test2wa

R Mohan

England are very proud of their new fast bowling acquisition, Stuart Meaker, who comes with enough South African roots to feed the debate about their national team being the United Nations of Cricket, can significantly bowl well beyond the 90-mph mark that sees the radar guns come alive and sets the bells and alarms ringing all over the cricket world.
 
While the sighting of a genuine fast bowler is an event to be celebrated by the game itself rather than one nation, what should worry Indian cricket is we don’t seem excited by such a prospect as finding genuine fast bowlers. When one comes along with the seemingly right speed gun credentials, we seem to go wholly conservative and put him on ice as it happened in the case of Varun Aaron on the tour of England.
 
It’s a complete mystery why the youngster was not given his spurs on the tour when he would at least have had somewhat more responsive pitches than he may find in India’s big revenge series at home on some of the slowest tracks imaginable. At least, as the saying goes, two new balls are better than one, which is why there might be some reason for the likes of Aaron to celebrate if he does see the reins loosened in the coming series to be played under new ICC regulations.
 
What has happened to Indian cricket in the absence of genuine fast bowlers is a serious matter of concern, or at least it should be. We saw the classic case of Ishant Sharma, once the young tearaway who put the jinx on Ricky Ponting Down Under, but who is now veering towards withdrawing to medium pace status in order to stretch his career across a spate of injuries.
 
Alarm bells should have been ringing all over the place when such a young bowler began sinking into the IPL mode. With a million dollar contract that tended to boost his workload based per-over salary to astronomical levels that would mock even American pro sport salaries, Ishant appeared to be seduced by the nouveau rich syndrome. When thrust back into the role of being battering ram as well as stock bowler in the Caribbean, Ishant responded well enough.
 
His workload in the West Indies, which saw him come on like bowlers do when they put in more in the overs bowled column, seemed to promise a new beginning. It proved a false dawn. Kevin Pietersen destroyed his line by walking across his stumps in England. And when he did find his rhythm to open up a Test match, he showed an unwillingness to grab the ball from his skipper after a luncheon break. The IPL syndrome had struck again. And then the inevitable injury came about, which will be reason enough for him to switch back to the ginger mode of military medium.
 
It’s sad that in our system the stretching an individual career becomes even more important than the national cause of bowling quick for Team India. While proper care in rehab is the advised course for anyone, it stands to reason that, once fit, fast bowlers are expected to stretch out and not bowl gingerly. Unfortunately, in India, that rarely happens. Everyone seems more concerned about IPL contracts and the potential loss missing it may cost the player.
 
The fear is whether India is slipping back to the old days when it was believed that, due to physiological, genetic and climatic causes, genuine fast bowlers would never emerge. The system had moved exponentially since Kapil Dev came on the scene and a decade later Dennis Lillee harnessed method in the cause of the art of fast bowling. Right now, reality stares us in the face as we look around at every fast bowling prospect in the hope that he would represent a paradigm shift as Kapil’s advent did. It appears we have to run now even to be in the same place.