“But before they do that they have got to learn how to bat properly.
“When a youngster first comes to me I work on how they should grip the bat, their stance and develop a straight batting technique.
“Showing them for the first time only takes five or ten minutes but it can be a long time before they get the hang of it.
“Once they have got it I teach them the traditional way to play with shots like the forward and backfoot defences, the drive, the cut and the pull.”
Burton acknowledged that the excitement of the limited overs format has boosted the finances of the game worldwide and created a bigger audience for cricket.
But he added: “I like to teach my youngsters the basics that they would need to play Test cricket later.
“The legends of cricket don’t come from the one-day arena, they get to be called legends because of what they did in Test cricket.”
And there can be no better example of how the two different forms of the game can affect a player’s CV than a year in the life of Mike Gatting.
Early in 1987 he was labelled a hero when he captained England to a rare Ashes series win in Australia.
But when the two sides met again later in the year in Calcutta for the World Cup final he was the seen as the villain in England’s defeat.
Chasing only 254 they were well ahead of their target at 135-2 when Gatting attempted a then rarely seen reverse sweep against Allan Border’s left-arm spin and the ball lobbed off his bat and shoulder to wicketkeeper Greg Dyer.
England lost momentum and eventually lost by seven runs and that rush of blood remains as big a stain on his career record as his face to face row with Pakistan umpire Shakhoor Rana.