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Indian Cricket
Chappell cautions against burn-out
Cricinfo staff
March 13, 2008
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Greg Chappell: "What we are going to see with this express form of cricket is we are going to burn a lot of young cricketers very early"
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Greg Chappell, the former India coach, has called Twenty20 cricket a huge challenge for developing talent and feared that early exposure to the "express form" of the game will burn a lot of young cricketers.
Chappell also said that sledging, as an issue, has been overblown over the years because "it sounds very sexy for the media to talk about it".
"Fast cricket, 20-over cricket, by its mere nature is going to be a game of a lot of failure. If you can't deal with that failure and understand that it's part of the game and learn from it, you are going to fall by the wayside quickly," Chappell said in Bangalore.
"What we are going to see with this express form of cricket is we are going to burn a lot of young cricketers very early."
Chappell refused to take any questions on India's recent tour of Australia but said that sledging was something every good player has to learn to deal with.
"The verbal that goes on in the cricket field is generally about trying to distract someone's attention. Once you understand that, it should never harm you," Chappell said. "The chatter on the field has always been there, that's something all good players have to learn to deal with. If you can't focus on what you have to focus on, you've got a problem. The whole thing (sledging) has overblown a great deal for years and not just recently. It sounds very sexy for the media to talk about it, but it's not a huge issue from the playing point of view."
Chappell is currently spotting young talent from various Indian cities for Cricket Star, a programme run by Emerging Media, which owns the Indian Premier League's Jaipur franchise. The best pick from the shortlisted cricketers in this programme will be given a chance to play next year for Rajasthan Royals, the Jaipur IPL team.
But when asked whether the IPL was the right route for blooding a youngster, Chappell admitted that it was a huge challenge.
"One of the great challenges for young cricketers in the future is that they are likely to make their debut in the very short form of the game," Chappell said. "If you look back on the careers of people like Rahul Dravid, for instance, there was a long gestation period of development when you got to play Test cricket first before you played one-day cricket and now 20-over cricket. To start the other way, at the express form of the game, is going to be a huge challenge."
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