da bwin： After a gruelling and focussed training session at the MRF PaceFoundation in Chennai, Dennis Lillee sat down next to Troy Cooley,Assistant Coach and fitness expert and sipped from a bottle of coldmineral water
Anand Vasu23-Jun-2001After a gruelling and focussed training session at the MRF PaceFoundation in Chennai, Dennis Lillee sat down next to Troy Cooley,Assistant Coach and fitness expert and sipped from a bottle of coldmineral water. Warming down after a rigorous session is never easywhen everyone is hanging on your words. That’s the kind of attentionLillee gets. Speaking to him about fast bowling, coaching and hisassociation with the MRF Pace Foundation, one understood instantly whyhe is considered one of the greatest coaches of all time. There’s atheory that great players don’t make great coaches. Obviously, noone’s ever told Dennis Lillee about that theory! Here are someexcerpts:How have things changed over the years in your visits to the MRF PaceFoundation?The key elements are knowledge of the methods of coaching, acceptanceof the concepts involved and the facilities provided to implement allthis. In each of these aspects there has been a marked improvementeach year. Another thing that has happened is the spreading out of thetechniques used. What this does is help knowledge filter down to moreand more levels.In your opinion how have things changed in terms of the quality oftrainees coming in every successive year?The key factor in the improvement is that the need for coaching ofthis kind, the methods used and the techniques are more understoodhere today than ever before. This is among both players and coaches.What this does is raise the stand of the entry level aspirants. I findthat with every year, the youngsters coming through are better in mostaspects: fitness, willingness to learn…everything really.Communication plays a huge role in coaching of all kinds. Has thatever been a problem here at the Pace Foundation in Chennai?Initially there were doubts that there would be some languageproblems. But I think that hasn’t really been much of a problem. Now,the youngsters not only understand the language better, but theyunderstand the language of the technique better. This makes it mucheasier for them to relate to what I’m saying.What about following up on the seminars you do when you’re here, thesystems you put in place? How does that happen when you’re back homein Australia?Even when I’m not here in Chennai, I’m in regular touch with TASekhar. Being in constant touch with him helps maintain thecontinuity. Without following up things nothing can work really. Andif you look at it carefully, the main reason for the success of theMRF Pace Foundation is not me. It’s the commitment MRF have showntowards making this one of the best academies around. The staff of theMRF Pace Foundation have always been open to criticism, and they havegot their fair share of it from me. That’s really important. Becausethey have taken the criticism well and improved, there’s less and lesscriticism now! As I said before, it’s not just the person at thetop…All around the world coaches and academies have been keen to make useof any new technology available. What’s your view on using advancedaids to teach the basics?Well you have to keep abreast with the times really. If you’re not upto date with all the technology and techniques of coaching you’regoing to miss out on a lot of things. This time around we’re using`Silicon Coach’ a new software that can be used not just in cricketbut in any other sport where bio-mechanics plays a large part.How would you compare the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy in Australia tothe MRF Pace Foundation here?The key difference between the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy(Australian Cricket Academy) and the MRF Pace Foundation is thatthey’re geared towards different things. The Academy back home inAustralia is aimed at the overall development of the game. It looks atall aspects of batting, bowling, fielding, fitness…just abouteverything really. Over here we’re focussed on the quick stuff. It’sall about extreme fast bowling. There’s also a bit of work done withswing bowling, but the focus is clear.With every passing year you must be redefining your aims and goals forthe academy. What is the focus at this juncture?The basic focus has remained the same over the years. The main aim isto produce genuine fast bowlers. Actually, you can’t really producefast bowlers can you? It would be more accurate to say our aim is todevelop fast bowlers. After all it’s not something that happens everyday. If it did, we’d have a lot of quicks all over the world!Every great fast bowler in the history of the game, includingyourself, was a master of the mental aspect. How hard is it to teachthat to youngsters?You know, it’s not easy to teach a young fast bowler about the mentalside of things. We all know that outthinking the batsman plays a bigrole in successful fast bowling. But to reach a position where you cando that, you must first have all the weapons in your armoury. Thatincludes an inswinger, an outswinger, a good yorker, a slower ball,the ability to move the ball of the wicket… And you need to be ableto bowl all this with some degree of control. Basically you need to beable to bowl everything. To get there all these boys need to be at topfitness, top flexibility and at the top of their game. Without topconcentration, you can’t really pick up the mental aspect from anycoach.