The Hindu : Sport : Any new method takes time

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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Any new method takes time

We don't seem to have a process of identifyingfast bowlers, writes MAKARAND WAINGANKAR

Whatever be the reason, Greg Chappell was not a successful coach in the eyes of a majority of Indians. That he was not a successful team coach was known much before he took up the assignment, but in India name sells. Each coach has a method, and Chappell had his. And if Whatmore is appointed, he too will have his own.

For any method to click, it needs time. The acceptability factor is most important for any coach's method to succeed. Are Indians prepared to let Whatmore work out his method? That is the question that needs to be answered. The hunt for a coach has been on , and it is a matter of time before we get another.

In all this, we are overlooking the fact that first Sreesanth and now Munaf Patel have returned to India injured, and if the injury-description in the BCCI's press release is accurate then India will struggle in England. Fast bowling is all about mental make-up. Whether they are well-built or not, they have to be aggressive all the time and for that to happen they have to be physically and mentally fit.

Proper handling

All they need is proper handling which is so very essential, especially to bowlers from the sub-continent. Hardly anyone realises that for a bowler to reach the top and perform in the busy schedule, he has to bowl on appalling pitches and hard outfields.

People who doubt Munaf Patel's integrity would realise what the boy must have gone through if one visits the ground where he started bowling. With a population of less than 8000, his village in Palej (Bharuch district in Gujarat) has a ground that is so hard that a ball bounces more on the outfield than on the pitch that is not a turf. Having played all his cricket on hard grounds and fields, Munaf Patel's body has been subjected to work which no fast bowler would have gone through. If the team management thought of Munaf Patel as the main bowler for the England tour, he should have been rested.

The problem with Indian cricket is that we don't have a process of identifying, nurturing and monitoring the progress of fast bowlers. The NCA, with Kapil Dev as the Chairman, should have focussed on the development of fast bowlers. Instead, the focus is on developing coaches.

We have enough unemployed qualified NCA coaches but not even a dozen fit fast bowlers who could last a couple of seasons. Why is the BCCI averse to getting Dennis Lillee involved when he has been visiting India for more than two decades and knows the mental make-up and physical capability of Indian fast bowlers?

Recovery period

Lillee would be the first to admit that even he wouldn't have lasted bowling every week in an international match. There has to be a recovery period for fast bowlers and the fact is that they don't get even a week to recuperate. Indian fast bowling is in a terrible mess.

At a time when fast bowlers have been winning matches when it matters, Indian fast bowlers are struggling with injuries. Appointing a bowling coach is no solution to problems fast bowlers face in India. There has to be a performance-enhancement wing for fast bowlers.

An Indian physio, Dr. Nitin Patel, is with the ECB for working out a rehabilitation process for fast bowlers so that they can perform better. We need such physios if our fast bowlers are to be fit and bowl fast.

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