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Why do Indian pace bowlers regress after one or two years?


Chandan

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This has been a question I couldn't find a definite answer of. But today I found an article. Just read: In the long run-up Pradeep Magazine, Hindustan Times New Delhi, January 09, 2011 Uneasy rests the crown of being the world’s best team on India, the land of Sachin Tendulkar and of many record-breaking batting heroics. India, no doubt, has redeemed itself by returning home from South Africa with honours even, a first in its cricketing history, but amidst all the euphoria we should not forget one glaring drawback which could hurt India the most in its quest to consolidate its top ranking: the lack of penetration in its bowling. India's match winners The humiliating defeat in the Centurion Test showed that the team is over-dependent on Zaheer Khan. His return in the Durban Test transformed the bowling unit, but his fitness remains suspect. In the second innings of the final Test, he was not at his best and as a result India’s pace attack collapsed once again. Had Harbhajan Singh got good support from them, India could well have been celebrating a series win and not expressing relief at having held South Africa to a draw. In alien conditions this has been a major problem with the Indian team over the years and despite having won a few matches of late outside the country, this problem persists. Zaheer, who began his career as a hostile tearaway pacer at the beginning of the last decade, had to scale down his own pace and ambitions, dogged as he has been with injuries. Luckily for India, what he lost in pace he more than made up by his exceptional swing bowling. The same can’t be said of the rest. A bunch of talented bowlers in the last decade or so began their career as genuine quickies but have faded away, becoming victims of too much limited-over cricket, lack of planning and, perhaps, loss of motivation because of getting too much too soon. India’s most outstanding quick bowler, Kapil Dev, believes that “too much one-day and now T-20 cricket, lack of planning and focus and a system which could address these problems†has reduced our bowling to this state, despite a “wealth of talentâ€. The post-Kapil era saw the emergence of many promising fast bowlers, many of whom bowled in 140-km range, like Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, but could not sustain that pace for long. Who can forget Ishant Sharma’s spell in Australia, where he bowled with tremendous speed to raise hopes that India had discovered a gem! The same bowler today looks a caricature of himself. The same holds true for Sreesanth. There are times, like in this series, when Sreesanth looks a bowler who could run through any batting side but those moments are too infrequent as he lacks consistency. Kapil feels sad because a player like Munaf Patel has lost his bite. “When I saw him first I felt he would be India’s spearhead. His excellent action helped him generate pace, but injuries and an inability to adjust to different formats of the game have resulted in his going into oblivion.†Unlike the other cricket-playing countries, which have had two to three genuine pace bowlers operating in tandem for them, India has never had this luxury. In Kapil’s words: “I would have been a different bowler if I had the support of quality fast bowlers at the other end.†He says this as he knew he had to bowl 25 overs a day and to do so “I had to conserve my energy and would rarely go flat out in one spellâ€. Kapil believes that Javagal Srinath was the only genuine quick bowler India has produced, someone “who never compromised on his speed throughout his careerâ€. Srinath himself gives a very interesting insight into India’s pace woes. He thinks the first disadvantage bowlers have outside India is having to bowl with kookaburra balls, which are not used in India. “These balls are different in texture, seam and even weight and the bowlers struggle because they are not used to bowling with them.†The second reason he gives is that “we have never had a settled pace attack in recent years. I had Venky (Venkatesh Prasad) and the two of us had developed a great understanding and would plan out a batsman by bowling to his weaknesses rather than bowling to our strengthsâ€. But this understanding can, according to him, be developed only “if you bowl together for a reasonable period of time, which is not happening these days because of frequent breakdown of key bowlers due to injuriesâ€. And the third reason is that the bowlers “struggling to adapt between the three formats of the game, like what is happening to Ishant these daysâ€. The country’s highest wicket-taker, Anil Kumble, the man under whose stewardship India finally achieved its top Test slot, is not that pessimistic. He agrees there are concerns but hastens to add that “we should not immediately rush to judgementsâ€. Agreed, one should not, but given the fact that India would be playing Test cricket mostly abroad this year, the country needs to find a way, other than selling players to the highest bidder, to preserve its pacers. Otherwise the team would find it difficult to retain its place as the world’s top Test cricket-playing nation. ---------------------------------------------------- So what are reasons given? 1. lack of fitness 2. Inability to adapt to 3 formats 3.Lack of focus 4.getting too much too soon 5. kooburra balls abroad 6.lack of a settled pace attack Do you guys agree? I don't think kookaburra ball is distracting the English bowlers who bowl with duke balss. Lack of fitness and inability to adjust to 3 formats can be a problem of 2-3 bowlers, not everyones. How is it that each and every promising pace bowler that appeared in this decade regressed after 2-3 years? What are the reasons according to you and what should be done to keep our pace bowling in good health?

