As Albert Camus put it: “You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.”
I have long believed that the best way to learn how to play cricket is to play a lot of it. As I watch the under-19 tri-series between India, Australia and New Zealand, currently underway in Darwin, I am even more convinced.
The gulf in experience between the Indian players and the Australian and New Zealand lads here seems as wide as the geographical distance between South Asia and Australasia. It will only get bigger unless we can replicate what India is doing.
Simply put, young cricketers in India play more cricket than their antipodean peers. At the youth level, India is years ahead of countries like Australia and New Zealand because they play so much more cricket. Also, young athletes in Australasia have multiple sports vying aggressively for their participation and involvement.
To compound the disparity, cricket has a monopoly on the best talent in India, and has hundreds of thousands of players to choose from.
What keeps Australia competitive is its proud cricketing history and a highly developed combative instinct.
At the youth level, the deficit in experience is swinging the pendulum further towards the sub-continent.
The young cricketer in India has access to better equipment than ever before and the BCCI is investing dramatically more resources at the youth level, than previously.
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