Karun Jethi represented Canada intermittently between 2003 and 2008. He has this week posted about his experiences with the National team on our forum, and we reproduce his articles here, slightly edited for clarity. We should note that we cannot prove that Mr. Jethi is indeed the author of these articles.
Post 1: Karun Jethi takes you behind the scenes.
Hello everyone. I have been reading this forum for a long time, and came to a conclusion that you guys have mixed and very limited knowledge about Cricket Canada and their operations. There could be no-one better to give you close to exact information about how CC works and what goes on during election days and on tours.
What I want to say thoough is please everyone support our team training hard in India for the World Cup. As an athlete who represented Canada in ODI, T-20 and first class cricket, I can say that when you guys support us we feel good and perform better compare to when we have no support.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR PLAYERS.
The only fault of our players is that they don’t stick together. Being a part of the team I learnt that there is no team unity. All the players always care about their own spot in the team. No one cares about winning the game or making a strong unit or being a family. Every player is always acting like a private investigator who is out there to find negative evidence about team mates.
On tours it’s always who the coach or manager or captain likes. If you are liked by one of them you can do what ever you want and can go where ever you want but if you are in their bad books you will be punished even though you did nothing.
I will be writing here on this forum because I have finally realized that CC supporters and fan should know what exactly goes on behind the scenes and especially ON TOURS.
Speaking of tours, I heard CC is sending a team to West Indies for T-20. Last time I went there was in 2008 when we had a sponsor, then also in a subsequent, tour one off . A CC official announced in a team meeting in Florida during the Americas Cup that over 70,000 dollars were spent on that 2 week tour. We stayed in a low class hotel and didn’t even get proper food to eat. Now my question is how are they going to arrange this tour without sponsor and what’s the point of it? As an athlete I would have that money used for extending the tour of India where actually the WC will be played.

Now going to JD, Barney and Billy these guys can come whenever they want because of work commitments but other guys have to leave everything they are doing otherwise they will be dropped…… I don’t see how is that fair and to me its pointless cause these guy never produced an individual performance that won us a game in the WC so why run after them.
Post 2: The night before a game
The first time I met my club team in India as a contracted cricketer was for a team meeting in a hotel room in Delhi in 2009. We were about to start the 2009 Delhi domestic season which includes 50 overs, 2 day and T-20 games. Coach started proceedings with the objectives for the new venture, which he also put up on the chalkboard. Then the captain took over from him and spoke about how the team was shaping up and the areas we needed to work on. I had attended several team meetings in the past, and this one was no different up until then. The similarity, though, ended there. The team was then split into two groups, batsmen and bowlers. We were told to go into different corners and discuss the game plans for the two back to back matches starting the following day. While the batsmen spoke about the opponents bowling and marked out the main threat, our bowlers analysed their batting. Since I had played for one of those 2 teams in 2008, I became the chief contributor among the batsmen. Other senior members would add some details to my narrative about a particular bowler. Obviously they were well aware of what was coming and allowed me to talk to refresh their memory, and probably to make me feel comfortable as I was the newest member of that team.
It was just one of the many meetings I would attend over the next year with the team. On the eve of every match we would usually get together and coach and captain always prepared specific plans for the opposition. We were always split into our two groups and asked to write down our plans and key points including individual preparations. The idea of involving everyone in the decision-making process is to make them feel responsible and a part of the team and also to eliminate the factor of senior and junior because it’s always easier to follow a plan that you’ve been a part of, as compared to one that is forced upon you. Batsmen were shown few videos that we had of other teams bowler, and the senior players kept giving valuable inputs on their strengths and weaknesses and how to handle them. Bowlers had the harder job of going through every opposition batsman’s strength (to avoid bowling in to it) and the areas in which he struggled mostly (to try and get him out or contain him).
One thing I learned playing in India as a pro is that batting is mostly about an individual against another, but bowlers need to complement each other at all times. If one bowler goes for runs or lose confidence, the entire team plan can collapse. For example, if a good batsmen is weak on front foot at the start of his innings, and the plan would be to keep bowling full to him, but if one bowler bowled him a few short-pitched deliveries, he’d be up and running and then it would be harder to stop him. The entire team decided on a theme to reflect the goal for that tournament. “FIGHT FOR IT OR DONT EVEN TRY” was the theme for that year.
