India's bubbling talent gets a safe harbour in Bishen Bedi

One of the brightest stars of the sporting world continues to shine brilliantly, this time through hundreds of scintillating sparks that promise a brave new world of Indian cricket.

"Under 'Paaji' even the most ordinary player can aspire to become a quality player. Apart from a dramatic uplift in your physical and mental fitness, and cricketing skills you get a big boost in your confidence," says left arm spinner Arun Pande, part of Bishen Singh Bedi's team flying on Sunday to play in England.

The occasion was a dinner hosted by Bedi in New Delhi on Saturday where young cricketers told how immensely they benefited under Bedi's expert 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 Andhra Pradesh's T Anand, the key all-rounder in the team which is going to play with Minor County teams and a Pakistani team for the Mushtaq Ahmed Series besides playing other matches on the one month long tour.

The team is a mixed bag in terms of experience ranging from Test players like Rahul Sanghvi, Vijay Dahiya and Sunil Joshi, Ranji players like UP's Arun Pande and Assam's Mritunjoy Gohain, and those up and coming like Randeep Singh and 12-year-old Sumit Dhiman, the youngest member of the team.

"We want to show the firangs what natural talent is," says Bedi referring to young Dhiman who, as his team mates point out, is something of a prodigy.

What strikes one about the youngsters trained under the Bishen Bedi Cricket Coaching Trust is the refreshing confidence with which they dismiss the suggestion that English players, or for that matter any other foreign players, are physically fitter and mentally tougher than the Indians.

"For us training is intense and more disciplined than Englishmen who would alternate more frequently between rounds of exercise and relaxation. I believe I am as fitter, if not more, as those we are going to play with," says Randeep Singh.

Anand, the promising all-rounder, points towards a new-found mental toughness in young Indian cricketers. "Things are changing now. Indians are now becoming as mentally stronger as anybody else in the world. This is mainly because training camps nowadays, like the one we have just attended, also cover personality which was not the case earlier," says Anand.

The very motto of Paaji's training camp is 'believe in yourself', he adds. Delhi's off-spinner Sanghvi, who is still in the reckoning for the Indian side, believes his younger campmates are very talented and have a long way to go.

"They are raring to go," he says. As you bid farewell to Bedi's young flock of England bound cricketers you start to believe that Indian cricket is at the threshold of a brave new world.