KATHMANDU, AUGUST 14
The newly-appointed national team coach Manoj Prabhakar today said he would begin with correcting the basics of the game and that the batting technique was missing in Nepali cricketers.
The former India international, Prabhakar - who conducted a training session at the TU Stadium - said the batsmen were influenced by Indian Premier League and Twenty20 cricket. "I made all players bat today. What I realised is that they watch too much IPL and Twenty20 matches. They were targeting to hit the ball hard but the technique was missing," said Prabhakar, who arrived in Kathmandu yesterday for a one-year spell as a head coach.
"I have started correcting the players' basics from today. The Nepali team is a young one with average age of 22 and young players are good learners. I believe that the quicker they learn, the better they perform. Basics is the key in cricket as you got to have a strong basics. And that's why I am here for," said Prabhakar. "If the players can continue with what I have started today, the future is bright," he added.
"You cannot change anything overnight, it will take some time. I need at least two to three months. Once the batters realise the technical part of cricket, you will see big change in Nepali batting order," he said. Prabhakar said the team's first target would be to win maximum matches in the ICC World Cup League-II. "We have 16 matches left and we have to concentrate and win maximum matches," he said.
Asked about the rift in the team, Prabhakar said a family with groups won't get success and the team members needed to play and play as a family with sense of togetherness. "We are a family now. If you have a group in the family, then the family does not get success," he said. "I told that if you are in pain, the pain has to be felt by all of us. My motto is to make them realize that if we play and fight as a family and togetherness, it will be fruitful in future," Prabhakar said. "These things happen everywhere and you have to tackle it in right way. We have to make the naughty one the in-charge and put pressure on him to win the matches for us. This way we can get rewards very soon," he added.
Prabhakar was appointed by Cricket Association of Nepal for one year after Canadian Pubudu Dassanayake resigned for the post citing personal reasons. Dassanayake, who was handed a two-year contract in December last year in his second stint as a head coach, quit the job after a string of poor performance of the team, especially the batters.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 15, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
