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Bowled them over
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What are the key aspects of spin bowling? Off-spin wizard Erapalli Prasanna held youngsters spellbound at MAC Spin Foundation
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Erapalli Prasanna giving tips to young players on spin bowling. Pics by V.Ganesan
THERE HE was, his eyes gleaming, his radiant smile as bright as the sunshine, creating moments of magic with fingers still supple.
Even as he guides the aspirants, the wizard picks up the ball, makes it hang in the air, lands the cherry on the good length spot, gets it to turn viciously. And this man is now 63!
If you happen to be a genuine lover of cricket, then it is unlikely that you watch Erapalli Prasanna bowl without your eyes turning moist. For his bowling, that brings together all the classical elements of spin bowling, is a work of art...timeless and ethereal. Yes, it can make you cry.
The great man loves nothing more than passing on his enormous knowledge to young ones, like he does so often at the MAC Spin Foundation.
He remains the eternal master of deception with the ball. The batsmen would jump out to him only to find the delightfully flighted delivery, dropping down alarmingly even as they went through their shot; if the loop didn't get them, the bite and spin off the surface certainly would.
Such was his mastery over his craft, that he could have as well had the ball on the string. Even if the pitch were to be lifeless, Prasanna would infuse life into the ball with his flight and loop. "If he (the batsman) attacks me, I would attack him too (with the ball), he says."
He goes on... "Once the ball is sizzling in the air, it is more like a Frisbee. A certain kind of vacuum develops around the ball, and as long as it spins, the ball will keep travelling, and once it stops spinning, it dips. But even the last bit of spin left might be enough to fetch the bowler extra bounce. This is the natural principle of aerodynamics."
A wealth of information about spin bowling continues to flow from him. Prasanna, who consumed 189 batsmen in 49 Tests, makes it clear that a spinner has to get three key aspects right in his action and release - pivoting on the toe, twist of the waist, and tweak that imparts spin on the ball. The clever use of the crease is crucial too.
The wizard is of the opinion that before 15, the youngsters should not use the thumb while delivering the ball, for they would be tempted to push the ball faster. "The young off-spinners should hold the ball between the middle and the forefinger. This will encourage them to spin and flight the ball."
Even as the youngsters run in to bowl, he shouts - "Look at the sightscreen." The maestro then explains. "You see the ideal trajectory of the ball should be at the top of the sightscreen facing the bowler."
Prasanna is convinced that any spinner has to be side-on while delivering the ball. It is very unlikely too that an off-spinner with a side-on release will have a doubtful action. Also with a chest-on action, a spinner will not be able to pivot.
"You see, when you have a side-on release, you will have a high action and your bowling arm will brush your ear," says Prasanna, once again driving home his point. Once the arm gets wider, the essential qualities of a spinner drift away. He is not convinced that the cocking of the wrist adds to a left-arm spinner's bowling.
Prasanna points out that Harbhajan Singh's open-chested action is not helping his cause. "This way he is closing out his options. He is unable to spin the ball big, because he is not able to pivot."
Prasanna, who spoke to Anil Kumble before the tour down under, is extremely pleased that the senior leg-spinner had a wonderful Test series in Australia. "I must say the field placings were effective. He had the mid-off and mid-on rather straight, so the batsmen were not able to hit him down the ground. This prompted them to play across the line. Kumble was also a little slower in the air. There was enough time for the batsmen to think in terms of essaying a stroke, but not enough time for them to execute it! The batsmen were in two minds as they played back to a good length ball and did not have time to adjust. You saw what happened to Ricky Ponting!"
Prasanna blossomed under Tiger Patuadi's aggressive captaincy, and in the 1967-68 tour of Australia, grabbed 25 wickets in four Tests. The off-spinning great is quick to strike a parallel between the methods adopted by Tiger and Sourav Ganguly. "Ganguly's captaincy was brilliant against Australia in Tests, and like Pataudi, he too is attacking. However, Tiger's aggression on the field was subtle. That is the difference between the two."
The off-spin wizard is delighted that young spinners such as Sunny Gupta, Arjun Vijayasarathy and Malolan Rangarajan are coming through at the MAC Spin Foundation, where former Tamil Nadu cricketers Peter Fernandez and K. Srinivasan also contribute with their coaching.
Dusk sets in by the time the interview ends, but with Prasanna around, there can only be sunshine and brightness. True art gleams forever.
S. DINAKAR
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