The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : My job is to think for them: Prasad

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Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007
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My job is to think for them: Prasad

Rakesh Rao

It is important to understand the bowlers’ capabilities

My job is 24x7, 365 days in a year
Our bowlers’ meetings have become more purposeful

— Photo: S. Subramanium

BRAINSTORMING: Venkatesh Prasad’s inputs have been of immense help to the Indian bowlers. Here Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble are all ears to his advice.

NEW DELHI: These days, Venkatesh Prasad is a busy man. He spends time reading books on coaching, building team spirit, man management skills and much more.

When not at the “nets”, this lanky Bangalorean is studying video-footage on his laptop so that his observations can make the difference.

A bowling coach since India’s tour of Bangladesh in May this year, Prasad has been constantly working to get better at his job.

Praise has come from captain Anil Kumble and several former cricketers for the Indian bowlers for restricting Pakistan to sub-250 total in both innings of the first Test. A part of the credit is surely due to Prasad.

“Once the day’s play is over, it is time for the players to unwind. But my job is 24x7, 365 days in a year,” said Prasad who seems completely engrossed in his new role with some long-term objectives for the benefit of the bowlers.

Enjoying it

How does he find his new job?

“I am enjoying it immensely. It is great to see bowlers who have the desire to improve. They come to the nets with a specific purpose, certain goals. When a bowler treats a net session like a match, his skills grow.

“For me to help a bowler, it is important to understand his capabilities. Once I identify the areas where he can get better and suggest corrective measures, it is also important how and when I communicate with them. “I may have the knowledge but I have to keep it simple to put it across.

“I have to get into the minds of the bowlers to understand their mental and physical state” the 38-year-old told The Hindu. For someone who took 96 wickets from 33 Tests and 196 wickets from 161 one-day international matches between 1994 and 2001, Prasad feels bowlers need to be “technically correct” or else they will break down.

Creating space

“As a coach, I need to get to the root cause of the technical flaw. Before I offer my suggestions, I try to create the ‘space’ for a bowler to share what he thinks he is trying to do and why he is not able to achieve the desired results.

“The more we share with each other, better will be the comfort level. So I have to understand each and every bowler, his potential, ability to communicate and mindset. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But I continue thinking of the ways in which I can make it simple for the bowlers,” explained Prasad.

What impresses him the most? “The way bowlers like S. Sreesanth, R. P. Singh, Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan keep the seam position at the point of release. Their release is awesome, seam going straight. When I played, I had to really work on it. I even changed the action for movement.”

“My job is to think for them. Make them understand that the game is played in the mind. Our bowlers’ meetings have become more purposeful. There is a strong bonding among the players and I am working on making them tactically stronger,” Prasad said.

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