We have to play to our strengths and work with what we have got
Daryll Cullinan, the flamboyant mainstay of the 90`s South African line-up, sheds some light about ICL 2007 and how his team, the Royal Bengal Tigers, are gearing up for the challenge this year after choking at crucial junctures last year.
Daryll your side managed to make it to the knockout stages of every tournament last year but always fumbled at the semi-finals. How are you‘ll looking to overcome this in the current season?
It has been frustrating for the whole team I am sure. As a team we are constantly looking to improve in all areas of our cricket. If I had to single out key aspects we are looking at - it would be our bowling, where we are conceding, at times, too many runs. In terms of our batting, we need someone batting through the innings or keeping the innings together for as long a period as possible. We are working hard on that and also on our fielding. This time it will be no different.
The Tigers boast of a prolific sheath anchor in the form of Abhishek Jhunjhunwala. How critical is the sheath anchor role in the batting success of a top side in the T20 format of the game?
The results have shown that it is no different to 50 over cricket. Sides who regularly have a player keeping the innings together, and remember it can`t always be the same guy, are putting themselves in a good position to win the match. The ICL stats have shown this already.
The Tigers possess one of the best pace attacks of the ICL (Nechim, Tarafdar, Hayward, Adams). Are we going to see emphasis on a full-fledged pace attack in the coming season.
We have to play to our strengths and work with what we have got. I would like to see our younger pace bowlers getting more cricket and perhaps this may happen this time around. However Shiv Sagar Singh had a good tournament last year with the ball and Jhunjhunwala and (Rohan) Gavaskar will need to do more bowling. Upul Chandana has had his moments as well so teams who basically can offer five frontline bowlers, with pace and slow bowling options have the best chances of winning. At times we have not quite got that right and it has cost us runs.
Which other ICL sides (apart from the Tigers) do you foresee as the biggest threat to your campaign in the forthcoming ICL Season?
All the teams will be threats especially in this format of the game. It can be unpredictable at times. So I wouldn`t necessary single out any particular team. I think though that this is going to be the toughest of all the tournaments we have had so far and there are going to be casualties along the way.
If given the opportunity, which players from the Royal Bengal Tigers` stable, according to you, possesses the talent and potential to go on to become a part of the Indian national side?
I believe that every player in the squad has the potential to play for India. With enough determination and hard work it is achievable. Everyone has "enough" talent to do it. Each tournament has produced a new star so I am interested to see who it will be for the Tigers this time around. Physical and mental conditioning is so important for the Indian players and it is an area which cannot be emphasized on enough. In Indian cricket it is the one area in which you can gain a substantial advantage over someone else also competing for a place in the team.
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