Venkat: Some matches have no meaning

Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan is a well known and well respected figure in international cricket. In Indian cricket he is more than just well known. Having been a part of that deadly spin quartet along with Chandrashekar, Bedi and Prasanna who guided India to many famous victories, Venkat is in a good position to assess Indian cricket. Add to this the fact that he captained India in Test cricket and that he played first class cricket for over 20 years and you have an expert opinion.

The Ranji Trophy Super League, introduced in 1996-97, is to be dumped after four years of experiment and the competition will revert to the earlier system where three qualifiers from each of the zonal leagues go into a straight knockout involving seven prequarter finals, four quarter finals, two semi finals and a final. This arrangement will lop off 21 games from the now bloated competition and reduce the clutter in the domestic calendar.

Speaking exclusively to CricInfo, Venkat said he believed that Indian cricket was on the right track.

"Organisation structure wise we're very good, tournaments for every age group There are world level international youth tournaments."

However, he was quick to add that there was room for improvement. "Some matches have no meaning though. It gives players a false sense of confidence. Say Bombay playing Assam, records made there make no sense. In the Ranji knock out system, too many games are being played." The veteran spinner was also positive about the BCCI reverting to the old format "What we had then was quite good."

He was also quick to laud the efforts of the BCCI in the area of coaching "What should happen is to train the players in playing fast bowling. That is part of the programme at the NCA in Bangalore. A classic example is the Australian Cricket Academy. Australia's second side would give most teams a run for their money."

While saying all this, Venkat was keen to stress the fact that miracles do not happen. "Things don't happen overnight. Tendulkars and Kapils are once in a while, geniuses. To produce quality cricketers on a regular basis you have to work at the basic level. As far as facilities are concerned, we're very good."

At the end of the day however the question of why India does not churn out quality youngsters still remained. On this count Venkat conceded "Pakistan produces good cricketers without those basic facilities." The question of attitude and approach inevitably came up and it was one that Venkat echoed. "Is it just a question of mind, attitude and approach?" he asked. The day we answer that question conclusively, Indian cricket can get on the road to serious success.