The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Senthilnathan leaves for Australia

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Senthilnathan leaves for Australia

Chennai: The Head Coach of the MRF Pace Foundation, M. Senthilnathan, left for Australia on Thursday along with two promising pacemen Shrikant Wagh and Aaron Varun.

Wagh and Varun will be a part of the Australian Academy team in the forthcoming Emerging Players’ competition. “We have a MoU with the Australian Cricket Academy (ACA). Recently, Australian bowling coach Troy Cooley was here with a few exciting prospects from the ACA. Now, our boys are going there,” Senthilnathan told The Hindu on Wednesday.

He continued, “Both Wagh, a left-arm paceman who has turned out for Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy, and Aaron Varun, from Jharkhand, can go a long way. It would be a great learning experience for them.”

Message from Lillee

Senthilnathan is also thrilled about the recent messages he received from pace legend Dennis Lillee and Cooley.

Little worried

“Lillee admitted he was a little worried after the departure of T.A. Sekar but now he was confident that the Pace Foundation was in safe hands. Cooley complimented me on my work at the Foundation during the recent camp. It feels good to be recognised by such accomplished men.”

Interestingly, Senthilnathan was the India captain during the inaugural junior World Cup, down under, in 1988.

“That World Cup featured Brian Lara, Michael Atherton, Chris Cairns, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis. I have happy memories of Australia.

Later, I travelled with the Tamil Nadu team to Perth for a series of matches against Western Australia. A tour of Australia is always a comprehensive test,” he said. — Special Correspondent

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