Australian coach gives tips to St Aloysius students

Mangalore, November 21: It's an attempt to combine Indian passion for cricket with the discipline and rigours of the Australian system of coaching.

On a Tuesday evening at the St. Aloysius College ground, Martin Gleeson, Chief Executive Office of the Sports Education Development India Ltd., was organising rows of enthusiastic children, each ready to grab a cricket ball and run through their delivery stride. Although the deliveries start off wide, or even sometimes reaches the batsmen at two bounces, his bits of advice – “straighten your arm” or “use the front arm” — sees the ball getting closer to the stumps.

“Indian children are very coachable. They listen and learn, are adaptable, capable of picking skills and are very enthusiastic. They are hardworking too. While Australian children do around two sessions (of practice) a week, Indian children do up to five,” he says.

As a level-three coach, Mr. Gleeson's coaching endeavours have seen him in places as varied as Pakistan, Japan, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea. Armed with a booklet of the Cricket Australia curriculum and the accrued wisdom of years of experience, his company Cricket India Academy aims to train coaches of Mangala Sports in the city in the Australian system and methodology.

It is the little things that the 'Australian style' of coaching would bring in. Marks for delivery stride, and clever organisation of the bowlers that sees them waiting for lesser time between deliveries by practising are some of the innovations seen on ground.

Cricket India Academy operates in 11 centres across the country – from metros to tier-III cities such as Madikeri, Dharmapuri – and hopes to cover over 4,000 children by early next year. “We hope to produce quality coaches, and from them produce great cricketers,” he says.