Chappell refuses to dwell on past, says future keeps him busy

JAIPUR: He may have burnt his finger during his stint with the Indian cricket team but Greg Chappell refuses to live in the past and believes he has a more challenging task at hand -- to mould the future of Indian cricket.
    
Drawing a parallel between his roles then and now, Chappell said though coaching India was an enriching experience, shaping the youngsters is a bigger challenge.
    
"Of course coaching India gave me an insight into coaching at the international level but I think you can make bigger impact on the younger minds. It's exciting to see the excitement on the face of a youngster and that gives me a lot of pleasure," he said.
    
The occasion was announcing a nationwide search for next generation cricketers where scribes were requested to confine their queries only on the project, preempting any possibility of some uncomfortable questions like the Australian's recent claim of racial victimisation.
    
Only time he responded to a question on the current players was when he was asked to advise Sachin Tendulkar how to get over the nervous nineties syndrome.
    
"I'm sure he will keep scoring runs and centuries but don't think I have any advice for him which he has not been already receiving," he said.
    
Chappell, who is the Director of the Future Cricket Academy of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, said, "I believe talent is not an issue in India, nor is athleticism. It's wrong to say that India does not have athletes. We need to just find them and train," he said.
    
"At the academy, we are seeking athletes who can play cricket. He has to be as much an entertainer as much a cricketer, player who can play various roles in a match," Chappell added.
    
He also dismissed suggestions that he took to coaching the juniors to achieve what he could not achieve as the coach of the national team.
    
"It has nothing to do with my past and has no bearing on my present assignment. I see it as an opportunity to help develop talents."
    
"India is the financial epicentre of cricket and world cricket needs India to be strong on field as well. Test cricket is struggling and the game needs India's vision, skill and knowledge," he said.
    
According to him, the advent and growing popularity of Twenty20 have changed the face of the game and future players would require to be paragon of all cricketing virtues.
    
"Cricketer of the future would be very much different from the cricketer of the past. Twenty20 would play a bigger role and I think cricket has just undergone the most important change, since the World Cricket Series of 1977."
    
Though he avoided naming an Indian player fearing it might be taken out of context  Chappell said Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Symonds can be taken as example of what future cricketers would look like.
    
"Cricketer of the future would be like them, aggressive with the bat, aggressive with the ball, outstanding fielder and good runner as well. They would be strong mentally and physically."
    
Though Chappell hailed the advent of Twenty20, he warned against doing away with Test cricket.
    
"I hate to think that we would give up Test cricket. I think cricket is lucky to have three different formats to sell to the people, which hardly any other game enjoys. So it would be a shame and unwise too to turn our back on Test cricket."
   
Refusing to dismiss Twenty20 as a mere slam-bang runfest, Chappell said, "I think there is quite cricket to it. And I believe better skilled players have more chances of doing well in this format.
    
"Same kind of apprehension was there when one day cricket made its debut and see it is driving the game today. One dayers had influence on Test matches and I expect Twenty20 to influence ODIs."