Seven deserving fast bowlers who sadly never got the India cap

[Mosher]

I used to read a lot about Donald Ganesh in news papers and there was a lot of coverage and talk about him being good. He then played in SA in 1996 and his deliveries could barely reach the WK. Others didn't have the same kind of talk.

Donald Ganesh . Newspapers had hyped him up as someone who had raw pace and good yorkers. Another bowler who was hyped by the newspapers was Amit Bhandari. When I saw his bowling he was just another trundler. Nothing special

[Mosher]

Kumaran another gem. 

 

[express bowling]

Found one video of Kuruvilla. Those horrors of watching Indian "fast" bowlers during the 90's. We had a factory of trundlers. Remember watching Tinu Yohannan, Kumaran, Mhambrey, Dodda Ganesh, Mohanty and many others with Prasad leading the pack 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1yOaZ-WX24

 

Ganesh, Mohanty, Vaidya, Bhandari, Yohanan, Kumaran, Mhambrey..were all medium pacers.

Ankola in 1989 was genuinely fast and became fast medium from 1991 after recurrent foot injuries.  Zaidi was fast too.

Harvinder Singh was fast-medium...and so was Kuruvilla upto maybe 1993.  Razdan and Wassan were also  fast-medium.

Edited February 11, 2016 by express bowling

[youngindia]

Actually would you believe badani was the opening bowler before kumaran ? .

I played kumaran in the nets ...he annoyed me often by bowling from 18 yards !

but he was a cheerful chap who would lighten it up for the group. like the catch practice sessions which we regarded as tedious.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Soorma_Bhopali]

T.A.Shekhar I heard was very quick too just didn't get a fair shot.

 

He is the mentor of Delhi Daredevils and also became an accomplished coach under Dennis Lilee  at MRF pace acedemy.He Has produced many pacers for India since then.

 

It seems K.Srikkanth , after playing him in domestics in 1983 and also before that palying against all famous west Indies quicks, rated him as the Fastest bowler in the world at that time in 1983 ..Here is an interesting blog on why he was kept ignored.Article hints that Kapil dev did not wanted him.

 

http://prtraveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/ta-sekar-fastest-indian-bowler-of-1980s.html

[express bowling]

He is the mentor of Delhi Daredevils and also became an accomplished coach under Dennis Lilee  at MRF pace acedemy.He Has produced many pacers for India since then.

 

It seems K.Srikkanth , after playing him in domestics in 1983 and also before that palying against all famous west Indies quicks, rated him as the Fastest bowler in the world at that time in 1983 ..Here is an interesting blog on why he was kept ignored.Article hints that Kapil dev did not wanted him.

 

http://prtraveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/ta-sekar-fastest-indian-bowler-of-1980s.html

Nice find Soorma    

This excerpt  from the blog is really sad

 

"Conclusion

 The tag of the ‘fastest Indian bowler’ did not go well with ‘you know who’ and that sounded death knell for Sekar that decade.  In the time that has since passed, India has had  some genuinely quick bowlers playing Test Cricket (Sekar had a role in that as well - to be seen in a story that will follow shortly). But till the end of the 1980s, Sekar had been the fastest bowler to have ever played for India. However much a compliment that may have been, unfortunately, that tag went against him. And thus Thirumalai Anantha Pillai Sekar ended up playing too few international matches than what he genuinely deserved. "

[express bowling]

From past articles and my own experience, it seems that we had quite a few fast bowlers between 1972 and  1998

Salgaoncar, TA Sekhar, Raju Kulkarni and  Rajinder Ghai have been mentioned by many past players and articles

 

and I have seen Ankola and Zaidi bowl fast.

Offcourse...Srinath was there

Wassan and Rajdan were on the quicker side too.

