NAKED EYE
Discipline is the key in sport, more so in a teamgame where one unforced error can have calamitous consequences for theteam. India's below par fielding and bowling performance in theongoing T 20 and one day series is a cause of major concern. Whenfielders like Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli begin dropping sitters, youget the jitters. The abrupt sacking of Robin Singh and Vekatesh Prasadhas undoubtedly left some sort of a void. I am not saying that theywere the right men for the job, but at least they were doing somethingto the best of their abilities. While Robin Singh's presencehadn't really imporved our fielding standards, bowling coach VenkateshPrasad was reported to have done an outstanding job with the seamerson the England and Australian tours. Anyway, both were summarilydismissed and the board sat on its backside waiting to do something.Now, nature abhors a vacuum, so the cricket board known to function inmysterious ways appointed Chicago born US minor league baseball playerand till recently Australian fielding coach as India's fieldingconsultant for the ongoing one day and T 20 20 series against SriLanka. Young had earlier coached the Australian baseball team as well.
Both Prasad and Singh were sacked before the seven match one dayseries against Australia. India played the three Tests against Lankawithout the services of a bowling and fielding coach. Players likeMohd Kaif and Yuvraj were natural athletes and hence excellentfielders square off the wicket. Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina haveshown in their fledgling careers that they too are good fielders.Others like Tendulkar have manfully kept up the intensity despite thevagaries of advancing age. WithYuvraj's knee and back constantly proving a problem, one has latelyseen him patrolling the boundary. As a race Indians are unfit and thisdoesn't help us at all. Fitness brings agility. So, Indians have toconstantly work on their fitness. Someone like Dhoni is a good exampleof being fit. The amount of singles that he runs in practically allhis innings in Indian conditions proves that he is fit. Seldom does hecramp up. It is imperative to remain fit primarily because the amountof cricket that our top players are playing will result in breakdownssooner than later. I cannot for instance for the life of me understandhow our bowlers lose their pace. When Munaf Patel appeared on thescene, he was a tearaway quick. Ditto for Ishant Sharma. But both havelost their pace. Isn't a surfeit of cricket or is it listlessness dueto the incessant regimen that one needs to put in to remain on top ofone's game? It is nice to see Ashish Nehra bolwing quick again, but atthe moment he has no clue which length to bowl to Sri Lankan battersDilshan and Sangakarra.
Javagal Srinath is a classic example of reinventing himself. Realisingthat he needed to shoulder the Indian bowling workload, he went to abio mechanist and converted from a vegan to a non vegetarian to buildhis body mass. There was flutter in the dovecotes when ManojPrabhakar described Venkatesh Prasad as a baggage handler and not abowling coach. Indian quicks like Kapil Dev and Srinath learnt quicklythat one needed to bowl a three quarter length on Indian wickets.Maybe that is why they were successful. The game has changed with theonset of the T 20 version. Batters are looking at dominating thebowling from the start. There is no switching off once the power playis over. The bowlers are in the firing line. So, they need toreadjust, no one can allow the batsman to get underneath the ball, sothat he can simply smash it out of sight. In England recently one sawStuart Broad bowling from round the wicket and making the ball slantaway from the batsman, even as the batsman threw his hands at the ballunsuccessfully. The angle defied a stroke. It wasa good tactic, some thought had gone into it. I don't know whetherOttis Gibson (England bowling coach) was responsible for this move,but it was a change. It isnot more obvious than ever that the quicker you bowl along with thewrong length, the faster you will sail over the boundary. using thepace of the ball has become a reality for batters.
