The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Sreesanth delighted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

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Sport - Cricket

Sreesanth delighted

Principal Correspondent

KOZHIKODE: Sreesanth couldn't quiet believe what T.A. Sekhar had told him. Did he hear it right, he doubted his own ears.

A few hours later, talking to The Hindu over telephone from the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai, the 22-year-old said he still found it difficult to believe that he had indeed made it to the Indian probables list for the tour of Sri Lanka in August. ``I just can't imagine that I'm going to attend the same camp as Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag,'' he said. ``It's amazing really.''

But he admitted that he had been expecting a call from the selectors form the beginning of the season. ``But still, when I was actually told that I had been selected, it sounded incredible,'' he said. ``Mr. Sekhar told me that I should work hard and make the best out of this opportunity.''

Sekhar, a former Indian pace bowler and head coach at the MRF Academy, where Sreesanth had been attending training sessions since 2002, rates him highly. He had said that Sreesanth was easily one of the most promising young pace bowlers in the country. ``He is also one of the quickest around,'' he had said. ``He's got many plus points as a fast bowler. He could generate pace, has a good yorker and is an intelligent bowler.''

The Kochi-based Sree Santh, who is the first Kerala cricketer to come this close to the Indian team after Tinu Yohannan, said his decision to join Indian Airlines, Delhi, at the beginning of the year proved a wise one. ``I was able to impress people like Madan Lal by bowling quick and straight on the flat tracks of Northern India. And I got the opportunity to bowl to players like Sehwag, whose wicket I had the privilege of taking on a couple of occasions.''

Sreesanth had turned to fast bowling on an advice from the former Kerala bowler Ajajy Varma. In his school days in Bangalore, he was more of a batsman who loved to bowl leg-spinners.

After a good show in the Duleep Trophy in 2002-03, he was included in the India `A' team against the touring New Zealand side, at Rajkot in late 2003. He could bowl just 12 overs when he pulled his hamstring. He'd taken one wicket before that, that of Craig McMillan.

He is hoping for better luck this time round.

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