How India got fast

[philcric]

As the MRF Pace Foundation turns 30, here's the inside story of its transformative effect on Indian bowling

 

http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1118419/how-india-got-fast

 

Quite an interesting read.

 

@express bowling 

[tweaker]

Great article

[sandeep]

Ravi Mammen, apparently one of the unsung heroes of Indian Cricket.

 

And props to Dennis Lillee as well.  He put in the time and work for years, before working for Indian Cricket got lucrative enough to attract foreigners purely based on $$.   

[express bowling]

12 hours ago, philcric said:

As the MRF Pace Foundation turns 30, here's the inside story of its transformative effect on Indian bowling

 

http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1118419/how-india-got-fast

 

Quite an interesting read.

 

@express bowling 

 

 

Very interesting read indeed  !

 

Great find buddy.   : )

[Mosher]

Interesting bit about Zaheer. 

"In 1997, Sekhar was confronted with a fresh challenge: to unearth a left-arm fast bowler. Lillee firmly believed that India needed a good one, but Sekhar's search was proving futile. He would go around the country scouting Under-19 quicks and mining information from local coaches. Most of the candidates recommended were medium-pacers. During an inter-zonal match, a youngster named Zaheer Khan, who like Srinath was studying to become an instrumentation engineer, walked up to Sekhar and said he wanted to train at the foundation. With Lillee due to arrive on January 18, Zaheer was asked to come to Chennai for trials.

Zaheer was so consumed by excitement that he turned up on the morning of January 16. "When Lillee saw him bowl, he said, 'Shakes, this fellow will play for India.'" To Sekhar's surprise, though, Zaheer wasn't picked in the Mumbai Ranji side. He then asked Jaywant Lele of the Baroda Cricket Association if they would be interested in taking Zaheer. At the trial, Baroda's batsmen found Zaheer too quick to handle, and he was signed up. Zaheer duly accounted for five Mumbai batsmen in his second first-class game, and a year later made a sensational entry onto the international stage at the 2000 ICC Knockout in Kenya."

[vishalvirsingh]

i liked the article....but i expected much more information about the names of trainees, which i could not get.

[sandeep]

9 hours ago, Mosher said:

Interesting bit about Zaheer. 

"In 1997, Sekhar was confronted with a fresh challenge: to unearth a left-arm fast bowler. Lillee firmly believed that India needed a good one, but Sekhar's search was proving futile. He would go around the country scouting Under-19 quicks and mining information from local coaches. Most of the candidates recommended were medium-pacers. During an inter-zonal match, a youngster named Zaheer Khan, who like Srinath was studying to become an instrumentation engineer, walked up to Sekhar and said he wanted to train at the foundation. With Lillee due to arrive on January 18, Zaheer was asked to come to Chennai for trials.

Zaheer was so consumed by excitement that he turned up on the morning of January 16. "When Lillee saw him bowl, he said, 'Shakes, this fellow will play for India.'" To Sekhar's surprise, though, Zaheer wasn't picked in the Mumbai Ranji side. He then asked Jaywant Lele of the Baroda Cricket Association if they would be interested in taking Zaheer. At the trial, Baroda's batsmen found Zaheer too quick to handle, and he was signed up. Zaheer duly accounted for five Mumbai batsmen in his second first-class game, and a year later made a sensational entry onto the international stage at the 2000 ICC Knockout in Kenya."

I remember this - the Mumbai rejection early in his career stayed with Zaheer for quite a while.    And I think the MCA also learnt a big lesson from it.   

[sourab10forever]

@Ian Pont

[Rightarmfast]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

I remember this - the Mumbai rejection early in his career stayed with Zaheer for quite a while.    And I think the MCA also learnt a big lesson from it.   

I remember Zaheer Khan took a fifer or something against Bihar/ Jharkhand just before making his debut. 

