da mrbet： One of the brightest stars of the sporting world continues to shinebrilliantly, this time through hundreds of scintillating sparks thatpromise a brave new world of Indian cricket
08-Jul-2001One of the brightest stars of the sporting world continues to shinebrilliantly, this time through hundreds of scintillating sparks thatpromise a brave new world of Indian cricket.”Under ‘Paaji’ even the most ordinary player can aspire to become aquality player. Apart from a dramatic uplift in your physical andmental fitness, and cricketing skills you get a big boost in yourconfidence,” says left arm spinner Arun Pande, part of Bishen SinghBedi’s team flying on Sunday to play in England.The occasion was a dinner hosted by Bedi in New Delhi on Saturdaywhere young cricketers told how immensely they benefited under Bedi’sexpert tutelage in a just-finished six-week training camp.”If earlier I was on the ground, then today I feel myself on the sky– that is the difference this camp has made to me,” says AndhraPradesh’s T Anand, the key all-rounder in the team which is going toplay with Minor County teams and a Pakistani team for the MushtaqAhmed Series besides playing other matches on the one month long tour.The team is a mixed bag in terms of experience ranging from Testplayers like Rahul Sanghvi, Vijay Dahiya and Sunil Joshi, Ranjiplayers like UP’s Arun Pande and Assam’s Mritunjoy Gohain, and thoseup and coming like Randeep Singh and 12-year-old Sumit Dhiman, theyoungest member of the team.”We want to show the firangs what natural talent is,” says Bedireferring to young Dhiman who, as his team mates point out, issomething of a prodigy.What strikes one about the youngsters trained under the Bishen BediCricket Coaching Trust is the refreshing confidence with which theydismiss the suggestion that English players, or for that matter anyother foreign players, are physically fitter and mentally tougher thanthe Indians.”For us training is intense and more disciplined than Englishmen whowould alternate more frequently between rounds of exercise andrelaxation. I believe I am as fitter, if not more, as those we aregoing to play with,” says Randeep Singh.Anand, the promising all-rounder, points towards a new-found mentaltoughness in young Indian cricketers. “Things are changing now.Indians are now becoming as mentally stronger as anybody else in theworld. This is mainly because training camps nowadays, like the one wehave just attended, also cover personality which was not the caseearlier,” says Anand.The very motto of Paaji’s training camp is ‘believe in yourself’, headds. Delhi’s off-spinner Sanghvi, who is still in the reckoning forthe Indian side, believes his younger campmates are very talented andhave a long way to go.”They are raring to go,” he says. As you bid farewell to Bedi’s youngflock of England bound cricketers you start to believe that Indiancricket is at the threshold of a brave new world.