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I have some reasons: 1. Fear of losing his place in the team if he gets injured while bowling at full tilt, like in the case of Munaf patel. 2. Lack of fitness and strength training regimens like in the case of Zaheer, Nehra, Ishant, Munaf, Sreesanth, VRV, RP Singh, Sudeep Tyagi. 3. Too much coaching. Bowlers used to go to every one to get tips and endlessly apply them which is not good. fast bowling is a natural thing..you need to be what you are..little bit of adjustments can work like it did for Styen...but too much changes dont work well if a bowler do not practice hard in the nets and gel well with those changes like in cases of Ishant, Irfan, Munaf was asked to cut his pace by Chappel and after that is not what we wanted to be. 4. Lack of attitude in our fast bowlers..they get complacent after they get good money while playing for India and stop working on their game and do not put their best efforts in matches like in case of Zak, Munaf, RPS. 5. Lack of work on fitness in the off season and putting on a lot of weight because of eating habits many examples there 6. Lack of structure to find genuine talent from unpopular parts of the country.

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1. Eat naan wage 2. Don't play IPL: Instead play County cricket in England. 3. Get appropriate rest when possible 4. Don't think about playing for their place or have fear getting injured, think about picking up wickets!!!
1. I think everyone does that. 2. Not possible. And world's premere seamers(Steyn, Bollinger) play in IPL. Nothing happens to them. Board gives order to play in counties. Players can't play on their own. 3. That can be done by selectors. 4. Thats the only thing players can do. Reason for Ishant's regression is also because he has been playing for more than one year with an injury with needs operation. Do we need a unit at NCA which fully looks after our seamers once they come under the contract, gives every bowler a uniform fitness regimen, coaching plan and also looks after how much each bowlers play and accordingly reports to selecors to rest particular bowlers from certain series and so on? Also if a bowler needs surgery, it is not left upto bowler when to have it if he is under contract. Anything else?
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So what to do? Anyone has any comprehensive plan?
no use of having any plan if even we have. BCCI is the responsible party for these things....they should take care of that. we have enough bowlers domestically who are quick enough and potentially good, but they lack guidance. We have NCA, but i do not think we have biomechanically-designed training there as well as these fast bowlers follow good fitness regime..on which BCCI are to concentrate and work....start the programs like English performance academies run for fast bowlers
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I think the biggest reason being enthusiasm of being a fast bowler and lack of proper coaching from school level,one thing is for sure you can tell how to bowl ,but you cannot tell how to bowl quick ,i thank lack of playing with tape ball at grass root level and poor fitness and diet ,+batting culture in india also contribute of us lacking fast bowlers, and one very important thing is the zonal system in team selection ,I still believes there are guys in india who can clock 95-100 mph ,but they are not given oppurtunity,coz of favourism or regional bias,my friend went to india next pace sensation contest in delhi where in delhi's heat and even after being in que for 6 hrs without any food and water ,clocked 87 ,91,90 mph he was 18 at that moment but lack of funds and lack of support cost him dearly.if we want Genuine fast bowlers we have to set acadamies in villages and rural areas ,something pakistani's do we don't on regular base and handle them delicately.

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what should be done to keep our pace bowling in good health?
Whats the point of discussing this Chandan? This is not a question to you - I admire that you are asking this. Let me explain why I posed that as a question: I was thinking along this lines, and I wrote this a few days ago - please read that thread: http://indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=258044 People only laughed at it and mocked it. Everytime we make suggestions, it will be shot down as "not possible", "BCCI wont do it", "impractical" etc. So, if BCCI wont do squat, and if we also should not create these "impractical" threads, then whats the point? Let the legends of tontee-tontee IPL grow and dominate world cricket, and let us field those trundlers in Tests too. Long Live Trundlers!
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One major factor has been the slow death of the MRF pace academy. From 2006 onwards (since the Pawar led regime gained control), BCCI has deliberately made attempts to slowly detach itself from the MRF pace academy as it wants the bowlers to go to NCA for coaching and improving their fitness. But the NCA does not have any world class bowling coach unlike MRFPA which had Lillee and even TA Shekhar who had a huge hand in development of Irfan, Balaji, RPS, Munaf, Sreesanth, Nehra, Prasad, Agarkar or basically every Indian pacer who played for India in 90s and mid 2000s. And then obviously the case of easy money from IPL. The likes of Steyn, Morkel, Bollinger etc hardly got paid the kind of money our pacers got in the first auction and now in the latest auction. Why would anyone work hard if he can make so much money with little work in 6 weeks. So the remedy would be to either let MRF continue to work with the pacers or set up a proper pace bowling unit at NCA. Then comes the coaching camps for pacers not in team India, these should be a regular feature at NCA and aimed at primarily improving technical glitches in bowlers and also helping them do sterngthening and conditioning for 3-4 weeks every 6 months. The other thing that the board needs to do is not to let any bowler play on in the national side with injuries. Minor niggles here and there are ok but bowlers with injuries or when they are not 100% match fit (Ishant Sharma in the recent SA series) should not be played. Lastly it would also help if the selectors stopped playing the musical chairs game with our reserve pacers. Dhawal Kulkarni were picked for NZ series in 2009, havent been seen there after, likes of Vinay Kumar, Mithun, Dinda get picked, play 2-3 matches and are shown the door. IIRC Sudeep Tygai was our reserve pacer in almost all the series from July 2009 to early this year. Played 1-2 ODIs and then hasn't even bee in contention!!How does that help a young pacer's confidence? If you select someone, give him a proper go.

