Ranchi, July 19: Budding cricketers at Harmu Ground were in for a treat today as former Indian wicket-keeper and batsman Syed Saba Karim gave them tips to improve their technique.

Saba was in the capital as a part of his nine-city trip to promote Test cricket. “Though Indian Premier League has done a world of good to cricketers, it is not the right medium to chose players for India,” he said.

He agreed that too much of T-20 may make Test cricket difficult, but cricket is a spectator-driven sport. “If people like the shorter format, then so be it, but every effort must be made to enable Test cricket retain its popularity,” he said.

“Players should be chosen on the basis of their performance in domestic cricket along with their performance in the IPL. Examples of such selection include Jharkhand's Saurabh Tiwary, who had a successful Ranji season, which he capped with his performance at the IPL 3,” he added.

Responding to the phenomenon of a young player getting instant success and then fading out, Saba said, “It all depends on how an individual handles success. It’s true that many lose focus. I support the idea of a monitoring cell to keep a keen eye on youngsters so that they do not lose focus with parties and a whirlwind social life to celebrate their new-found status.”

He added, “We never got so many chances like today's players. They have so many junior tournaments, India under-19, India A and so on. These help players from emerging states to get noticed.”

Saba, who is also a member of the recently formed ad hoc committee of the Bihar Cricket Association led by RJD chief Lalu Prasad, said, “A lot, including infrastructure development remains to be done in Bihar. We are working on the blueprint for the development of cricket, which should be ready in six months. Then we shall look at the budget required for this. We hope to conduct BCCI’s junior cricket tournaments on a decent scale to get permanent affiliation in a year or two.”

GeNext cricketers of the capital, who were more familiar with Saba as a commentator, enjoyed their training session with him.