Chennai: The Englishman says “developing cricketing talent” is his forte. Peter Wellings, a level III ECB coach, was in the city as part of Cricket Drome’s winter training camp. He has his unique style of training children. According to him, there should always be “competition between bat and ball” even if it is a practice session. “Train hard and fight easy” is the mantra of the former Middlesex player.
“I thank Sriram, director of coaching at Cricket Drome, for inviting me to coach his students. I loved every second of the camp. I found every trainee receptive to my inputs.
Any form of coaching should be intensive. It should teach the wards some of the situations that they are going to face in a match,” said Wellings, who has 17 years of coaching experience.
This is Wellings’ first visit to Chennai, even though he had been to India six times. He is the director of cricket for DPS Rewari School, Haryana.
“I have been to Delhi, Mumbai and Haryana. People in India are passionate about the game. I have met people with interest in football in Delhi but in Chennai everyone talks only about cricket,” he said.
“At Cricket Drome children come by 8 am for practice. We are not used to early morning schedule in England. The desire to achieve is immense in every trainee,” he added.
Wellings, 43, had coached the Ugandan cricket team and is part of cricket development in England, South Africa, America and France. He has a list of things, which, he feels, is important for the improvement of young Indian cricketers.
“The biggest issue for Indian cricket is athleticism. Fitness and fielding are a cause for concern. Ravindra Jadeja cemented his place in the Indian team because of his supreme fielding.
The importance of fitness and fielding should filter down to academies and schools. As of now it hasn’t yet been accomplished completely,” he said.
He said that the subcontinent sides generally don’t give much weightage to the areas of the game that are not highlighted statistically. “In terms of priority, batting is number one for them. Bowling comes second and fielding seems to be a distant cousin,” he added.
“Youngsters here in India should be encouraged to bowl faster and batsmen should be taken to foreign tours at their developmental phase to play on bouncing wickets. There should be focus on fitness,” said Wellings, who had worked with many Ranji Trophy cricketers.
Wellings, who has vast experience in nurturing cricketers on different conditions across the globe, is eyeing a role in coaching in the cash-rich IPL. “I’m set to meet the Delhi Daredevils team management regarding coaching their junior side,” he said.
Is working with junior cricketers his only ambition? “I’m open to a coaching role in the IPL. Even though my dream is to associate myself with the England cricket team, I would love to be part of a coaching set-up in India,” added Wellings, who has his own academy at London.
