Bring back the scouts
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
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"How was [Mahendra singh Dhoni] Dhoni from Ranchi spotted? Neither Greg Chappell nor Dean Jones know the way to Ranchi. Like many others, they too don’t know the process that has helped these district boys make an impact on Indian cricket," writes Makarand Waingankar in the Mumbai Mirror.
In 2001, as the consultant of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, I had introduced the system of Talent Resource Development Wing (TRDW). The success of this concept made the then President of the BCCI Jagmohan Dalmiya form a Talent Resource Development Wing for unearthing the talent in India. The job description of the TRDOs was to assess the talent in a prescribed form and feed the data into specially developed software for it to get analysed. The talent-assessment system of the TRDW convinced the selectors that there was enough talent to choose from. Today the majority of players who are in the Indian team are the product of the TRDW.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo