" I would not call Venkatesh Prasad a coach - he's more of a baggage handler " -- Manoj Prabhakar

[Ram]

Yes, lets sack the the bowling coach who was in charge of what could arguably be called the golden period in Indian fast bowling. A period in which we, as a team, had our first test series in win in NZ in over 40 years, our first test series in England in over 20 years, our first test series in West Indies in 35 years, an extremely competitive test series in Australia during which we beat them at the WACA of all venues and a closely contested series wins in South Africa in which we recorded our first ever test win in South African soil. Obviously, its totally Prasad's fault if the players on the field start bowling short and wide and at the opposition batsmen. Obviously, its his fault too if guys like Zaheer Khan injure themselves.

[Malcolm Merlyn]

Who dropped 10kph? Nehra was only temporarily 145kph in the high altitude of South Africa, highly in his stride and even on this tour has clocked over 140kph. RP Singh was 145kph in the World T20, also in South Africa, but either side of that tournament (before and after), bowls at 130kph. Ishant Sharma was quick in Australia, but the high altitude there and Channel 9 speed guns put everyone's pace up. Moreover, he had no fatigue from what is an extraordinarily demanding international schedule then and does now due to playing of quite a bit of ODI cricket. Any others? Well, no. A bowling coach cannot magically improve bowlers. If we are to blame him for these poor performances, we must also give him infinite credit for England 2007 and Australia 2007/8 - it works both ways! Moreover, noting to 'blast or fool the batsman out' instead of 'bore him out' is to simply misunderstand the intricacies of playing cricket. I exactly said that technical (inswing, outswing, etc) work does not need (and should not need) to be done along with the international team but to note that all international pace bowlers must be able to swing the balls both ways is really naive. Most of us have seen this change in Ishant's action, but is it a conscious change, unlikely - is it due to fatigue causing him to use different muscles to get the ball down, or some other indirect cause - likely. You note that an international bowling coach should not teach the basic skills and yet you have Pont in there who creates bowling actions (if I may oversimplify), Lillee who has a similar job, Tyson who is a biomechanist, and Donald who has a similar role at Warwickshire (very non technical) to what many percieve Prasad's current role to be. I suggest you rethink your knee-jerk, scathing criticism.

i guess the bowlers were bowling in the same SA high alitude now also.....y the lack in pace? See RPs pace in the pakistan tour..........lots of bowlers play many international matches still are able to ball fast(MJ,Steyn etc etc).......Ishant clocked 150 in IPL 2008 as well see the KKr vs KX1 match at eden gardens........the problem is that our bowlers are not trained in a way that they maintained their pace.Some bowlers have said that they were asked by coaches to drop pace and concentrate on line and length only........this a shortcut as with more practice bowlers do learn to achieve control at high pace......bt the coaches dont wana work hard may be. i'm not saying that any coach can magically improve bowlers it is their ability to keep them at a certain level and then take them up....our bowlers are goin down hill.........losing pace,swing line lenght everything..... what has caused the change in ishants action is for the coach to find out.....if it is fatigue may be ishant needs to train harder and build the strength of those muscles.....if in 2 years the coach didnt realise this i guess....he isnt doing his job properly...... The suggestion of pont,tyson,lille or donald's name was to highlight the fact that these people know exactly what muscle needs to be strenthened and what changes in bowling action needs to be done so that it becomes an additive factor rather than a decremental one.......u see fast bowlers throughout the world most of them gain speed after couple of years of international cricket......our bowlers lose it......y?i dont know........bt this is a known fact.......... by blasting the batsman i meant that we need the batsman to be pushed back,made to think twice........in CT and other tournaments either the batsman have been sitting on backfoot hitting everthing to square boundaries or coming on the front foot and tonking the ball..........where are the boucers,yorkers slower balls?where is the strategy? knee jerk reaction?sir if u havent noticed our bowlers got murdered in T20 world cup,Compaq cup ant the CT.......when will we learn?if not for our exceptionally gifted batsmen god knows where we might have ended? i repeat again we need a coach who knows the modern ways of training and strategies.....and can give our bowlers the right attitude and right coaching.........we all know how prasad was as a fast bowler......lethargic..........

