The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Midhun

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Sunday, Feb 05, 2006

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Sport - Cricket

Midhun — new kid on the block

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: With stars like Sreesanth, Tinu Yohannan and Prasanth Chandran, Kerala's pace bowling department is quite crowded these days.

But that has not stopped K.L. Midhun from displaying his fine `cherry-ware' in recent tournaments. The medium pacer from Cherai, a tourist's paradise with its lovely beach near Kochi, was adjudged the player of the tournament at the Coromandel Cement State-level cricket event here the other day.

The 21-year-old chose the State's biggest stage, the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium, and a setting under lights, for one of his best performances. The Kochi Refineries Limited bowler took five wickets against State Bank of Travancore, which is packed with Ranji stars, in the Coromandel tournament final.

He had another impressive pick in the quarterfinal, against the host Ernakulam Cricket Club, when he finished with six for 24. And he was one of the heroes of the KRL team, which won the all-India KRL Trophy, its home title, for the first time a few days ago. All in just a week's work.

A couple of months before that, he was named the best bowler in the Pioneers State-level tournament in Thrissur.

Late starter

Surprisingly, Midhun came to cricket rather late, at 17. "I used to play for my college team, Maharaja's, but I became a bit serious about the sport only around 19 when I went for the district under-19 selection trials," said the first-year MBA student.

Two years ago, he played for the Customs Recreation Club in the Ernakulam D-division and finished with 17 wickets from six matches. A little later, he came for the district under-22 trials at Kochi Refineries where he impressed the coach P. Balachandran, the former Kerala Ranji coach. KRL soon signed him and he is now a member of district's A-Division champion, though he played just one match after being hit on the head while batting in the league opener.

Midhun's mother was a good 400m runner in the State in her youth. And after running on the Cherai beach regularly, Midhun, a six-footer with broad shoulders, found that he had good speed when he took to fast bowling.But Balachandran noticed that with such pace, things were getting slightly out of control. "He did not keep his feet firm, he used to slide a bit at the end of the run. So I asked him to reduce the speed of his run-up a bit to gain more control," said the KRL coach.

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