An insight into CAUSA AGCC cricket camp by CAUSA Head Coach - Anand Tummala

It was one of the most satisfying feeling I had on Sunday evening after the conclusion of first ever day & night cricket camp in Atlanta conducted by Cricket Academy of USA (CAUSA) in partner with Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference (AGCC). It was very refreshing to see the young & aspiring cricketers of Atlanta coming to the fore & rough it out on the field for more than 8 hours per day. Hats off to all the participants! Great job guys! Zahid bhai as usual took care of all the back stage activities for us to be able to just concentrate on cricket. He was ably supported by Sabbir Mahmud who was also giving 100% on the field.

We started off on Friday evening with a brief meeting about the camp & what the players could expect. It was nice to see Sachin Pande, being a senior in our league, leading the players from the front in all aspects. We had planned a rigorous physical training schedule for Saturday morning & to my surprise, the participants pulled through with tremendous enthusiasm & flair. We did 25 minutes running, interval training, ran 30 runs & 5 50 meter sprints. The players continued with same flair during fielding drills & later in open net sessions. Every one was talking about cricket & was enjoying the challenges thrown at them. I would like to make a special mention about Japen Patel & Zain Sayyed who being the seniors in the group made sure there was great camaraderie among all players. Junior players Sunil Kumar, Chad Lessing, Tyron Lessing, Saqlain & Sidhu put their best foot forward to make an impact in this camp.

Viraj Patel, as always, showed us again what a superb talent he is on the field. He has, many a times, helped his club (Shakti) win games by taking breath taking catches & stopping crucial runs on the field. Awais was looking solid during the two knocks he had out there in the middle. Vivek, Samarth, Ishan, Tanmay, Asad, Tuseet, Hassan, Karan & all others showed great spirit & learning attitude.

After all the training, fielding & net sessions on Saturday we had about 4 hours of video analysis in the evening. All players were eagerly waiting to see themselves on the big screen & also to get some useful tips to improve their batting. We did batting videos on Saturday & bowling videos on Sunday.

After a long Saturday, I felt the players would struggle a bit to start off on Sunday morning, again, I was wrong, every one was on the field on time except for a couple. After a brief stretch & a warm up game, we ran 74 runs in 6 minutes. Once again, the youngsters proved that human tenacity could be stretched to any extent. Making sure the players have experience of batting & bowling during morning & afternoon the open net sessions were split into afternoon & morning sessions on Saturday & Sunday respectively. We did bowling video analysis on Saturday afternoon for about 3 hours where the bowling basics such as run up, delivery stride, coil, importance of non bowling arm, back foot drive through & follow through were reiterated to youngsters.

Khalid bhai was a tremendous source of guidance & inspiration to all of us during these two days. He not only spent time with youngsters but made sure that all players went home enriched with some knowledge about cricket. It was nice to hear him speak about his cricketing experiences during his 15 year first class career in India playing for Hyderabad, South Zone & Board President's XI & also when he faced the greatest ever fast bowlers to walk on a cricket field - Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding & Andy Roberts. It has been a boon for CAUSA since Khalid bhai has joined us as a Coach & Advisory Board member. He not only has a world of cricketing experience but also makes sure whoever meets him is reassured that cricket will always remain a gentleman's game. Very modest & humble human being. Chris Lessing, a qualified level 1 cricket coach from South Africa, was also present during the camp, offering valuable advise to players.

All players & CAUSA Team was motivated by the presence of Mr. Aditya Gajjar, President AGCC. As usual, he was full of praise & encouragement for all.

All players proved that cricket is a never ending process of learning. This camp is just the beginning, keep following us for many more exciting camps to come....thanks for all your support.

Head Coach
Anand Tummala

Introducing cricket in US schools contd/....

I don't agree with the common opinion that Americans will not take to cricket because of long duration of game in order to get a result (not talking about T20). They do have enough patience to wait & watch a Quality sport. Yes, American sports like baseball, basketball or college football are played for 3-4 hours maximum. Let's look at major Golf tournaments, they are played over a few days (as good as a Cricket Test match) and spectators patiently wait for the golfers to hit a shot, then walk some distance, do some calculation & then hit the next one. Result is derived after a good few days. I believe, Quality is a mandatory requirement. Enough knowledge provided to the spectators will surely generate interest in the game of Cricket amongst American population.