[Laaloo]

2 minutes ago, MultiB48 said:

i remember a match when zak was 1st coming through between mumbai vs baroda  ,zaheer was up against tendulkar and and i was eager to see how he bowled to sachin ,but i remember it was a guy called rakesh patel who bowled visually quite quickly to tendulkar and hurried him with many bouncers ,kind of got lost after that with injuries .

Patel  

 

[Mosher]

2 hours ago, sandeep said:

I remember this - the Mumbai rejection early in his career stayed with Zaheer for quite a while.    And I think the MCA also learnt a big lesson from it.   

If I remember correctly, Srinath too had a role in Zaheer getting selected for India. He was the one who recommended Zaheer's name to the selection committee. 

Edited September 5, 2017 by Mosher

[AmreekanDesi]

till 10 years ago we used to see same 'experts' calling MRF a white elephant

 

what changed?

[sandeep]

12 minutes ago, AmreekanDesi said:

till 10 years ago we used to see same 'experts' calling MRF a white elephant

 

what changed?

The success of so many bowlers coming through MRF shut them up.

[putrevus]

Great vision by one man who did something good for the fast bowlers.

Edited September 5, 2017 by putrevus

[rkt.india]

12 hours ago, MultiB48 said:

i remember a match when zak was 1st coming through between mumbai vs baroda  ,zaheer was up against tendulkar and and i was eager to see how he bowled to sachin ,but i remember it was a guy called rakesh patel who bowled visually quite quickly to tendulkar and hurried him with many bouncers ,kind of got lost after that with injuries .

Rakesh Patel was quite quick. I remember he was bowling 140K in his 30s in ICL and ICL speed guns were unreliable, showing lower speeds for every international bowler like Shane Bond who was a part of it. Rakesh Patel was unfortunate to miss out on playing for India. He took 237 wickets in 67 FC matches for Baroda. Maybe because Zak who was from Baroda, selectors didn't pick due to quota pressures, otherwise, I still cannot fathom the reason why he missed out.

[Rightarmfast]

Well, I am not aware of Rakesh Patel but I do remember that in his debut ODI series, Zaheer clocked 145k's more than once. He bowled 140+ upwards consistently. So, if Rakesh Patel was quicker than him, its surprising he never was spoken about.

[rkt.india]

13 minutes ago, Rightarmfast said:

Well, I am not aware of Rakesh Patel but I do remember that in his debut ODI series, Zaheer clocked 145k's more than once. He bowled 140+ upwards consistently. So, if Rakesh Patel was quicker than him, its surprising he never was spoken about.

He was certainly spoken about. Was called up on 2007 English tour where our bowlers got sick and he was playing for a club in county.

[Rightarmfast]

4 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

He was certainly spoken about. Was called up on 2007 English tour where our bowlers got sick and he was playing for a club in county.

I mean if he was quick in 2000 ( which I am sure he would have been, since all of you are mentioning ), then giving him a chance in 2007, when probably he would have lost the motivation and probably a few yards of pace is criminal.

That's how you loose good players, and India has spoilt many a fast bowlers in the same fashion.

[express bowling]

2 hours ago, rkt.india said:

Rakesh Patel was quite quick. I remember he was bowling 140K in his 30s in ICL and ICL speed guns were unreliable, showing lower speeds for every international bowler like Shane Bond who was a part of it. Rakesh Patel was unfortunate to miss out on playing for India. He took 237 wickets in 67 FC matches for Baroda. Maybe because Zak who was from Baroda, selectors didn't pick due to quota pressures, otherwise, I still cannot fathom the reason why he missed out.

Rakesh Patel was a very international-type pace.

 

Had a strong bowling action, bowled with effort and got the ball to fly through to the keeper.

 

He had a very good out-swinger too and did not spray the ball.

 

I don't know why he was never picked for India.

[express bowling]

12 minutes ago, MultiB48 said:

he was picked for the odi leg of the 2003 nz tour, but didnt play as ind was preparing for wc 

 

Should have been played in actual matches.