INTERVIEW
Follow UsWhen Duleep Mendis took over as the head coach of the side more than a decade ago, many back home in Sri Lanka did not understand why he would travel to Oman for cricket. By his own admission, the skepticism did not end there even a few years after he took over the reins.
To a certain extent, one can understand that. When Mendis took charge, Oman were in Division Five and perhaps did not have the necessary facilities they needed for their team to flourish. However, their climb was slow yet steady, and their first huge achievement was when they made it to the World T20 in 2016. Not just that, but they also went on to beat Ireland in the tournament.
For Jatinder Singh and his teammates, the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers is yet another chance to further ensure that Oman continues its rise.
“A lot of memorable moments [with Oman]. I have been with the team for more than a decade. The journey has been great, there have been a lot of ups and downs. First amazing moment was when we qualified for the [T20] World Cup in 2016, from the qualifiers played in Ireland and Scotland in 2015,” Jatinder said, looking back at his journey in an exclusive chat with Cricket.com.
“That's where we started our main journey. The sad part is we couldn't qualify for the main World Cup [Super 10s] where we lacked application.”
While acknowledging Mendis’ role in taking Oman to where they are at the moment, Jatinder is also appreciative of the freedom that he has provided his players.
“One best thing about him is that he never disturbs our training regime,” Jatinder, who finished as Oman’s leading run-getter in the ICC CWC League 2 with 1,098 runs at 32.29, said.
“So, whatever you want to prepare, he would agree and give a go-ahead. At the end of the day, the player has to be in a good state of mind so that he can prepare freely. The player is the one who is going to perform on the field.”
But does Oman have the interest from the locals to take up cricket as a professional sport? It’s no secret that associate nations need to find ways to encourage young children to take up the sport by providing them with the right guidance and infrastructure. The ones who have managed to do that have tasted success over large periods of time.
However, Jatinder feels if cricket is developed right from the grassroots level in Oman, it could spark some interest among the youngsters.
"The game of cricket in Oman is yet not that big. Oman Cricket has introduced structured Grassroots Cricket Programs into Local as well as private schools and in the Oman Cricket Academy, keen on involving ethnic participants in the game from a very young age,” Jatinder said.
“In Oman, we have corporate cricket, we don't have proper white-ball cricket, two-day games or three-day games. That's where we lack. We need to have this set of formats so that we can start getting this culture into the youngsters, for the budding cricketers. Especially when you talk about the grassroots level, we need to introduce this at a very young age.”
While Oman’s rise to playing in multiple T20 World Cups and also having the prestigious ODI status is a tremendous achievement in itself, there are certain areas that could help them even scale higher.
“We have been training in the same pattern, we need to change that pattern and see where we stand in the world. We've been training in the same pattern for a long time. So, the teams are getting to know our players well. They are planning against the players and coming in with full-fledged plans against us,” the Ludhiana-born batter explained.
“That's the area we need to work on rigorously. If we continue to train in this pattern, we will be in a stagnated place. We'll not land anywhere. So, we need to upgrade our training pattern. That's what we really need to work on.”
As a result, the attacking batter has called for certain changes, like having match simulations and playing open nets instead of having caged sessions as just some of the things he would like to see in the near future.
Finally, coming to the tournament in hand, the World Cup Qualifiers, Oman have been clubbed with strong teams like Ireland, Sri Lanka, Scotland and the UAE who in their own right, have often proved too hot to handle. While Ireland are probably as strong as they have ever been, Scotland go into the tournament on the back of winning the CWC League 2, proving to be the most consistent team across 36 games and two years.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, have a wealth of experience behind them, while the UAE have been a tad unpredictable in the recent past, but that could be their USP. Needless to say, Oman have its work cut out.
Jatinder, though, is quick to see the positives. “When you play top-level cricket, everyone is a tough opposition. On a given day, those who perform better are tough opponents. We are going to be fearless as we have nothing to lose, everything to gain,” he said.
He also believes that his side’s pacers could very be the difference.
"The pace battery is the backbone of our team. They have shown their class when challenges have been thrown at them," Jatinder begins.
"We have seen Bilal Khan taking those fifers, on a flat track like Sharjah, where very few guys have done so. Bilal Khan, Kaleemullah, Nadeem, and Fayyaz Butt they have really been charged up through the years and know exactly what they need to do. On top of that, we have Aavishkar Salvi, former Indian player, working closely with the guys. The kind of pace bowling we have is I think we're right [up] there," Jatinder, who has traded his wicketkeeping gloves to stand in slips, added.
At 34, Jatinder is keen to continue evolving and keep up with the requirements of the game. While he has not changed his technique much, it is his approach and mindset that has taken a shift in the right direction and has continued to fetch him success.
With an average age of 33, Oman are perhaps the oldest side in the tournament. While some might look down on that, the experience and the number of matches they have played to get here might very well outnumber the rest of the teams. That’s what Jatinder and his teammates will look to prove as they look to take Oman to new, unprecedented heights.
