The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Sharma on a new mission

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Wednesday, Oct 25, 2006
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Sharma on a new mission

M.R. Praveen Chandran

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Parthasarathi Sharma was one of the finest players of spin bowling in the country and a prolific run-scorer in domestic cricket. Later, as BCCI's Talent Research Development Officer (TRDO) and as a coach he showed a keen eye for unearthing talent. The 58-year-old former Test cricketer has now been entrusted with the task of changing the fortunes of the Kerala Ranji Trophy team this season.

The former Rajasthan batsman accepted the job because of the challenge it presented to him and the opportunity to visit a place about which he had heard a lot. Sharma, who took over when the original choice Rajesh Kamat declined the offer, has his reservations about the system and is not very bullish about Kerala's chances this season.

"I may be lying if I say qualifying for the elite group will be easy. It will be tough as every State is improving and there will be no easy matches for us. Railways and Madhya Pradesh are obviously the heavy weights in our group and playing against them, a lot will depend on the wickets we get to play. It is important for us to win all our home matches so that we will be under less pressure on our away assignments," the coach said.

He was not entirely happy with the spinners' performance last season and said that the absence of a good spinner would hurt Kerala's hopes this season.

"To win a four-day game we need good spinners who can exploit the wear and tear of the wicket. From what I gather, Kerala hasn't had a match-winning spinner after K.N.Ananthapadmanabhan's retirement. Last season the highest wicket-taking spinner was Sreekumar Nair, but he took only 10 wickets from five matches, which is simply not enough to win matches. ," the coach said.

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