PE teachers, in the first 2 sessions, have shown enough interest by asking questions about batting, bowling, fielding, basic rules & strategies involved in cricket. Questions such as why can't the elbow be bent while bowling, why do we need to rotate the arm while bowling, why does a batsman need to go on back foot while batting, why can't a batsman swing at all deliveries, what is a good length ball, which ball does a batsman defend & which one goes to the 'Cow Corner' (towards deep midwicket).

Questions about running the batsman out, which end to throw to get a batsman out. Since they are use to running towards the next base in baseball, some of the PE teachers by default started running in circles while playing a cricket match. They felt a little hard to adjust running staright up & down, however, they just took a couple of chances to get adjusted and believe you me, they were running good.

The third session is coming up on Feb 24th, in which I anticipate about 40 odd more PE teachers. This time it will be Elementary school teachers. I am really looking forward to this session before we start going in to schools to do sessions with the school kids involving these PE teachers...

Keep reading....

Introducing Cricket in US Schools System

Hello Readers,

This week I am writing from a Coaches perspective. Recently, Cricket Academy of USA (CAUSA) & Fulton County School System (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) embarked upon a Cricket development project. So far CAUSA has conducted 2 sessions for over 100 PE Teachers & both sessions have been a phenomenal success. The third session is scheduled on February 24th 2010.

Coaching in UK has left some unforgettable memories in my mind. In cricket playing nations, coaching beginners is comparatively easier as the participants have heard, seen, followed cricket on TV or read in Newspapers. They are not alien to cricket in any way. They know about the basic rules of cricket such as bowling, over, runs, etc, by default.

My experience of conducting this cricket development workshop with the PE teachers in Fulton county has been great. Most of these PE teachers have never heard of Cricket. Few teachers have heard about cricket somewhere & know that it's a British sport. During the second session, I showed them Yuvraj Singh's six sixes, they really enjoyed it & liked the fact that there is huge crowd & celebrations when something spectacular happens, just like in baseball. The teachers were curious to know how a batsman gets out, how many balls in an over, about running between the wickets. They really liked the communication part of running between the wickets - call of Yes, No or Wait between the batsmen. They got excited while doing the fielding & catching drills. Since they are all decent baseball players, they showed me a very easy, yet powerful & safe way of throwing. This is what many international cricket teams have started using, the baseball technique for throwing.

Some teachers were excited to know the various formats of Cricket. Some of them wanted to know about the pitch, questions about composition of a cricket team were interesting too.

Keep reading...

What do Batsmen talk in-between the overs?

Hello Readers,

I would like to share my experiences in Cricket with you all. This is just the beginning of many interesting insights into the game of cricket, more from a players perspective.

Many a times, my non cricket playing friends ask me what do batsmen talk in-between overs. In between the overs, the batsmen talk about how the bowlers are bowling, how the pitch is behaving, strategy or game plan for the next few overs in case it's a one day or a T20 game & if it's a test match then they talk about batting from one session to another. They also enjoy each others batting by appreciating a good shot. At times it can be funny too....I remember batting with Murali Karthik (Indian Test player) against Pace Bowlers Academy Gwalior (LNCPE) in 1994 playing for Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi, there was this fast bowler called Sanjay Pandey (Current Ranji Trophy player for Madhya Pradesh), he was swinging the ball like hell, this was an 'SG Test' quality ball (I was playing with an SG Test ball for the first time in my life). These balls tend to swing even after they are old. We were 100 odd for 5 when I went in to bat. After I finished facing my first over from Sanjay, I gently walked to Karthik, he looked at me & smiled, I said in Hindi "yaar SG Test ki ball se cricket thodi different hoti hai" (cricket seems to be a little different with an SG Test ball). Karthik kept laughing on this......

Take care
Anand

CAUSA invited by CCA for Under - 16 tour

Hi,

CAUSA has been invited by California Cricket Academy (CCA) for an Under 16 tour in April 2010. CAUSA players are raring to go & eager to better their performances from last tour.

All the best guys!