[Soorma_Bhopali]

Nice find Soorma    

This excerpt  from the blog is really sad

 

"Conclusion

 The tag of the ‘fastest Indian bowler’ did not go well with ‘you know who’ and that sounded death knell for Sekar that decade.  In the time that has since passed, India has had  some genuinely quick bowlers playing Test Cricket (Sekar had a role in that as well - to be seen in a story that will follow shortly). But till the end of the 1980s, Sekar had been the fastest bowler to have ever played for India. However much a compliment that may have been, unfortunately, that tag went against him. And thus Thirumalai Anantha Pillai Sekar ended up playing too few international matches than what he genuinely deserved. "

I saw that rain curtailed 15-over match in 1984 on TV where Sekhar took 3/23  in 3or 4 overs and had English players in all sorts of trouble due to his high arm action ..England eventually did win the match .. It was surprising to see that he did not get selected after that best performance ..kind of like Manish Pandey nt getting selected after a winning hundred 

[msplash9]

He is the mentor of Delhi Daredevils and also became an accomplished coach under Dennis Lilee  at MRF pace acedemy.He Has produced many pacers for India since then.

 

It seems K.Srikkanth , after playing him in domestics in 1983 and also before that palying against all famous west Indies quicks, rated him as the Fastest bowler in the world at that time in 1983 ..Here is an interesting blog on why he was kept ignored.Article hints that Kapil dev did not wanted him.

 

http://prtraveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/ta-sekar-fastest-indian-bowler-of-1980s.html

Thanks a lot for the link. Really interesting read 

[Soorma_Bhopali]

TA Sekhar is a very talented scout ..he was the one who  recruited Warner in DD iduring 2008 auction  before he became the international sensation .He picked up Glenn Maxwell for 20000 USD  also when anyone had hardly read about it .

[express bowling]

I saw that rain curtailed 15-over match in 1984 on TV where Sekhar took 3/23  in 3or 4 overs and had English players in all sorts of trouble due to his high arm action ..England eventually did win the match .. It was surprising to see that he did not get selected after that best performance ..kind of like Manish Pandey nt getting selected after a winning hundred 

Vivek Rajdan was also dropped after taking a five-fer in his last test in Pakistan in 1989. never played a test again.

Edited February 11, 2016 by express bowling

[rkt.india]

TA Sekhar is a very talented scout ..he was the one who  recruited Warner in DD iduring 2008 auction  before he became the international sensation .He picked up Glenn Maxwell for 20000 USD  also when anyone had hardly read about it .

He had also found Aaron when he was 15 for MRF.

[Soorma_Bhopali]

Delhi Daredevils going for Carlos Braithwaite and Rishabh Pant was his call ..you can see video in Youtube where he says that he has been tracking these players for 6-7 months now..He goes on to even say that he picked Warner and Maxwell when they were nobodies ..Rishabh Pant will be that kind of a player in future 

[Soorma_Bhopali]

Regarding Vivek Rajdan , exactly my thoughts ..

 

Throughtout the eighties and nineties, Indian team went with line&length medium pacers and that was the thinking ..there was no risk taking in investing in a tearaway who may sometimes give away more runs but take wickets ..medium pacers were used as stock bowlers with spinners being used as strike bowlers ..

[Malcolm Merlyn]

Ashish Winston Zaidi the biggest loss to Indian Fast bowling.

[tweaker]

Why Kapil Dev was so insecure.

Imagine if he was like Imran ,encouraging young fast bowlers.Like Waqar ,Zaidi should have been guided by Kapil

[chewy]

Kumaran another gem. 

 

lol, canny resemblance to Dimitri Maschrenas including bowling style as well, hehe

[express bowling]

Ashish Winston Zaidi the biggest loss to Indian Fast bowling.

Ashish Winston Zaidi was a genuine fast bowler

But, most importantly, he was a very good bowler.

Srinath and Zaidi could have formed an amazing fast bowling attack for us ..with Wassan and Razdan as backup pacers.

Edited February 11, 2016 by express bowling

[Malcolm Merlyn]

Why Kapil Dev was so insecure.

Imagine if he was like Imran ,encouraging young fast bowlers.Like Waqar ,Zaidi should have been guided by Kapil

Zaidi was compared to Waqar in 1988-89 India U 19 tour to Pakistan when they both played.

[chewy]

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