A technical flaw for a batsman can be ironed out. And this has beenknown to happen even with some of the best. Sunny Gavaskar and RahulDravid are perfect examples of this. Form deserts even the greatest,this is when flaws creep into the game. It could be a shuffle as ithappened with Gavaskar or the bat may no longer be coming downfrom the perpindicular, but from the slips leaving an opening betweenthe bat and pad. But great players like the two mentioned managed toclean out these glitches by consulting people who they thought werespecialists. Gary Kirsten and Paddy Upton seem to be doing a good jobas far as the mental side of the game is concerned. They haveconvinced Dhoni's men that they can be world beaters. They haveconvinced them that they can win abroad. Maybe that is why our recordis improving abroad. But fielding and coaching are specialist tasks.If you don't get the right candidates and they don't hit it off withthe players, it can be an unmitigated disaster. You don't want to foolaround with a bowler's action or a batsman's technique, but you needsomebody to tone up the drills, make the fielding unit cohesive andimprove its catching and ground fielding. It is the same with bowling,the kind of lengths to bowl against specific batsman, the tactics touse against an opponent. India at the moment is clueless about theLankans. It simply doesn't know what to bowl to Dilshan andSangakarra. So, they end up bowling rubbish.
Scientifc and medical expertise are equally important in this age offrenetic cricket. Performance plans and player development strategiesare valuable inputs as well. I am not advocating the kind of supportstaff that say John Buchanan had for Kolkata Knight Riders whichbordered on a Mom and Pop shop or the one that England are using atthe moment. The latest addition to team director Andy Flower'sburgeoning staff is Graham Gooch as batting coach. The top tier of theEnglish coachinjg staff led by Andy Flower sets the ECB back by ashocking one million pounds sterling. Since Flower won the Ashes forEngland, the ECB probably reckons that it is money well spent.
But Indian cricket needs professional and quality inputs on thefielding and bowling front. It might have to cough up big bucks in theprocess. But it is the need of the hour. The maladroit and clumsyfielding has been the butt of all the jokes this season. Not catchinganything in the air is mutating faster than the H1N1 virus. To remainfirmly entrenched at the top of the cricketing pyramid requires apunishing fitness regimen and no short cuts as far as performancelevels are concerned. Sustaining the intensity is crucial incontemporary sport. The board needs to realise that quickfix solutionswill not work. They need to assess the shortcomings and takedecisions. Young's temporary appointment may well be in thatdirection. But one needs to give people time to adjust and only thenwill they be able to deliver results. The Young experience at themoment doesn't seem to be benefiting our criketers, they seem to havegone from bad to worse.
Modern sporting team retinues are huge. Look at football. The otherday I was reading that England's football bosses have sent a list ofdemands for their South Africa World Cup base, and it includes acomputer games arcade. Keen to stop his players from becoming bored,coach Fabio Capello has asked for a special room with Wii,PlayStations, and other games at the luxury hotel and sports complexwhich is still under construction, reports the web site 3 AM. Otherrequirements at the five-star Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus includeextra-long 7ft beds so Peter Crouch gets a good night’s sleep, BritishTV in bedrooms, and an electric security fence around the complex’sgrounds.
Gareth Simaan, boss of Cradle Hotels, said: “We are working on a dailybasis with the FA to meet their requirements. “We have had quitestringent requirements from England and we are fulfilling every one.The players will not want for anything while they are here - everyneed will be taken care of,” he added. The complex - near Rustenburg,50 miles from Johannesburg - will also have 14 football pitches and amedical center. The 23 players and 30 support staff will take over theentire 82-room complex for the tournament from June 4. Fourpresidential suites are likely to go to Capello and key staff. All thesuites will come with king-size beds, 32-inch plasma TVs, deep-pilecarpets, granite counter-tops, luxury double-sink bathrooms, and soundproofing. Each room also has a fully stocked mini-bar - but an in-roomsecurity system will keep tabs on consumption.
I guess over time cricket too will acquire this hue and edge. It isalready prevalent with some of the cricket playing nations, mostnotably England. Winning is becoming everything and it should be forlosers don't count. India has played great cricket against the Aussiesand Lankans in the one day series, but it is not winning. Close gamesare being lost because we are clueless about our bowling strategiesand pathetic fielding. Sometime it pays to be natural born killers,ruthless and focused. Don't become Aussie in your approach, but stayfit and bowl well and for God's sake catch everything that comes yourway
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