[Gowza]

Originally Posted by jeesh
@ al Furqaan. You are not giving Vaas enough credit. I wish we had someone with half of Vaas's ability and mindset. Oh btw before Vaas, and Malinga there were guys like Ratnayake, Ramanayake who were considered pretty good. Mind you these guys didnt get to play a lot of test matches or ODI's those days. The new generation has a few promising pacers too. Point is they always have the knack of developing quality bowlers and cricketers-much better than what we could hope for. Imo they are a perfect model for us to emulate-batting, bowling and fielding, youth development etc. They probably have less financial resources than us, similar or less infrastructure, smaller talent pool. They just use their heads better. And with that they have won a world cup and was a finalist twice in recent years. Not a bad country to emulate. NZ might have a fewer people, but could it be that they have better infrastructure, system, coaching than us. Otherwise how could such a tiny nation 13 medals in Olympics (Ahead of many European and South American giants). How could their national football team (Ranked 156 in 2007, BD-169), get into the WC in 2010? I say lets not compare our sports with theirs.

@ gowza. I dont think going to the gym and eating well during academy years is sufficient. Its a part of growing up. Kiwi's, Aussies, S African youngsters are better athletes-they pursue multiple sports, eat better. Even Pakistan-i once read Mohammad Zahid (Once fastest bowler) used to drink a 1 litre of milk and 4 kg of mutton daily. They are physically stronger than us-which is why they excel in a lot of physical sport like wrestling, boxing etc.

Of course doing it while growing up is ideal but what I'm saying is in terms of a structure format there should be fast bowling schools and they should include fitness and diet rather than not. Age group teams should certainly instill it also. As far as different sports, I think while they are young it's great to encourage as different sports develop different physical and mental skills.