That was just a glimpse of how team meetings are at the professional level in a club team in India. But things are quite different one level lower (WHICH WILL BE TEAM CANADA FOR ME). Most team meetings in Canadian cricket revolve around the COACH reminding everyone of the importance of the game, and some motivational stuff. Always the same field chart for every bowler and talk about same stuff again and again for 3 or more hours regardless who the opponents are. For example we did the same planning when we played Pakistan as when we played Bermuda. Analysing the opposition in detail rarely happens: there’s very little data available for analysis even though we had a full time analyst, and we are not intent on using whatever little we have. Most associate teams have employed video analysts to cover their matches and practice sessions and have used that to their best. While for a particular team, footage just ends up becoming a tool only to analyse that team’s own batting and bowling and to satisfy higher officials that we are working. (like the Canadian cricket team).
A player should remember the strengths and weaknesses of every opponent he had ever played against. This sounds ridiculous, but that’s exactly what certain top players do. Cricket Canada is getting ready for the World Cup in the sub-continent so i would like to tell them something about how to prepare for ODIs as I know they prepare for all three formats in same manner. ODIs are more dynamic than first class and less so than T-20s, and hence the demands are different as well. Batsmen should bat in the nets to imaginary field positions, looking to score runs as they do. They should talk to fellow bowlers regarding feedback to determine the number of runs a stroke would have fetched. Even though they tend to disagree on most occasions, it helps add a healthy sense of competition between batsmen and bowlers which subsequently help them both. After playing a few rounds of conventional cricket, every batsmen should try to innovate and go over the top consistently. At times they should bat in pairs and rotate the strike every few deliveries. Bowlers, on the other hand, should bowl shorter spells, but practise bowling yorkers and slower ones, both in the nets and outside, challenging the batsmen to score over six-seven runs an over. Set a goal according to per 6 deliveries and tell the batsmen their field. They should get angry if they don’t achieve their goal and work harder in next 6 deliveries.
Post 3: In the nets
I have attended many CC net and fitness session, as a player and also as a spectator. Nothing has changed since 2008 when I was a part of it. Still we have the coach asking players to run like a horse, still we have senior players sitting on the side with a ice pack avoiding fitness training. I want to ask them how come they are injured for fitness but fit for batting and bowling.
Now let me take you on a tour of a Canadian net session according to my experience. First every one arrives at the destination of practice. Then they chat for a bit. After finishing their chatting, coach’s bunny will pad up (regardless if he’s batsmen or bowler) and will bat for 45 mins at least, while senior players are busy texting. Whenever they are done texting they will pad up and stand by the nets and chat again, while the coach is standing on a ladder and feeding the bowling machine and repeating “play in the V”. Senior fast bowlers will be bowling spin or will be wicket keeping while the wicket keepers will be bowling. Guys like myself who left work to come to the net session will be standing in the side picking up balls for the bowling machine because we don’t suck up to the coach or captain or the selectors.
Then the captain’s best friend will walk in late and right away pad up because he will have to leave soon to hit a bar or to meet a girl while I’m still standing picking up balls. When the session is almost done I was told to pad up and have a hit. By the time I have played 15 balls thrown by non bowlers and wicket keepers I am told thanks for coming.
Now the time comes for coach to tell us to run around like horses and do a million sit ups and push ups. Coincidentally captain and coaches friends have to leave now because of family or other commitments. During fitness sessions guys like me who sprained their ankle in plain sight of whole team have to still be involved while all the “loved ones ” just because they are feeling sick for some odd reason can sit in a corner or skip the session. All of us end up running like we are training for a marathon instead of training to be a solid cricketer. Training for cricket and a marathon are two different things. I have played with top cricketers in India in past and have never heard or seen any one doing a beep test but in CC if you don’t pass the beep test you are not fit enough to make the team. My question is what’s the point of intense fitness if one is not good enough to bat more than 10 deliveries.
If CC is going to end up getting a fielding, fitness or batting coach then what is the point of the current coach. The amount of money spend on these coaches could be divided between players who work hard and leave everything for the team and country. We (the players) are the main reasons behind to organizations spending money on us and the end of the day we have to beg for our pay – what’s the point of working hard.
At the end of the day I would like to tell my whole team that GOOD LUCK AND WORK HARD but at same time STAND UP FOR YOUR OWN RIGHTS because no one else will do it for you.