Jonty Rhodes says ‘Guys like Sachin can’t play forever’

Mumbai Indians fielding coach Jonty Rhodes has said that the legends like Sachin Tendulkar cannot play international cricket forever, adding that it is important that the young Indian players should be good all-round cricketers.

He insisted that the young lads should concentrate not only on batting and bowling but also on fielding.

"Guys like Sachin can’t play forever and it’s important that the young Indian players who come through the IPL are all-round players, not just in batting and bowling, as most of the Indian players are, but also good fielders," Rhodes told
PTI.

He added, "They’ve got quite a few young Indian players and what I think the organisers are trying to do is to make sure that once the Tendulkars and the Harbhajans retire, the younger guys coming through will carry India."

"What I’m trying to get across to them is that fielding is important to a one-day game, especially in 20-over games where one run can make a difference. I’ve seen that in the 1999 World Cup against Australia and the World Cup against Sri Lanka in South Africa.
I’m not asking them to do miraculous things," the former South African cricketer shared.

Talking about Indian Premier League’s role in the growth of Indian domestic cricket, the legendary fielder described that the Twenty20 championship is helping local guys improve their game day by day.

He also explained that the league is a great platform for the youngsters to prove their mettle and storm to the highest level of the game.

"It’s always been my view that Indian cricket is going to strengthen and improve because of the IPL. I think that was the key for the BCCI, who were very wise in making sure that the youngsters were getting great coaching and opportunity to play with international
cricketers,” he uttered.

On his plans to coach South Africa’s national side, Rhodes said, "I don’t think so. Coaching a national team involves nine months of the year. The IPL for me is a 10-week commitment. Taking on something full-time with a national team is hard work."

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Apr 25 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry