Our Bureau
New Delhi
Former India head coach Greg Chappell has asked BCCI to protect Vaibhav Suryavanshi in a move to nurture the youngest cricketing prodigy and take him further in the game of cricket.
The 14-year-old left-hander shot to fame after his selection in Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2025 auction followed by his thrilling century against Gujarat Titans last month. Playing his first IPL season at such a young age, Vaibhav put his name in the record books with the second-fastest century in the tournament’s history.
According to Chappell, Suryavanshi is “still a child – physiologically, neurologically, emotionally”. Having said this, the “batter bats with the authority of a man twice his age,” Chappell remarked.
Chappell said that child geniuses such as Suryavanshi should not be burdened with the expectations from their fans and external factors, which can lead to a “double narrative” in the growing age of talented youngsters in the cricketing world.
While noting in his column for ESPNCricinfo, Chappell further explained, “His brain is still wiring itself, his values still forming, his identity still fragile. In that context, such acclaim, such expectation, such public adulation, can become a double-edged sword.”
To make his point, Chappell gave the example of Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli, one of them succeeded while the other failed to balance fame with discipline.
“Sachin Tendulkar succeeded as a teenager not simply due to talent but because of a solid support system – a stoic temperament, a wise coach, a family that protected him from the circus. On the other hand, Vinod Kambli, equally talented and perhaps more flamboyant, struggled to balance fame and discipline. His fall was as dramatic as his rise. Prithvi Shaw is another wunderkind who has fallen but may yet find a way back to the pinnacle,” Chappell added.
While putting the onus of the player’s growth on BCCI, the franchises, mentors, and the media, Chappell asserted that “talent can’t be bubble-wrapped, but it can be provided a buffer. It must be guided, not glorified; nurtured, not just marketed”.
