Former Team India head coach and Australian batting great, Greg Chappell, has heaped praise on India’s two-time World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni, saying the former captain’s decision-making skills set him apart from his great contemporaries.
Dhoni has ended his glorious international career as one of the greatest cricketers in 2020, and Chappell has rated the legendary wicketkeeper as “one of the sharpest cricket minds” he has encountered.
He also lamented the absence of natural environments that once played a huge part in the development of players, one of them being Ranchi’s Dhoni, in strong cricket nations.
Chappell wrote in ESPNcricinfo: “The developed cricket countries have lost the natural environments that were a big part of their development structure in bygone eras. In those environments, young cricketers learned from watching good players and then emulating them in pick-up matches with family and friends.”
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He continued, “The Indian subcontinent still has many towns where coaching facilities are rare and youngsters play in streets and on vacant land without the interference of formal coaching. This is where many of their current stars have learned the game.”
Hailing Dhoni, The Aussie great wrote: “MS Dhoni, with whom I worked in India, is a good example of a batter who developed his talent and learned to play in this fashion. By competing against more experienced individuals on a variety of surfaces early in his development, Dhoni developed the decision-making and strategic skills that have set him apart from many of his peers. His is one of the sharpest cricket minds I have encountered.”
He also spoke about England’s struggles in the recently-concluded Ashes series in Australia, saying the absence of natural environments for the youngsters to express themselves is a big problem in this era.
Chappell explained, “England, on the other hand, has very few of these natural environments, and their players are produced in a narrow band of public schools, with an emphasis on the coaching manual. This is why their batting has lost much of its flair and resilience. The games that young people make up and play are dynamic and foster creativity, joy, flexibility in technical execution, tactical understanding, and decision-making, which are often missing in batting at the highest levels.”
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He added, “Invariably when an adult gets involved with kids playing cricket, they break up the game and kill its energy by emphasizing correct technique. This reduces a dynamic, engaging environment that promotes learning to a flat and lifeless set of drills that do little to improve batting in games.”
Chappell also felt highly structured system is not the right way to go.
He signed off by saying, “The growth in structured training in the preparation of batters has not only failed to take batting forward, but it has also actually resulted in a decline in batting. Highly structured environments, and an excessive focus on teaching players to perform “correct” technique, dehumanize cricket.”
(With PTI Inputs)
