Let’s talk about 14-year-old cricketers. No, not That One, 7500 miles away. This One, in Columbia, Maryland. Not That One who is making the game look ridiculously easy, This One who jumps to square leg if the ball is bowled faster than 40mph. Not That One who makes bowlers prefer to bowl to one of the game’s outstanding opening batters than him, This One who turns up 45 minutes late for the first match of the season. Not That One, resplendent in team-issued blue and pink, This One in his jeans and polo shirt instead of team uniform.
And yet, This One is more important to the game than That One. That Vaibhav Suryavanshi is an outstanding talent and off to a great start in his T20 career is fantastic, but India has an abundance of outstandingly talented cricketers. That a 17-year-old who also made his debut in this IPL season gets barely a mention is proof of that. This 14-year-old and his peers, however, are playing this wonderful sport in a country that has the potential to become a major cricketing nation.
Scoff all you want, but when you realise they have a greater number of cricketers than Test nations New Zealand, West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland…heck, they may soon have more cricketers than New Zealand have as a population then that gives you some idea of what’s possible here in the United States.
The talk is of improving facilities. And yes, this is necessary, especially if you saw the cabbage patch This 14-year-old played on last weekend, but it isn’t the most essential thing needed to grow and improve the game here. Grounds, turf pitches, outdoor nets, decent quality equipment would be great, but it isn’t as important as people. You see, people – as in coaches and administrators, matter more than any of those. Not just any old person though, people who genuinely care about the game and its long-term future rather than those serving themselves only concerned with power or position.
Joe Root, when he retires, will do so as England’s greatest ever batter. People will talk of his time at private school, Worksop College, and his club, Sheffield Collegiate, in the posh village of Dore. But what they don’t know is that despite the opulent location, the nets at Sheffield Collegiate were no better than those I’ve seen in the townships of Langa and Khayelitsha in Cape Town. That if Joe hit a drive at full power the rusty old poles were likely to collapse on top of us. The club has excellent nets now, but that doesn’t guarantee that they will produce another Joe Root or Michael Vaughan who came before him, but they’re in a good place because the people there understand the game, play it the right way, set the right example and have created the right environment for young players to succeed because they make it more about the players than them.
The important influences on young players in any sport isn’t the big names they aspire to be, it’s the local coaches and teachers who give them confidence, who teach the importance of learning to win and lose, handling success and failure. Big names or former players are great for driving sponsors to areas where needed but very few ever setup grassroots cricket of any meaning, Gary Kirsten being one notable and outstanding exception.
US cricket needs more people interested in growing the game, more people who understand that the priority isn’t about gaining more players it’s about making it better for those currently playing, and that will automatically drive interest. They need to make the game aspirational because all kids want you to ‘Show me the money’ even though this generation may not have seen Jerry Maguire they certainly know the sentiment. It won’t grow when a coach tells you to watch a YouTube video of them playing when there is so much footage of all the greats of the game…you see, making it about you is never an inspiration to anyone, it only reflects your own narcissism.
I hope That 14-year-old is in the midst of a great career in 10 years. My modest hope for This 14-year-old is that he is still playing the game, on a turf wicket, with a rope for a boundary and a nice pavilion. That will reflect true development and growth of the game.
- Coach Riaz Richards