Canberra: Australian Captain Michael Clarke’s personal batting coach, Neil D’Costa has said that the Aussies will lose their chance of regaining the top test spot from India if they continue to concentrate on T20’s.
D’Costa, who has been in India for the last three years coaching state-level juniors, believes the Indians are marching ahead of the Aussies and will continue to rule the game.
He said the lure of T20 riches has affected Australia`s talented young players, who seem more interested in hitting fours and sixes rather than learning the fundamentals of the game.
``A lot of junior state cricket in Australia is now T20 cricket and that could kill Test cricket in this country,“ D’Costa, was quoted as saying by a leading daily.
D’Costa said that he was impressed with the way cricket is shaping up in India.
‘’In India, it`s very different. There is no T20 in the junior state programs. We don`t train for it, don`t play it, don`t promote it and the players have nothing to do with it. It is only at the higher levels, where there are players who have learnt their game and can make improvisations, that T20 is introduced,” D’Costa added.
D`Costa was stunned when he met with several of his teenage students in Australia during the week to learn that their priorities had changed.
“They tell me they want to score faster and hit the ball harder. It is a real concern because everything in Australian cricket at the moment seems to be about Twenty20. It is all about the Big Bash, how we can get more people to the games, how we can make money out of India. It is not really about how we can make better cricketers``, he said.
D`Costa raised concerns about the direction of the Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence program, saying more advanced players were being taught to become ``clones`` because their individual talents were not being taken into account.
ANI