[Lord]

i guess the bowlers were bowling in the same SA high alitude now also.....y the lack in pace? See RPs pace in the pakistan tour..........lots of bowlers play many international matches still are able to ball fast(MJ,Steyn etc etc).......Ishant clocked 150 in IPL 2008 as well see the KKr vs KX1 match at eden gardens........the problem is that our bowlers are not trained in a way that they maintained their pace.Some bowlers have said that they were asked by coaches to drop pace and concentrate on line and length only........this a shortcut as with more practice bowlers do learn to achieve control at high pace......bt the coaches dont wana work hard may be.

well i think our bowlers r not physically strong like Johnson,Steyn thats why they r not able to maintain thier speeds wen they play too much of cricket

i'm not saying that any coach can magically improve bowlers it is their ability to keep them at a certain level and then take them up....our bowlers are goin down hill.........losing pace,swing line lenght everything.....

not everyone Nehra is doing good,so is PK.for RP n IS it may just be a loss of form.they shouldnt be playing.theres nothing a bowling coach can do wen out of form young bowlers r selected

what has caused the change in ishants action is for the coach to find out.....if it is fatigue may be ishant needs to train harder and build the strength of those muscles.....if in 2 years the coach didnt realise this i guess....he isnt doing his job properly......

so u r blaming Ishant's lack of fitness on bowling coach?sounds absurd

The suggestion of pont,tyson,lille or donald's name was to highlight the fact that these people know exactly what muscle needs to be strenthened and what changes in bowling action needs to be done so that it becomes an additive factor rather than a decremental one.......u see fast bowlers throughout the world most of them gain speed after couple of years of international cricket......our bowlers lose it......y?i dont know........bt this is a known fact..........

how do u know VP doesnt know wat it takes to be a good pacer

by blasting the batsman i meant that we need the batsman to be pushed back,made to think twice........in CT and other tournaments either the batsman have been sitting on backfoot hitting everthing to square boundaries or coming on the front foot and tonking the ball..........where are the boucers,yorkers slower balls?where is the strategy?

a coach can only teach them in nets they have to implement it.i have seen Ishant bowling fantastic bouncers n RP bowling yorkers n slower balls.if they r not doing it now how is it VP's fault?wen out of form the mind always thinks negative.so wen they r attacked in matches they dont know wat to do?VP cant help them in the field

knee jerk reaction?sir if u havent noticed our bowlers got murdered in T20 world cup,Compaq cup ant the CT.......when will we learn?if not for our exceptionally gifted batsmen god knows where we might have ended?

thats 3 series,4 if u include WI series.hardly something to panic about ignoring two great years VP had with our fast bowlers.remember it was under his coaching that Ishant became the first Indian pacer in 20 yrs to win MOS Award in India.in next series it was Zak who won it

i repeat again we need a coach who knows the modern ways of training and strategies.....and can give our bowlers the right attitude and right coaching.........we all know how prasad was as a fast bowler......lethargic..........

how is his being an average bowler mean anything about his coaching skills?Greg Chappell was a gr8 batsman was he a great coach?

[Sachinism]

I remember when our bowlers were tearing batting line-ups apart everyone praised the coaching non-stop and now we lose a few games amd some bad performances from the bowlers and the knives are out. I don't know how much of an impact he does have. But he seemed to be doing an excellent job a few months back

[Malcolm Merlyn]

well i think our bowlers r not physically strong like Johnson,Steyn thats why they r not able to maintain thier speeds wen they play too much of cricket not everyone Nehra is doing good,so is PK.for RP n IS it may just be a loss of form.they shouldnt be playing.theres nothing a bowling coach can do wen out of form young bowlers r selected so u r blaming Ishant's lack of fitness on bowling coach?sounds absurd how do u know VP doesnt know wat it takes to be a good pacer a coach can only teach them in nets they have to implement it.i have seen Ishant bowling fantastic bouncers n RP bowling yorkers n slower balls.if they r not doing it now how is it VP's fault?wen out of form the mind always thinks negative.so wen they r attacked in matches they dont know wat to do?VP cant help them in the field thats 3 series,4 if u include WI series.hardly something to panic about ignoring two great years VP had with our fast bowlers.remember it was under his coaching that Ishant became the first Indian pacer in 20 yrs to win MOS Award in India.in next series it was Zak who won it how is his being an average bowler mean anything about his coaching skills?Greg Chappell was a gr8 batsman was he a great coach?

