For a country of more than a billion, we have a way to overwhelm others with numbers. If at our own peril we turn a blind eye to quality, the cushion of quantity assures a comfortable stay in the fool’s paradise. A bank of 10 new-ball bowlers — an assortment of proven match winners and potential world class performers who were called to attend the pre-England tour camp at Mysore — by sheer magnitude is a sign of surplus in the bowling department. But one soon realises that it is nothing but a false sense of prosperity.

The chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar in his playing days has seen enough world class bowlers to make the right assessment of the present bunch. Frustrated by the fragile tag on the pacers he wanted the support staff to be more accountable. And it was this thought in the BCCI that led to the bowlers’ camp. New bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad has stressed that fitness will be a key area at the camp. Frequent breakdowns and the resulting instability has meant a pace department with no real spearhead and even ambiguity over second and third seamers.

Considering the hectic season ahead that includes games on the pace-friendly pitches in England and Australia, it’s like going to war with damp ammunition and rusty guns. It isn’t a case of a pace drought in the country but the current crop isn’t quite of world quality. Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar on their day have had their days under the sun and the likes of VRV Singh, Ishant Sharma or even Yo Mahesh have showed promise, but India is quite far from having a ‘complete pace attack’. It isn’t quite the kind that would instil fear in the minds of batsmen but it is a pace bowling attack that gets the convenient ‘on their day’ suffix from soft-hearted commentators to somehow highlight their competitiveness.

So what’s the reason that the present Indian pacers lack teeth? Ask this question to veteran coach Desh Prem Azad and he narrates a ‘Kapil Dev’ story. Recently, Kapil’s nephews came to their famous uncle to learn fast bowling. After a hard day’s workout, Kapil showed the young lads their rooms that just had a fan. As Kapil moved towards the A/C comfort of his room, the youngsters had a question. “You sleep in A/C and we just have a fan here. Why this difference?” they asked. Kapil quietly replied, “Agar seekna hai to pankhe ke neeche hi sona padega.”

Azad remembers the hours he and Kapil put together in the latter’s formative years. “We used to work very hard. There were no ACs in our times and so Kapil’s abilities to cool down and recover after hard workouts in harsh June summers was built naturally and that showed how he could bowl long spells in intense heat without his pace dipping,” he says.

The reason for this A/C bashing stems from the fact that Azad feels that modern training has made pace bowling too complicated. “Actually, the absence of video analysis or other specialised training helped me to groom my wards better. Most of the time we were on field and helped the bowlers a lot.

Unfortunately young boys bank too much on technology today. New age methods are there just to streamline things. But it doesn’t mean the amount of effort to be a world class pacer is less,” explains Azad.

Kapil’s new ball partner Manoj Prabhakar agrees. “Unfortunately our pace bowlers think their job is just 9 to 5. Present day fast bowling extends beyond the playing hours. It requires the bowlers to analyse, think and put in the effort before and after they enter the field.

“Why did Kapil, myself play for such a long time? Or Why did Srinath last for long? The answer is simple. The two of us used to hit the gym everyday, even after play, even when we had bowled right through the day, trying to strengthen our muscles. Srinath has seen both of us working out this way and he too followed suit. Unfortunately there’s no role model as such within this team. Cricketers nowadays try and develop muscles but the need is to strengthen the right muscles,” he says candidly.

The former all-rounder is of the view that a long break can actually harm a pace bowler. “I used to train really hard, often to the limits during the off-season to meet the requirements and tune the body. I made it a point never to miss out on any matches, even club cricket whenever I was available from national duty. When you keep bowling, you tend to work out the exact muscles you need while bowling,” he says.

Javagal Srinath adds more on that idea. “If you bowl less you are bound to get injured more. The more you bowl, the better your muscles develop. Only when you show the commitment of putting in a 1000 first class overs a year will your body be able to perform without breaking down on the international scene. In general 60 to 75 per cent injuries occur because of less bowling and bowling intermittently once in a while. Bowling itself is the perfect training mechanism.”

If fitness is one problem the present bunch has, form is another. Pathan and Zaheer have been inconsistent with their speed and swing. Srinath feels Munaf has made the decision to slow down very early on his career. “You have to get line and length while maintaining the speed. At the end of the day, pace is everything. Till the age of 28, pace has to be on the upswing and increasing. By then you have enough experience and you can afford to bowl slower.”

TA Sekar, head coach of MRF Pace Foundation, believes Munaf’s case was complicated by the team management. “They are telling Munaf to put it in the right areas. What are right areas? A batsman like Matthew Hayden will walk down the pitch and hit you. So there is no such thing as right areas, it’s just jargon that is going around that is totally unacceptable. You need to back yourself with some pace to sustain.”

Srinath, though, stands disappointed with Pathan: “I had a lot of hopes from him. I am personally very disappointed by his downfall. It will be tough for him to get back and the longer he is out of the squad, the more difficult it gets.” Has batting been his bane? “That may give him some kind of solace of contributing to the team but concentration on bowling should be 100 per cent. It is not easy to bowl your heart out and then go and bat.”

Of this lot, Sreesanth seems to have impressed the experts the most. There is a feeling that he can be the spearhead that India is desperately looking for. But if for some reason he goes blunt, going to war minus the spearhead is not an encouraging thought.
GS Vivek