Dravid picked 'Australian brains' to build solid domestic structure in India: Greg Chappell
May 12, 2021
Melbourne [Australia], May 12 : Former Australia skipper Greg Chappell believes that Rahul Dravid picked the Aussie brains and implemented the model to build a solid domestic structure in India.
Chappell also talked about how the likes of India and England have overtaken Australia in terms of recognising young talent.
"I am seeing a bunch of young players with great potential who are in limbo. That's unacceptable. We cannot afford to lose one player. India have got their act together and that's largely because (India's academy chief and former Test captain) Rahul Dravid has picked our brains, seen what we're doing and replicated it in India and with their much larger population base," cricket.com.au quoted Chappell as saying.
"I think we've already lost our position as the best at identifying talent and bringing it though. I think England are doing it better than us now and India are doing it better than us," he added.
Chappell also talked about how India managed to defeat Australia earlier this year even after having so many injuries in their squad.
"When you look at the Indian team that played in the Brisbane Test that had three or four fresh players, and everyone said, 'This is India's second XI' - those guys had played (extensively) for India A," said Chappell.
"And in all sorts of different conditions, not just in India. So when they get picked, they're not tyros at all, they're quite hardened international cricketers. We picked Will Pucovski out of Shield cricket. Will has hardly had a game outside Australia. That's the difference," he added.
Chappell has nominated a draft system as one way of ensuring young players get regular games.
"We can't afford for the bigger states to warehouse kids just because they might need them at some stage. I think that's dangerous. If we were designing a structure from scratch now, we wouldn't design it the way we have got it. I think New South Wales could possibly have a second team," said Chappell.
"We need to disperse the talent a little bit more evenly, rather than having good talent sitting on the sidelines in Victoria and New South Wales when they could be playing really well," he added.