how to make our bowlers physically strong????training i guess...and who to suggest it? If ishant is getting unfit and his muscles are tiring.......shouldnt the coach point it out and the trainer should work on it? i dont know if VP knows it or not........but it sure isnt showing...... yes ishant won the MOS after that it has been downhill..if there is a prob the coach should sort it out. Physically strong...........so wat should we do?let them as it is?or may be try to make them stronger?no one answered one question if all international bowlers get stronger and quicker with playing international cricket y do indian bowlers go downhill???? the strength of a coach comes out when the team or player isnt doing well.........for 2 years our bowlers were in top form....now they have hit a rough patch......some errors have crept in......technique has gone awry.......time for the coach to step in...........and in last 4 series about 6 months no improvement......... it is not about great coach being great cricketer or vice versa.............it is about the right man for the job........we need a foreign coach like the list i mentioned,people who are familiar with modern ways of training and biomechanics........helping a bowler understand...which muscle is tiring,how to strenghthen it.........how to bowl with a better technique without losing speed.........how to strategise and get a batsmen out........ any answers about coaches telling bowlers to concentrate on line and length and sacrifice pace???prime example:Munaf Patel.............just saw his bowling againist england in debut series......he was a tearaway........fastest ball at 147.7 ks..........got to see his attitude as well then and now compare........with speed that letha attitude also gone.........

[cowboysfan]

I remember when our bowlers were tearing batting line-ups apart everyone praised the coaching non-stop and now we lose a few games amd some bad performances from the bowlers and the knives are out. I don't know how much of an impact he does have. But he seemed to be doing an excellent job a few months back

If you are giving credit to venky for our success then you also have to give him the blame for our remarkable decline in pace bowling form.our pacers were never any good in bowling in odi's because they can never maintain good line and length and lack variation needed for limited overs cricket.If we are to win a major tournament again then our bowlers have to step up to the plate.they need to learn new skills,learn better discipline.I for one will like to see a new coach,its time to move on.we cant win every match through overwhelming batting superiority and tournaments our bowling weaknesses gets exposed badly as we have seen in 2 recent tournaments. If you need more proof then just ask Dhoni who does everything in his power to hide the bowlers deficiences.

[Lord]

If you are giving credit to venky for our success then you also have to give him the blame for our remarkable decline in pace bowling form.our pacers were never any good in bowling in odi's because they can never maintain good line and length and lack variation needed for limited overs cricket.If we are to win a major tournament again then our bowlers have to step up to the plate.they need to learn new skills,learn better discipline.I for one will like to see a new coach,its time to move on.we cant win every match through overwhelming batting superiority and tournaments our bowling weaknesses gets exposed badly as we have seen in 2 recent tournaments. If you need more proof then just ask Dhoni who does everything in his power to hide the bowlers deficiences.

n wat does that everything mean?sulking n blaming them in post match ceremonies?or removing the bowler wen hes middle of a good spell n looking threatening?or giving them defensive fields totally to the batsmen's strengths

[cowboysfan]

n wat does that everything mean?sulking n blaming them in post match ceremonies?or removing the bowler wen hes middle of a good spell n looking threatening?or giving them defensive fields totally to the batsmen's strengths

i attribute that to a lack of trust.when one of strike bowlers in bhajji starts throwing darts down the leg side then any captain will lose trust.bhajji also did this in the t20 world cup.

[Sachinism]

If you are giving credit to venky for our success then you also have to give him the blame for our remarkable decline in pace bowling form.our pacers were never any good in bowling in odi's because they can never maintain good line and length and lack variation needed for limited overs cricket.If we are to win a major tournament again then our bowlers have to step up to the plate.they need to learn new skills,learn better discipline.I for one will like to see a new coach,its time to move on.we cant win every match through overwhelming batting superiority and tournaments our bowling weaknesses gets exposed badly as we have seen in 2 recent tournaments. If you need more proof then just ask Dhoni who does everything in his power to hide the bowlers deficiences.

So what more do you think a coach could do? What new things could he teach them? Do you not think he covers bowling in good areas. How to bowl in different situations. How to bowl to certain batsmen? How does a coach correct a bowlers inablilty to have control over the ball for 6 balls an over?

