JOIN USPromise aplenty, says Arun
India’s Senior cricket team’s coach Duncan Fletcher and his support staff spent three days, sharing their expertise with the India under-19 squad which is undergoing a preparatory camp here at the National Cricket Academy premises.
Besides Fletcher, fielding coach Trevor Penny, bowling coach Joe Dawes and physio Evan Speechley worked with the Unmukt Chand-led 16-member squad before concluding their Bangalore stint here on Monday. The quartet will now leave for South Africa for India’s lone T20 match on March 30 in Johannesburg.
“They were in Bangalore and they just wanted to take a look at the under-19 (boys) and we had a good interaction with them (Fletcher and Co),” said former India paceman and under-19 coach Bharat Arun.
“The best part of working with him was about working on the simple things, called the ‘one per cent factor’. There is very little to separate from two international sides and it is the minute details that matter and that’s exactly what we dealt with,” Arun pointed out.
The former Tamil Nadu player was happy with the team’s preparations. “We had a pre-conditioning camp for 15 days (with 30 probables) and now we have re-assembled again for this camp. We also played the quadrangular series involving Australia, Sri Lanka and the West Indies earlier in Visakhapatnam. There were some exceptional performances and it was a very good tournament,” he remarked.
The second quadrangular series in Australia (England and New Zealand being the other two sides) from April 5 ahead of the under-19 World Cup, Arun felt, was a very good move as the biennial event is going to be held Down Under. “It will help us get used to the conditions there.”
Refusing to single out any specific talent, Arun said the signs for the future were encouraging. ““It will be unfair to name a few players,” he began. “To be very honest we have seen some exceptional all-round performances (at Visakhapatnam). Each one has come up with an exceptional performance at some point or the other. This squad is very motivated and the intensity they have shown is outstanding. Yes, there is always room for improvement and I guess my job is to create a wonderful atmosphere and make them aware of the situations and help them react well to these situations.”
After the four-nation series in Australia, India will play in the Asia Cup in June before heading for the Youth World Cup which will begin in August. India are grouped along with the West Indies, Zimbabwe and Papua New Gginea in the 16-team event.