da dobrowin： The news from South Africa is undoubtedly good
Dav Whatmore03-Oct-2001The news from South Africa is undoubtedly good. We are delighted with our2003 World Cup draw, which has given us an excellent chance of progressingthrough to the Super Six stages.Dav Whatmore
National CoachWe are, of course, taking nothing for granted, as hosts South Africaespecially, and West Indies and New Zealand as well, are challengingcompetitors. Nevertheless, we will go into those games with a lot ofconfidence.The favorable draw is just reward for the team, which has performed so wellsince June 1999. The 2003 World Cup seeding was based on each team’s ODIresults since the last tournament and, statistically speaking, we were thethird best side in the world, with a 63% win ratio after 60 matches.Remember too that the World Cup formula has now changed. The early poolmatches are of greater importance than in earlier tournaments. Nowadays,qualification for the final knockout stages is a grueling process with theSuper Sixes. Moreover, with points gained against fellow qualifiers in firstround being carried forward to the second stage, nearly every game nowcounts.As the news filtered through yesterday, we were busily training, with oneeye on that tournament. During the last week the batsmen have been traininghard under the watchful eye of South Africa’s own Barry Richards, the latestaddition to our support staff.Barry has joined us for a two-week programme, which is the start of anongoing relationship with Sri Lankan cricket. He will be making a series ofvisits before the 2003 World Cup and will also be able to provide valuableinputs when he visits Sri Lanka as a television commentator.On this occasion Barry’s input has focused in on two areas: the batsmen’stechniques, especially against top quality fast bowling, and the developmentof mental skills, particularly the concept of all the players being”thinking cricketers.”These are not new areas for us, but Barry’s expertise provides a differentperspective and an alternate means of expression, which the cricketers canfind useful.Simply speaking, we want to provide the batsmen to consider the technicallyoptions available to them against hostile fast bowling in lively conditions,so that they can improve their performances.Each batsmen has different options, but one come denominator this week hasbeen the need for batsmen to play close to their body and within animaginary rectangular box. If one plays outside that box then they are notin line and that will dramatically increase the chances of edging the ball.It is difficult to isolate the technical side of the game from mental sideand during the week there have also been a number of technical sessions, inwhich we have discussed the importance of being a “thinking cricketer.”Players must be able to read the game, to understand what is happening andproject into the future, so they can plan their innings. For example, whenthey come to wicket and have played themselves in, they need to identifywhen best to exert themselves on the opposition. Experience is a tremendoushelp, but the players can also learn from each other, and in this case fromBarry himself.This two-weeks is just part of a longer process. We have now assembled astrong support team to take us to the World Cup and beyond. That, married tothe obvious talent and potential in team, is why we are confidently lookingforward to 2003.