Ambimama - India

Title (in English) : Shortage of Pace Bowlers in India

I do not know if Pakistan, Australia or West Indies has any pace foundation like MRF. But they have Mcgrath, Wsim Akram, Cournet Walsh and lot more – A battery of pace bowlers.

Of course MRF pace foundation has produced Srinath and Chaminda Vaas. But sure their quality is not at par with the ones mentioned above.

The real truth is lack of application and attitude.

Even today fast bowlers aim only for Pace and have no control over line, length, swing and accuracy. A good bowler is one who makes the batsmen go back and defend. And keeps on bowling at the right spot, with slight variation and tease and irritate even the best batsmen to make mistakes.

I woud like to quote Geoff Boycott here

“You put a hanky on the pitch near good length, now ask the Indian bowlers to bowl six balls on the hanky. They would hit a maximum of four times on the cloth but not all six. McGrath’s and Walsh’s are capable of hitting the hanky 100 times continuously”

MRF is in good hands now, Dennis Lillee is in charge and I don’t have to tell him what he should do. But the real need for MRF, who are doing an excellent job is to motivate and train the bowlers to aim for accurate length, perfect use of crease, good control over bounce from good length spot, use of imagination and understand batsmen’s weakness.

Good old days bowlers were never hurt or showed faces when they were hit for fours. They wanted the batsmen to hit. And they bowl the next ball the same way – so the batsman thinks – but the bowler completely deceives the batsman and he walks back.

The great off spinner Prasanna is the best example for this.

SO the solution – Combine the knowledge and Talents of Old timers and use Mcgrath , Akram to produce good bowlers. We have youngsters in plenty, with time and money. Cricket is a good business for players to invest and get trained.
I have plans to talk to MRF Pace foundation and also MAC Spin training foundation.

Though Natural talent is pre-requisite, I believe there are Ekalavyas waiting and they need Dhronacharyas.