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Academy and youth tours vital for Australian cricket

Roar Guru
12th April, 2013
4

The dust has settled from Australia’s disastrous tour of India and the start of the football season, along with the IPL has ensured the debacle has diminished from our minds.

If Cricket Australia is to avoid such whitewashes in the sub-continent then they should look to emulate the development program of former NSW First Class player Rod Davison.

Rod Davison is currently the head of cricket at John Paul College in Brisbane, and has taken an initiative to bring the Brisbane’s private school top cricketers to play on the dusty, slow, and low wickets in India.

While most of the kids are only 16 and only a handful are playing first grade in Brisbane, Davison believes the tour is an ideal opportunity for youngsters to learn about and adapt to Indian conditions from an early age.

Davison, who played 39 First Class matches for NSW in the 90’s says: “The academy tours are a great way to expose young cricketers to alien conditions such as the India from a very early age.”

The tour is organised by the Global Cricket School, which is well known in English cricket circles.

Players such as current England captain, Alistair Cook, upcoming batsmen Joe Root, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow have all participated in such tours to India in the last few years.

In fact a small portion of credit needs to be given to the academy for England’s triumph in India last year. They provided practice matches to some of the England batsmen over the last three years during the off season in England.

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Davison believes it is such vision that Australia lacked before the India series.

“I don’t think we prepared adequately. We were playing ODI cricket before such an important series.

“Cook, Root and Swann are some that gained valuable match practice against club teams and it resulted in England triumph in India.”

Davison believes it is vital junior teams and academies tour India frequently.

“Just the role of India in world cricket with the IPL and TV rights, everyone wants to play against India so it’s important the youth teams tour India.

“In the past private schools have organised tours to England, South Africa, but with modern day needs India is the place to organise the tours.”

During the 10 day tour, the team has received tips on how to play spin bowling from some of best coaches in Mumbai.

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Not only have they played three practice matches, they have also had three eight hour days of coaching in the nets.

The tour has also been a learning curve for Davison.

“The first thing I have learnt is the difference in which we teach the players how to tackle spin bowling.

“If you observe the youngsters, they play spin bowling on length. The young Indian boys negotiate the spin by meeting the ball slightly in front of the pad, it is in contrast to what we teach in Australia.”

Davison believes the Indian technique allows them to meet the ball earlier so giving the ball less time to deviate off the pitch.

It also ensures if the ball grabs the inner or outside edge the chances are the ball will go in front of the wicket, away from the catching men around the bat.

“I watched a fair amount of the recent series and a lot of our players are still using the Australian technique.

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“They are worried about driving the ball so it reduces their scoring opportunities, something that is ideal to overcome good spin bowling.”

Apart from the cricketing side of things, the tour also allows the youngsters to learn about the Indian culture, conditions and lifestyle as whole.

“Not all of them are going to play for Australia but the tour is an eye opener as a person. It has taught the guys how to manage their hygiene and also taught them not to take anything for granted.”

Davison’s vision is a further illustration as to why past First Class cricketers, especially from the competitive era of the 90’s, need to give their opinions and input to Cricket Australia in order to improve the standard of Australian cricket.

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