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if we have problems bowling with kookaburra balls why dont BCCI buy a truckload of them and have the bowlers practice?
Two years ago domestic cricket clubs weren't buying too many kookaburra's because they were deemed too expensive. I think in practice they don't use new kookaburra's but either older used ones or other balls. I would forget about the BCCI doing anything to spend money to help domestic cricket. They have been approached numerous times by handicapped cricket teams representing India for minor funds to buy equipment, gear etc and have been delayed with promises of paying/donating money in the future but it doesn't actually happen.
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I think the biggest reason being enthusiasm of being a fast bowler and lack of proper coaching from school level' date='one thing is for sure you can tell how to bowl ,but you cannot tell how to bowl quick ,i thank lack of playing with tape ball at grass root level and poor fitness and diet ,+batting culture in india also contribute of us lacking fast bowlers, and one very important thing is the zonal system in team selection ,I still believes there are guys in india who can clock 95-100 mph ,but they are not given oppurtunity,coz of favourism or regional bias,my friend went to india next pace sensation contest in delhi where in delhi's heat and even after being in que for 6 hrs without any food and water ,clocked 87 ,91,90 mph he was 18 at that moment but lack of funds and lack of support cost him dearly.if we want Genuine fast bowlers we have to set acadamies in villages and rural areas ,something pakistani's do we don't on regular base and handle them delicately.[/quote'] Nah. You didn't understand the question. We have enough pace bowlers emerging this decade but they have all regressed after giving 2 or maximum 3 years of good performance.... some even less! I'm trying to find out the reason for that!
One major factor has been the slow death of the MRF pace academy. From 2006 onwards (since the Pawar led regime gained control)' date=' BCCI has deliberately made attempts to slowly detach itself from the MRF pace academy as it wants the bowlers to go to NCA for coaching and improving their fitness. But the NCA does not have any world class bowling coach unlike MRFPA which had Lillee and even TA Shekhar who had a huge hand in development of Irfan, Balaji, RPS, Munaf, Sreesanth, Nehra, Prasad, Agarkar or basically every Indian pacer who played for India in 90s and mid 2000s.[/quote'] Yes. Very valid reason. BCCI went all out to get MRF pace Academy closed but they just could not replace it with a like academy, forget a better one, fully dedicated to pace bowling .
And then obviously the case of easy money from IPL. The likes of Steyn, Morkel, Bollinger etc hardly got paid the kind of money our pacers got in the first auction and now in the latest auction. Why would anyone work hard if he can make so much money with little work in 6 weeks.
Many people give this reason. But didn't Zaheer, Nehra, Pathan, Balaji, Munaf, RP Singh etc fade away with IPL not being anywhere on the scene?
So the remedy would be to either let MRF continue to work with the pacers or set up a proper pace bowling unit at NCA. Then comes the coaching camps for pacers not in team India, these should be a regular feature at NCA and aimed at primarily improving technical glitches in bowlers and also helping them do sterngthening and conditioning for 3-4 weeks every 6 months.
Hope Kumble, the NCA director, Venky Prasad who holds an important post at KSCA and knows the condition of pace bowling in India do something towards the revival of pace academy which can take place of pace bowlers from our country from a budding age.
The other thing that the board needs to do is not to let any bowler play on in the national side with injuries. Minor niggles here and there are ok but bowlers with injuries or when they are not 100% match fit (Ishant Sharma in the recent SA series) should not be played.
Thats what I felt. Having different bowlers for different formats is also a good step as it gives the bowlers enough rest and periods to recharge. There is no point in dragging Zaheer to ODIs just because it is WC. I think Nehra, PK and Munaf are doing a fine job.
Lastly it would also help if the selectors stopped playing the musical chairs game with our reserve pacers. Dhawal Kulkarni were picked for NZ series in 2009, havent been seen there after, likes of Vinay Kumar, Mithun, Dinda get picked, play 2-3 matches and are shown the door. IIRC Sudeep Tygai was our reserve pacer in almost all the series from July 2009 to early this year. Played 1-2 ODIs and then hasn't even bee in contention!!How does that help a young pacer's confidence? If you select someone, give him a proper go.
This has been the typical garbage handed out by Srikkant and co. It is just because of their this adhocisms we can't say who our 4th and 5th seamers and who are the batsmen who we can use at #3 if Dravid is injured or at#4 if Sachin is not playing or #5 if Laxman is absent or who is our second keeper and no on. There is absolutely no clarity in their their thinking and hence no planning and vision in their selection.
