Delhi U-15 women’s team was on Wednesday felicitated by the DDCA during the annual prize distribution function for putting up a brilliant show during the recent One Day Trophy.
The team suffered a defeat in the final but DDCA President Rohan Jaitley rewarded the players and the coaching staff for a superb outing during the competition with a cash reward of INR 20 lakh.
On sidelines of the event, U-15 coach Swapandeep Singh, who is son of former India cricketer Gursharan Singh, talked about his stint with the unit, the final loss and thanked the DDCA for the support.
“The kids were very enthusiastic for sure. Skill set wise, we did work as we had a one month-long camp before the tournament. During that period our main focus was working on fitness and skill development in the first couple of weeks. By the third week, we began with match simulations and matches within the team. We also focused a lot on team bonding and this was probably the best way to do so,” says Swapandeep.
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To make the young group gel together, the support staff had a rule in place for eating breaks.
“There was a lot of coordination between the players. What I did during that one-month period, I and the support staff made a rule that all the kids will sit in a circle and eat together. Slowly and gradually, all the players started bonding really well with each other and that’s what you want as a coach,” reveals Swapandeep.
Swapandeep pointed out that as a coach, it was his responsibility to communicate with the players to help them make the improvements that were required.
“Look, they are young kids at the end of the day and it was my responsibility to improve their skillset. I feel communication is a must and that’s what I did. I used to talk to the players as much as I could. I treat all of them as my younger sisters and they could come up to me as an elder brother and discuss whatever they wanted to,” explains Swapandeep.
Talking about the fitness, Swapandeep added that initially, the players weren’t really up to the mark but gradually worked hard and showed a lot of improvement.
“Initially the players weren’t really that up to the mark. I asked my trainers and physios to work with them. In the next one month, the results were amazing as they all improved really well. So, I made them understand the importance of fitness and how it would help them enhance their game,” he adds.
‘Catches win you matches’
While the team had done pretty well during the tournament, the final didn’t just go their way. According to Swapandeep, the dropped catches were something that cost them the game eventually as the opposition batters capitalised well on the chances given to them.
“I think it was not in our luck to be the champions this year. When your best fielders drop catches then there’s something wrong. We dropped five catches and the other team capitalised on that. One of their batters scored 120 and other one scored 60. And as we say, catches win matches. So, that probably was one of the major factors,” he says.
The coaching stint
Swapandeep himself played for Delhi and Haryana at the domestic level before moving to Australia for a couple of years and then returned back. The former cricketer talked about his journey and how he became the coach of Delhi’s U-15 women’s team.
“One day I was sitting with father who is a former India Test player. He has been coaching since 1995. I myself have played for Delhi and Haryana and then I went to Sydney for a couple of years. But things weren’t really falling in place and I had a chat with dad as to how should I go about things. He just told me that have faith in this (cricket coaching) and start with it. Then, the very next year, I completed NCA Level 1 with 78% which gave me a lot of confidence and then I did NCA Level 2 where I got first division. One of my students is playing international cricket for Netherlands and some kids are playing at the state level in Delhi and Haryana.
“This is my first stint and the way the campaign has gone, it has made me very confident. Moreover, a lot of credit goes to the players and the support staff as they used to listen to what I said. That was very good and because of that we eventually bonded really well. The energy in the team was very good. I personally believe in positivity, I read a lot of books on positivity. So, we had that energy throughout, right from the beginning till the very end,” says Swapandeep.
‘Thanks to DDCA’
Before signing off, the young coach thanked the DDCA for the support during the tournament.
“I’m really thankful to DDCA for the kind of support that I received. I just used to make one call and the things were sorted then and there,” says Swapandeep.
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