Test cricket is the real game says Sri Lanka under 19 coach Nawaz

Ranjan Anandappa

Newly appointed Under 19 cricket coach and consultant of the Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket Team Naveed Nawaz said that he doesn’t recommend Twenty 20 cricket for youngsters , but one will have to accept certain changes in the norms of the shorter version of the game as it gets bigger and more commercialised.

‘“Twenty 20 cricket” and the limited overs are the commercialised version of the game. When I ask many cricketers they would say Test cricket is the real game.

I too believe it. But as players they should be able to adjust themselves to the demands that requires. All good players are adjustable, they adjust themselves to whatever the conditions and demands that arises.’voiced Nawaz

Nawaz will accompany the Women’s cricket team to England for the Women’s Twenty 20 World Cup as a consultant coach next month. Once he returns Nawaz will take over the Under 19 team in preparation of the Under 19 World Cup to be held in Kenya next February.

The former D.S. Senanayake College cricketer who represented the country at the Under 19 level on numerous occasions, has played in a solitary Test match against Bangladesh. He had the opportunity of touring Malaysia and Singapore with an Under 19 team in 1992. Cricket-wise these two countries are not the ideal destination for competitive cricket.

But some very good players of the calibre of Mahela Jayawardena, Chaminda Vaas, Avishka Gunawardena, Ravindra Pushpakumara, Mario Villavarayan, Jeevantha Kulatunga, Indika de Saram, Saman Jayantha emerged from this tour. The present Royal coach Gamini Perera captained the side.

“In that era (1992\3’) the players who emerged from schools were good enough, and there were opportunities in clubs for them to come, may be stay out for a couple of matches and still there were chances for them to play.

But today, I don’t say the schoolboys now a days are not good enough. But looking at the Premier sides they are more occupied and more established.

So a player emerging from schools unless he is brilliant and above exception may not be able to find a place in a Premier Division side immediately.

May be if he hangs around for a couple of years he could find a place in the Under 23 tournament and progress slowly, you won’t find a straight away opening,” opined Nawaz.

He said that as a 17 year old schoolboy he represented Bloomfield and it was an exception.

“Now the whole structure is different from what it was then. We have more players in the entire structure itself. What’s happening is the game and the competitions are getting bigger,so it is tough even for the schoolboys.” “We have some schoolboys who are good enough to find a place in a Premier side in another year or two. So it is good to see our system is producing something,” he said.

Referring to the Women’s cricket team Nawaz said that it is still in a preliminary stage. SLC has taken over the feminine version of the game recently and is interested in uplifting the standard.

It is spending lot of money and keen in improving the infrastructure of the game by introducing cricket in some girls schools in Colombo and outstations so that players emerge from schools.The present system is the girls start playing cricket once they leave school at the age of 20, which is a bit too late.

The best age for a girl to play cricket is between 17 and 28 years. So I think they are starting a bit too late. If we can start a bit early and develop some cricket in the smaller villages and schools, so that like men’s cricket we’ll have a bigger pool to select from,” felt Nawaz.