no use of having any plan if even we have. BCCI is the responsible party for these things....they should take care of that. we have enough bowlers domestically who are quick enough and potentially good, but they lack guidance. We have NCA, but i do not think we have biomechanically-designed training there as well as these fast bowlers follow good fitness regime..on which BCCI are to concentrate and work....start the programs like English performance academies run for fast bowlers
Don't think BCCI even has the idea about these things. They should give these responsibilities to people who understand these matters like the head coach of NCA. Who is the HC of NCA right now?
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We have enough pace bowlers emerging this decade but they have all regressed after giving 2 or maximum 3 years of good performance.... some even less! I'm trying to find out the reason for that!
Almost every single fast bowler since I've been watching cricket has regressed or hit very bad form in their first few years regardless of race, nationality or background. It's almost ineviteable that when you have a young good fast bowler they can do very well early on but after a while every team will have enough knowledge/film about their bowling, their strengths and weakeness down to their seam position, tendencies against left/right hand batsmen. That's what modern technology and batting coaches can do. The fast bowlers who DO make it have to continue to learn and grow by gaining new skills (being able to swing the ball both ways, reverse swing, bowling offcutters, slower deliveries, effective bouncers etc) or be left behind. And THAT'S where Indian infrastructure, coaching etc fall way behind. Yes it's up to the individual bowler to perform but you have a whole team of dedicated physios, bowling coaches, fitness and nutrition experts from the national to domestic level in places like England/Australia etc. We've got the NCA which didn't even have a dedicated bowling coach a few months ago. We've got a board that took us away from the MRF, limited country cricket opportunities and pushed the IPL down the throats of national and domestic bowlers. I'll tell you my opinion. The BCCI with the selectors have this policy for the past 5/6 years which consists of routinely trying any new young bowler who isn't fully developed and experienced and seeing if they can get a quick result. To hell with supporting them fully. The BCCI have no inclination to put together processes, fitness and nutrition coaching to facilities, bio mechanical analysis and proper bowling coaches when it's MUCH EASIER to just select the next young promising bowler from Patel, Sree, Pathan, Balaji, RP, Ishant, and now they're doing the same thing with Kulkarni, Mithun, Unaidkat etc. The players aren't completely blameless ofcourse but that doesn't excuse the complete lack of clear action from a secretive cricketing administration made up of former politicians and their stooges. On top of that the players themselves and coaches can't do anything about it. There's already a gag order banning players/coaches from taking too openly about the team and it's players. While players in England can openly complain and b*tch about not being selected on twitter, our coach in Kirsten was warned and told to take information down from his website because he had spoken too openly about a few minor aspects of an upcoming series.
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And if anyone doubts the fact that there is a real lack of facilities here in India for fast bowlers just take a look at two examples in Pathan and Khan who were injured recently. Those guys were advised by the BCCI to go to Australia and SA respectively to get their operations, physio and rehab. When one of the richest sporting administration in the entire world does that instead of investing in the countries own infrastructure then it pretty much says it all.

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Bowlers come in a bit young I think. In their bids to find the next pace sensation the selectors gave test debuts to Ishant, RPS, Irfan (to name three) at the age of 18 or 19. Had these guys been allowed at least a season of Ranji cricket to hone on a good bowling technique and iron out flaws, instead of having to learn at test level st from the U19s. They might have been better off for it. Maybe given the paucity of pace resources you can perhaps see why the selectors opted for this strategy. Less understandable though is the case of Unadkat who managed to play with about 4 or 5 FC games and at least two- in Munaf and Mithun- bowlers who had a genuine case to play instead. The point re: inconsistency in selections is a good one. Too many names randomly picked for a squad only to dropped immediately after and never to play any kind of cricket- Tyagi, Pankaj, Kulkarni, Bose, Gagandeep (Possibly due to some of these guys not maintaining bowling form at Ranji level...) Add Yadav to that list. Hopefully Unadkat has potential to buck that... Also regarding the varying formats- a pool of some sort should made of players who obviously are suited to one form of the game. Sree and Ishant for instance are clrealy not ltd overs cricketers yet continue to make ODI squads when they could be putting their feet up at home...and give proper trys to people like Vinay K, and the Yadavs, Dindas of the world instead...

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