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Maxtalent kids get tips from Lalchand Rajput

DUBAI —Saturday evening turned out to be a memorable one for the Maxtalent players when former India Test and ODI player Lalchand Rajput visited them at the Sharjah Wanderers grounds in Sharjah.

The coach of the India’s 2007 Twenty20 World Cup winning team watched and interacted with the budding cricketers. Around 40 boys and girls were present at the camp.

Rajput praised the efforts of Maxtalent for conducting the summer coaching camps at two venues — Sharjah Wanderers Sports Club, Sharjah and Al Nasr Sports Club, Dubai.

The two-month camp began on July 8 where in coaches from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been invited to enhance the skills of the young players, with a particular focus on fitness.

Rajput had an interaction with the coaches and Maxtalent’s Sudhakar Shetty about the programme. He also spent some time with the parents and commended the efforts of everyone in developing the game in this part of the world. He stressed on the need to make players to enjoy the game first and then make them professionals.

Noting that grassroot training was the most important thing for every camp, he said the key to progress was investing lot of time on analysing and correcting the skills of every player before exposing them to the all the formats of the game.

About the focus on Twenty20, he said players were becoming overnight heros playing in the smaller version of the game playing a major role either with the bat or the ball for just three to four overs. This according to him was a dangerous trend since the attitude of the players might get affected.

“The attitude of the players need to be more focussed on learning the nuances of the game rather than trying to be instant heros and playing adventurous shots right from the word go on all occasions,” he added.

He gave special attention to youngsters who have been part of the UAE under-15 and under-17 national teams and those who are very close to being selected. The youngsters were delighted to be offered useful tips which would help them improve their game in the future.

Rajput also felt that the initiative taken by the Maxtalent to conduct the team building training sessions to develop values and oneness among the players was a great step towards making them better cricketers.

“Players individual performances always helps the team in winning matches but a team which wins the match because of team work are certainly the most consistent and respected, that’s why cricket is called a gentleman’s game.”

Rajput also spent time with the Maxtalent officials and gave suggestions on better administration of conducting Inter-school & Inter-university tournaments.

Shetty was confident that Maxtalent would ensure to bring in more locals and develop the cricket culture in this country. He also promised to involve as many local institutions in the future to participate in the Maxtalent events.

“Our efforts are strongly to fulfill the ACC eligibility rules which state that at least three locals need to be a part of the ECB national team.

“We will encourage more locals to take up the game and participate in the future tournaments.”