Pace bowlers are made, not born

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Irfan Pathan made an interesting observation the other day when he pointed out that Indian pace spearheads - Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma - have raised the bar of fast bowling in the country, thereby throwing a challenge to other contenders to lift their game to that level. As a result he hoped that at some point of time other pacemen would reach that higher level and eventually the team was bound to benefit.

Not too long ago it was the Pathan who was the spearhead of the attack, good enough to equal John Briggs’ 116-year-old record by taking 21 wickets in a two-Test series in Zimbabwe. He was the pin-up boy of Indian cricket and just as he was shaping well as the all-rounder that Indian cricket had looked for since the exit of Manoj Prabhakar in 1996, Greg Chappell came along and interfered with his career, promoting him as a pinch hitter and sending him higher up the order, even to open the innings.

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This was quite unnecessary as Pathan was clearly happier down the order and was developing along the lines of Karsan Ghavri. The result of this needless experimentation was that Pathan’s bowling fell off and he lost his place in the side. This was a pity for Indian cricket clearly needed Pathan the bowler much more than Pathan the batsman.

Of late Pathan has been trying gamely to stage a comeback but with the competition for the fast bowler’s berth getting more and more intense, it has not been easy to break through. Pathan has to contend with the likes of Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh and S Sreesanth. The fast rising Dhawal Kulkarni is also bound to come into contention sooner or rather. Lakshmipathy Balaji is on the comeback trail while of course Zaheer and Ishant have the top two places booked.

Coming to think of it of there is virtually an embarrassment of riches in the pace bowling department and some forty years ago one would never have thought that the day would come when that phrase could be used to be describe the Indian fast bowling scenario. As one who has witnessed at close quarters the farce that was the Indian opening bowling in the sixties and early seventies I marvel at the strength and variety of the pace attack these days.

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The advent of Kapil Dev was bound to create a healthy scenario in the pace bowling department. He was an inspiration to upcoming bowlers who learnt that one could take wickets by hurling them down at 120 to 140 kph as also by giving the ball a healthy tweak which was Indian cricket’s traditional strength. Kapil Dev retired in 1994 but his legacy was a long line of opening bowlers who proved to the cricketing world that Indian pace bowling was not to be taken lightly, and was every bit as destructive and successful as the spin attack.

Kapil had several fairly successful partners and after his retirement the duo of Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad in the nineties was the finest pace attack since the days of Mohd Nissar and Amar Singh. These days of course the Indian fast bowling line-up frequently constitutes a trio with just one spinner as a back up.

Who would have thought of such a scenario during the days when the bowling was opened by the likes of Jaisimha, Durrani, Pataudi, Subramanyam, Kunderan, Wadekar and Gavaskar. In fact I have always felt how much more Pataudi could have achieved as Indian captain had he had just one Kapil Dev or Srinath in the ranks. But with an apology of a pace attack he had one hand perpetually tied behind his back.

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What a metamorphosis the Indian pace attack has undergone over the years! We now have eight or nine deserving candidates fighting for four places in the touring squad. And in home conditions most of the time there are just two places open for opening bowlers. Players who were match-winners just a couple of years ago are now forgotten men as newer and younger bowlers are fast making their mark.

Ajit Agarkar has surely played his last match for India while Ashish Nehra is virtually forgotten. And whatever happened to VRV Singh and Pankaj Singh? There is nothing more heartening for the Indian cricket fan to see energetic young Indian pacemen bowl with hostility and give as good as they get.

In a way the Chennai-based MRF Pace Foundation can take credit for the much healthier scenario in the fast bowling department. When it was set up in 1987 the cynics far outnumbered the optimists. Fast bowlers are born not made was the general refrain and the disbelievers scoffed at the concept of a training programme that would develop pace bowlers particularly in India which had no pace bowling tradition at all. The cynics spoke about the intense heat and humidity and the unwillingness of Indian cricketers to put in grueling work in adverse conditions - an essential quality to become top class fast bowlers.

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But over the last two decades the Foundation with former Australian fast bowling great Dennis Lillee as the guiding force and former Indian speedster TA Sekhar as the chief coach, has proved that a scientific and systematic long-term project can produce results. Not only have they churned out future fast bowlers but whenever the Indian speedsters have faced a problem — either an injury or a technical fault - they have gone back to the Foundation in a bid to rectify it. Needless to say they have emerged better bowlers as more than one cricketer has publicly stated.

Gone are the days when the Indian opening bowlers used to bowl just two or three overs with the new ball and give way to the spinners to take the wickets. I remember the days when Solkar and Pataudi completed the formalities even as Bishen Bedi was already warming up at third man. And it was only the second over of the innings! Over the last 30 years dating back from the entry of Kapil Dev there has been much more respect for Indian pace bowling but surely never has the scenario been as encouraging as it is today.

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