Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
A uniform desire to mechanise all age groups from senior to junior level will give the necessary impetus to develop the game of cricket in the kingdom at all levels. This was the observation of a top English coach who was on a short visit to Bahrain last week.
Geoff Cook, successful coach of English county champions Durham, was on the island to attend the Indian Ladies Association's 'A Sixer for ILA' charity cup along with other well-known cricketers such as Mushtaq Mohammed and Haroon Rashid of Pakistan and India's Anshuman Gaekwad.
The former England opening batsman, who made the most of his visit by giving tips to boys and girls of all nationalities at the Rugby Club in Saar, called for an organised structure that will give talented youngsters the required motivation and guide them in the right direction.
While comparing the kingdom's youngsters with their counterparts in other top cricket-playing nations, the 58-year-old Englishman said: "On my visits to Bahrain I have come across a number of talented youngsters. But the lack of continuity of playing at representative levels is a drawback for the budding cricketers as they leave for other shores to pursue higher education. This causes a break in their playing career and can, possibly, lead them to give up the game in pursuit of a job after their studies.
"On the contrary, back in England there are two points which keep them on track for a professional career - one is the number of youngsters who play and the second is the opportunities that they get to play in different age-groups at a representative level."
Cook, who performed reasonably well in the county championships at an average of almost 32, never really seized the chance of playing for his country as he figured in only seven Tests and six one-day internationals for England.
His main contribution to English cricket has been as an administrator and coach. Through his work as as secretary and chairman of the Cricketer's Association he was instrumental in improving the lot of county professionals.
After 20 seasons with Northamptonshire - eight of them as captain - he returned to his native northeast as director of cricket for Durham's maiden season as a first-class county. In 2007, he guided the club to their first silverware after being named coach and the following season added the county championship.
With the advent of one-day cricket and the more recent Twenty20 version, Cook says that it has become a challenge for batsmen to display their range and powers of strokeplay to score runs quickly and this has helped Test cricket to a certain extent in that batsmen score at a faster rate than they used to previously.
But, according to him, the dice is loaded against the bowlers because he has only a few overs to display his range. All said and done he said: "It is an important thing to keep a balance and see that Test cricket is not challenged as that is the stage for a player to show off his skills."
The Durham coach puts his money on the South Africans to emerge as the best team in all forms of the game. "They have the blend of experience and talent in abundance to keep them at the top.
"As for the Australians, they are not the formidable force they once were following the retirement of some of their top class players. It will take some time for the present team to gel together," he added.
* * *
Indian superstar Sachin Tendulkar has started his third decade on the global arena with another milestone. While scoring his 43rd Test century to help India stave off defeat in the first Test against the visiting Sri Lankan team, who are looking for their first Test win in India, Sachin reached the magical figure of 30,000 international runs - 12,877 in Tests, 17,188 in one-dayers and 10 in T20.
And he surely will accumulate more runs - and most likely centuries too - as he aims to be around for at least a couple of years more with the intention of playing in the 2011 World Cup to be held in the Subcontinent.
