Chappell said that both India and England have overtaken Australia as the best in recognising young talent and providing them a platform to succeed.
Rahul Dravid
Former India captain Rahul Dravid picked Australian brains to create a talent identification system better than Australia in India, the legendary Greg Chappell has said, lamenting the current lack of a similar structure in his own country that was "one of the best at developing young players." Chappell said that both India and England have overtaken Australia as the best in recognising young talent and providing them a platform to succeed.
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"India have got their act together and that's largely because Rahul Dravid has picked our brains, seen what we're doing and replicated it in India and with their much larger (population) base," Chappell told 'cricket.com.au'. Dravid is the Director of Cricket Operations at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. He was the head coach of India A and India under-19 cricket teams between 2016 and 2019. Chappell, one of the finest batsmen to have played the game, cautioned that talented Australian cricketers might find their careers at crossroads because of the domestic structure.
"Historically, we've been one of the best at developing young players and keeping them in the system, but I think that's changed in the last couple of years," he said. "I'm seeing a bunch of young players with great potential who are in limbo. That's unacceptable. We cannot afford to lose one player." The 72-year-old feels Australia have lost the bragging rights as far as talent identification is concerned.
"I think we've already lost our position as the best at identifying talent and bringing it though. I think England are doing it better than us now and India are doing it better than us." Earlier this year, Australia were defeated at home in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by a second string Indian team which was plagued by injuries to its key players and was also without the services of talismanic skipper Virat Kohli, who was on paternity leave. Chappell feels the victory showcased India's highly effective player development system as even their rookies were armed with extensive international experience. "When you look at the Indian team that played in the Brisbane Test that had three or four fresh players, and everyone said, 'This is India's second XI' ¿ those guys had played (extensively) for India A," said Chappell.
"And in all sorts of different conditions, not just in India. So when they get picked, they're not tyros at all, they're quite hardened international cricketers," he pointed out. On the other hand, Australian debutants Will Pucovski and Cameron Green had limited experience playing outside their home country. "We picked Will Pucovski out of Shield cricket. Will has hardly had a game outside Australia. That's the difference." Chappell, who served as Cricket Australia's national talent manager in 2019, called for major structural changes in the men's domestic schedule. "We've got full-time cricketers, so why do we have to be constrained by the regular timing of our cricket season? We've got access to these guys for basically 10 months of the year," he said.
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