[cowboysfan]

So what more do you think a coach could do? What new things could he teach them? Do you not think he covers bowling in good areas. How to bowl in different situations. How to bowl to certain batsmen? How does a coach correct a bowlers inablilty to have control over the ball for 6 balls an over?

If i knew this then i would get a coaching certificate and apply for the job.If a 17 year old(aamer) and a ninteen year old(parnell) have more variations and can bowl yorkers at will then our entire fast bowling corps then it is time for a change.

[Lord]

i attribute that to a lack of trust.when one of strike bowlers in bhajji starts throwing darts down the leg side then any captain will lose trust.bhajji also did this in the t20 world cup.

it was the other way round.it was not as if Bhajji initially had attacking fields but wen he started bowling trash it was changed.Bhajji was introduced in 26th over n had defensive fields from ball one.basically Dhoni wanted him to stop runs n not take wickets i.e. defensive thinking.it was another struggled at that job too.he normally gets his darts accurate.he didnt on that day

[Desi Cartman]

lol Prabhakar ... bloody Fraud and a cheat .. He is trying to become the Bowling coach of team India .. I hope he stays away from the team

[cowboysfan]

lol Prabhakar ... bloody Fraud and a cheat .. He is trying to become the Bowling coach of team India .. I hope he stays away from the team

do you really think prabhakar has a chance to become our coach?

[Desi Cartman]

do you really think prabhakar has a chance to become our coach?

Never know with BCCI .. but I dont think he should ever become India's coach but from his statements it seems like he thinks he has a chance.

[Sachinism]

If i knew this then i would get a coaching certificate and apply for the job.If a 17 year old(aamer) and a ninteen year old(parnell) have more variations and can bowl yorkers at will then our entire fast bowling corps then it is time for a change.

Again, do you not think they practice these things? I can guarantee you, they spend hours on end trying different deliveries. But when a bowler can't deliver them in a match situation. I believe it is unfair to put the full blame onto the coach. A coach can give them tips and pointers, help them practice outside the field, but in the middle they are on their own. Plus its not the coach's job to tell the bowlers they shouldn't be bowling short and wide, if they don't know that, they have no chance of succeeding

[cowboysfan]

Again, do you not think they practice these things? I can guarantee you, they spend hours on end trying different deliveries. But when a bowler can't deliver them in a match situation. I believe it is unfair to put the full blame onto the coach. A coach can give them tips and pointers, help them practice outside the field, but in the middle they are on their own. Plus its not the coach's job to tell the bowlers they shouldn't be bowling short and wide, if they don't know that, they have no chance of succeeding

this is how coaching works.they are judged on tangible and visible evidence.the evidence suggests that our bowlers are not getting better but infact getting worse and we cant rely on them to win us matches.

[Lord]

this is how coaching works.they are judged on tangible and visible evidence.the evidence suggests that our bowlers are not getting better but infact getting worse and we cant rely on them to win us matches.

but why not judge the players.its not as if everybody that VP coaches is getting worse.Nehra,PK r doing fine.its only RP n IS.try getting rid of them n if the replacements bowl badly too then its time to judge

[Sachinism]

this is how coaching works.they are judged on tangible and visible evidence.the evidence suggests that our bowlers are not getting better but infact getting worse and we cant rely on them to win us matches.

Watch when Zak is back, how things change. Again I think its unfair to blame the coach for some bowlers not being able to get it right. If you have a car and something in the car isn't working properly, you dont get rid of the whole car, you look to replace the faulty part.

[CSK Fan]

Watch when Zak is back' date=' how things change. Again I think its unfair to blame the coach for some bowlers not being able to get it right. If you have a car and something in the car isn't working properly, you dont get rid of the whole car, you look to replace the faulty part.[/quote'] But if u pay good money to have a personal mechanic for the car yet the car keeps on haivng the ssame kind of problems again and again what good is the mechanic?

[CSK Fan]

but why not judge the players.its not as if everybody that VP coaches is getting worse.Nehra' date='PK r doing fine.its only RP n IS.try getting rid of them n if the replacements bowl badly too then its time to judge[/quote'] Its not the first time that bowlers with good potential entered the team, impressed initially and then after coaching, fell apart. You want to keep shuffling bowlers in and out? In recent times we have had as many opening bolwers as Pakistan had opening batsmen