Our management has a lot to learn here.

We are very well poised in this series but our players have been through a lot.
While being buzzy despising players, we tend to forget that management has a role to play in whatever happens on the field. We must not forget that our team was not given enough time to prime itself to new conditions. It was the management that didnt perform in the first place. Had that not been the case we wouldnt loose those ODIs so badly, our performance in tests as a result would be much better. Then there has always been that issue of bowling coach that the management has not being able to decipher. U know and I know as do everybody else, that our bowlers need a coach who has bowled himself. A 10 minutes talk with Donald turned Sreesanth into batsmens' nemesis, a session with Akram in Australia finished the raw product that Pathan was, a young and already tiring Munaf, an unused to his potential Agarkar, we see it all. When we talk about our team's performance lets talk about everything that effects it. A good team can make an ordinary player look good.


A player matters less than the team he belongs to.

What does that tell us -- more on it latter...

BC Lara scored his 10,000 th ODI run recently. Looking at the other members of this elite club, you realize that Saurav Ganguly has been in there for years, not only that he completed his ten grand in least number of matches. What does that tell you about him.

Recent heroics of Sreesanth highlighted his short chat with Donald. What could he learn in those few minutes from Donald that he couldn't learn in those grueling training sessions under Chappell? Wait a minute Donald was a specialist bowler, Chappell wasn't. What does that tell us?

So a bowling coach bill in the offing?

Pathan's move once again made me look for answers to the same old query, as to why don’t we hire a bowling coach. The plight of the situation can be felt by this lament

"The current management seems quite allergic to the concept of having a bowling coach and it's now too late to have one...nothing reflects this more than the fact that over 10 fast bowlers have been experimented with in the last year. And still the team is not in a position to name three bowlers," wrote Srinath in a national daily.
[ source : Indiatimes ]

If there really is a taboo regarding this issue, which people in charge are not willing to go over, can’t they find a mid way. Something like a forum where the needy and the expert could share thoughts. Impaneled renowned veteran bowlers answering queries and may be scheduling sessions with our bowlers, if needed, should go some way in resolving the issue. Our bowlers can really use some help.

We appreciate Pathan, but do they?

I appreciate Pathan’s move of turning to Akram for help. I’m quite relived to hear that. Akram has mentioned in past, as we all know, that he has never had problems with that. He actually found young players not asking for advice a grim state of affairs.

But I also wonder what took Pathan so long to figure this out that he should seek help from the bowling legend, given that he has mentored him before. For us this seemed like an obvious thing to do. But he kept waiting for some reason. That makes me think how much encouragement there in the current set up for a player to take such a step. It can be hard for a heavily paid coach and a battalion of personnel looking after the team, to genuinely appreciate it.

Is bowling training up to snuff

What turns an ordinary talent into batsmen’s nemesis. I say the training that he gets to bowl the ‘other’ 4 or 5 deliveries. Every bowler who is playing international cricket is expected to have enough talent to bowl at least 1 potential wicket taking delivery every other over. With that, maintaining the right line and length during the other 4 - 5 deliveries not only gives him control as he is not giving away runs but also lets him use his talent of swing or seem movement etc to its full lethal potential as he’s already practiced enough to bowl in the corridor of uncertainty. A good experiment fetches you maximum dividends in the corridor of uncertainty.

During last few years of Shrinath’s career, he was bowling consistently in the corridor of uncertainty; he was most dangerous then thus. He, however, learned it himself and it took him all his experience to do that. You look at any new bowler in Australia, you will find him doing the same but not at the end of his carrier- Nathan Bracken, for an instance is not hugely talented or experienced but is a force to reckon with within a few years of his playing international cricket. He may not have potential to take a wicket on every delivery but he sure wont give you easy runs.

We are not short of talent. We are lucky to have Irfan Pathan, who is able to swing the cricket ball dangerously, we have bowlers like Ajit Agarkar, who with an amazing wrist action can generate serious pace, swing the ball and bowl whistling Yorkers at death. What these two have, they thwart in the ‘other’ (in their case) 3-4 bawls that they bawl.

Shrinath, just before retirement, was acting as the spear head of our pace attack, we could see his consistency visibly getting brushed on to the other two bowlers- Zaheer an Ashish, and the trio formed an attack which was a pleasure to watch. He was probably acting as the bowling coach of the team unknowingly at that time. We all saw, how Waseem Akram's guidance had turned Irfaan from a raw talent into a finished product. Our bowlers are direction less right now. They need guidance, thats it.