PTI

Bangalore, Mar 14: Former India coach Greg Chappell said early exposure to twenty20 cricket might harm youngsters by causing burnout at an early age if they do not deal with the high probability of failure in a proper manner.

“Twenty overs cricket, by its mere nature, is going to be a game of a lot of failure. If you can't deal with that failure and understand that it's part of the game and learn from it, you are going to fall by the wayside quickly," Chappell said.

“What we are going to see with this express form of cricket is we are going to burn a lot of young cricketers very early," said the former Australian captain, currently hunting young talent from various Indian cities for cricket star, a programme run by emerging media, which owns the Indian Premier League's Jaipur franchise.

Chappell supported sledging, saying every good player had to learn to deal with it but felt it had been blown out of proportion.

"The verbal that goes on in the cricket field is generally about trying to distract someone's attention. Once you understand that, it should never harm you. That's something all good players have to learn to deal with. If you can't focus on what you have to focus on, you've got a problem," he said.

"The whole thing (sledging) has been overblown a great deal for years and not just recently. It sounds very sexy for the media to talk about it, but it's not a huge issue from the playing point of view," Chappell said.

Chappell also felt cricket was "going through a great change" and the game would be far more demanding than in the past.

"Cricket is going through a great change at the moment. The cricket of the future is going to be different from the cricket in the past," he said.

"Future cricketers are going to be very athletic, agile, able to withstand a lot of stress both physically and mentally and even emotionally," he said.

"One of the great challenges for young cricketers in the future is that they are likely to make their debut in the very short form of the game," Chappell said.

"People who like to be in the spotlight and people who enjoy pressure can only succeed." Chappell suggested spreading the net wider to attract talent. "If we concentrate more on metros, we are going to miss natural talent available in rural areas. It is easy to educate in rural areas."