Former Australian Test players Len Pascoe and Graham Yallop passed on their knowledge to young cricketers at Shawn Brown’s Cricket Camp in Traralgon last week.
Pascoe took the participants through Test match and one-day skills during the Thursday session, while Yallop’s Friday session focused on one-day and twenty20.
Yallop, a former Test captain, said there could be future national team players at the clinic.
“They’ve just got to stay keen, got to keep working hard and you just don’t know where they’re going to end up,” Yallop said.
“There’s some good naturally gifted players in the country areas and Traralgon’s no exception.”
When coaching young players, Yallop said he liked to ensure they had a strong sense of the basics.
“The main advice is that unless you actually understand the basics and have good knowledge and skills from a technical viewpoint, you’re not going to go on and be really good players,” Yallop said.
Australian cricket is riding a wave of momentum after Australia’s 5-0 Ashes win over England and Yallop said the secret to bouncing back from the 4-0 defeat in England last year came down to good bowling.
“I think the difference between the two was Mitchell Johnson, he bowled so well, I don’t think the English players were used to his bounce,” Yallop said.
“His accuracy and bounce upset them to no end and at the other end the (Ryan) Harris’s and the (Peter) Siddle’s just bowled great line and length and put so much pressure on.”
*Michael DiFabrizio is a University of Wollongong journalism student.
