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It's the Raman effect now
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As the new coach of the State team, W. V. Raman is aware of the challenges and the expectations. And he plans to be different
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PHOTO: V. GANESAN
A HANDS-ON APPROACH Cricket coach W. V. Raman
W. V. Raman knows much about timing. It's about striking the ball from the sweet portion of the willow.
He would now want the Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy side to time its performances. In other words, peak at the right time.
In the last four seasons, Tamil Nadu has stumbled twice at the last hurdle, the final. Was the side overwhelmed by the occasion?
The side's ability is not in question. But then, it had been undone by the pressures of the big game.
As the new State cricket team coach, Raman, who has an impressive stint as the Bengal coach behind him, is aware of the challenges, and is conscious of the expectations. And he plans to be different.
While the fear of failure has often been discussed and debated upon, the former India left-hander focusses on the `fear of success.'
"You take the case of athletics. When an athlete is ahead and then he looks over his shoulder and sees bigger names following him, that is when he begins to falter," says Raman.
The trick is to take the pressure off the match from your thoughts, relax mentally without losing focus. "You should not be overanxious to perform. You saw Zaheer Khan in the last World Cup final. He was too keyed up. He suffered."
Similarly, the 41-year-old former India southpaw has his own views on the latest training methods. "These days, there is a lot more focus on the fitness aspect. I would look for 65 per cent cricketing ability and 35 per cent fitness."
He elaborates. "You see, the idea should be to produce fit cricketers, not athletes for a 100m blast. If all these fitness routines leave a cricketer physically and mentally tired, the very purpose is lost. We need to strike a proper balance."
Non-stop cricket
Raman also zeroes in on the amount of cricket played in Chennai. "We have the best league, the best infrastructure, but our very strength can turn into our weakness. There is almost non-stop cricket till mid-October. The cricketers can enter the Ranji season jaded."
He has a point. The first division cricketers figure in as many as 11 rounds (all three-day matches) of the league ahead of the Ranji season, apart from competing in annual tournaments in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Raman is likely to speak his mind during the selection meetings too. "I will try to convince them on cricketing grounds. And they will do the same. In the end, it would boil down to who has a better case on cricketing merits."
One major area of concern is the spin bowling, where young talent is not coming through. Raman looks at the positives. "Things will only get better from here," he says.
He blames the limited-overs contest in school cricket and the lack of confidence shown by the captains in budding spinners in the league as the major causes for the decline. "They have to perform on good wickets. They need to be aggressive, but at the same time have to be persistent and patient," he says.
Raman is not averse to experienced spinners being drafted in. "Spinners mature with age."
The State's much-celebrated batting line-up has also let the side down in crunch situations. "We have traditionally been a strong batting side, but have not always put up enough runs on the board."
Raman points out that it was only from the mid-80s that Tamil Nadu, collectively, delivered consistently as a batting unit.
However, in the last few seasons, particularly, the last two, the team's batting has disappointed during key moments.
The coach is emphatic that he would seek a regular opening combination. "It is a specialist job. It's not just about the runs the openers make, but the confidence they provide to the side, how they counter the early conditions."
In his time with the Indian team, Raman was thrust into top-order slots, often sat on the bench despite being in the best of nick, and his record of 448 runs in 11 Tests at 24.88 and 617 runs in 27 ODIs at 23.73 hardly did him justice. He was a dominant batsman in first class cricket with 7,939 runs in 132 matches at 45.62. Interestingly, he began his journey as a promising left-arm spinner.
As Tamil Nadu seeks its first Ranji Trophy title since 1987, Raman says he will be a `hands on' coach.
S. DINAKAR
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