Mumbai: Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar suggested on Tuesday that the Mumbai Cricket Association can improve its talent pool by making its inter-college and inter-school competition a 15-player affair.
“How can the Mumbai Cricket step ahead of the opposition. For that, casually, me and my brother were chatting one day at home, I thought this would be the best forum to give MCA that suggestion,” Tendulkar said after being felicitated by the MCA here.
“When we have the inter-school and inter-college matches in that, instead of the 11-member team can we take 15 players. The boy who leaves his home everyday to play a match with a hope that he will do something, a lot of times he doesn’t know whether he is going to play or not,” he said.
The batting icon said that many children might not be as gifted as others but deserved a chance to play at least a few matches and get a shot at the opportunity.
“To avoid this situation, because for a small kid, Prithvi and Mushir are talented but many are on the border line. Many a times, the wicket may be a turning track and having a third seamer has no point. Sometimes there is only one seamer and there is a spinner bowling from the other end. In that there is no fault of the poor 12-year old fast bowler. But he is prepared to work hard for the entire year not knowing that he may not be picked.
“I feel how every player can get minimum three matches, it could be Giles Shield, it could be Harris Shield, inter-collegiate, till the time the player starts earning and can stand on his own feet, till that time MCA should give support to these cricketers,” he said.
The former India captain said that it would also test the players as they would be facing different bowling attacks.
“If we see the bigger picture, then in Mumbai itself about 10,000 children would benefit. The selectors will also get to see a lot of talent. The quality of cricket will also improve because constantly when the batsmen score runs, they would do it against quality bowling attack.
He said other associations in the country would also follow the footstep.
“I think if we introduce this new thing and every player gets the opportunity to play then eventually Mumbai Cricket is going to benefit and the rest of the nation will follow our footsteps. If about 10,000 children would benefit in Mumbai then you can imagine how many inter-school and inter-collegiate students would benefit in India. We are looking at a broader picture,” he said. (PTI)