where do I start ? hmm - Vivek Razdan (he was quick and rated high by Allan Border then in the early 1990s, but thanks to one Mr.Bishan Singh Bedi, Razdan was a complete burnout during a New Zealand tour), Subroto Banerjee, Atul Wassan (most athletic and fit looking bowler I have seen), Salil Ankola, David Johnson (this dude from Bangalore, played in two series or so, and was content with the money he made and decided not to stretch himself any further - his short-pitched bowling was both his speciality and undoing!), Dodda Ganesh (shooting star, now-you-see-now-you-dont), Debashish Mohanty (genuine swing bowler, but a dummy on drier, flatter conditions, and then came the self-destructive full toss/long hop and his career was over, just when it started to blossom), Abey Kuruvilla (Mumbai boy, did well in his debut series, but not to be seen later), two shooting stars, viz., Tinu Yohanan (from Kerala ?), T.Kumaran (from Chennai), Ashish Nehra (most injury prone bowler even at his prime - he had ankles made of paper and sawdust), L.Balaji (Pakistan specialist, good only against Pakistant, forever recovering from some injury), Irfan Pathan (lethal 3 years ago, but now, huffs-n-puffs like a grandpa, to even get his natural rhythm) - there are other names I cant recall offhand, but the bottomline is this: WE JUST DO NOT PICK BOWLERS AND GROOM THEM FOR THE LONG RUN - and this is my prophecy: Ishant Sharma will shine in a couple of international seasons, but thanks to our dead pitch
RE:Endless list of potentially talented rookies - but alas!
by babi ati on Jun 16, 2007 12:56 AM Permalink
Shaenshah,it is a very comprehensive list you produced there. One thing our selectors don't do but often talk about is 'horses for courses'. For example, Mohanty is an ideal bowler for English and NZ conditions and same goes with Nehra. Also, I don't understand this obsession for raw pace. It is not necessay to have every body bowl fast. Just look at McGrath? Even in his geriatric days he was a killer bowler. The problem is we do not have strike bowlers. Spin is another department. Why in the world can't we produce good spinners considering that it is our strong point and the wickets, by accident, are conducive. Is it because the focus is now pace and only pace? It is a shame that most other teams have great spinners (Murali, Warne, Panesar, Vettori,Kaneria) but India is barren. I know..I know Kumble is there but we need someone in the mold of Warne and Murali.
RE:Endless list of potentially talented rookies - but alas!
by Shahenshah on Jun 16, 2007 01:33 AM Permalink
so whats the solution ? I can only think of one: give the team's management to the Indian Army - let them bring in/enforice fiscal, physical and other related disciplines into the cricket administration and the game - we can have a bunch of ex-cricketers giving them advice on selection and cricket-playing related issues - only then we may see positive results - just think of the HUGE gap that will be left, once Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly retire (thats gonna happen in less than 2-4 years from now) - our bench strength even in BATTING is so weak that, it is scary - one good thing to happen is the floating of an alternate cricket league by Zee - something similar happened when Kerry Packer announced his rebel series in Australia and the level of professionalish went UP several notches then! perhaps, now private groups like Zee will bring in quality pitches and then the quality of our game will improve consistently
RE:Endless list of potentially talented rookies - but alas!
by Ajay Parekh on Jun 16, 2007 01:25 AM Permalink
i would add one waste of talent, Laxmi Ratan Shukla (who bowled well alongwith Srinath with veterans Kapil and Prabhakar in Ausie in 1992)
RE:Endless list of potentially talented rookies - but alas!
by manoj bhaskaran on Jul 16, 2007 08:50 PM Permalink
well said. Ishant should be nurtured and groomed for the future.He can become indian Mc grath.
RE:Endless list of potentially talented rookies - but alas!
by Hari on Jun 16, 2007 12:53 AM Permalink
How very true. You must add Raju Kulkarni as in the mid 80's he was genuinely quick. All these bowlers had no guidance from seniors as there were no genuine pace bowlers before them. To top it all encouragement to bowl fast was restricted by coaches and selectors who chose 1 or 2 med.pace bowlers in the final team.
RE:Endless list of potentially talented rookies - but alas!
by alan campbell on Jun 19, 2007 08:05 PM Permalink
The problem was not guidance from lack of former fast bowlers but the indian media who do not know cricket and push the virtues of medium pacers over fast bowlers and the gullible indian fans believe the media. The bowlers who suffered besides Raju Kulkarni were T A Shekar and Prashant Vaidya. Shekar in the only test he played was faster than Kapil and the Pak media were surprised that Madan lal was played in all matches instead of him. In the next tour Shekar was dropped for Madan Lal. Shekar, Vaidya and Kulkarni used to be the highest wicket takers in Ranji. Kulkarni at age 20 took 35 wickets in 1st 4 ranji matches he played. We see similar thing now that VRV the only Genuine pacer (though not as successful as the Shekar & co.) is dropped to accomodate medium pacers and press is proposing it.
