Unsafe at high speed

I remember watching an India""Australia test match in New Delhi, about 10 years ago as a 15-year-old, with considerable excitement. Reason? There was a fast bowler called David Johnson making his test debut. Now, you may wonder, "David who?" because that was his first and only test match.

But at that time he was touted as the fastest bowler India had "" and as long as I have been watching and following Indian cricket, there has been the itch to see the words "right arm fast" or "left arm fast" in the profile of an Indian bowler.

This may be simple envy, since our rival neighbours have consistently produced one fast bowler after the other (although it's a different story about their longevity in the game), or it may be the fact that a genuine quick bowler is a lethal weapon in any team's armoury.

Look at the legendary West Indies team of the 1980s, which built its success on a battery of pace bowlers, or the mighty Aussies, who have had Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson and more recently Brett Lee. They have always had a genuine fast bowler among their ranks. I call the constant search for fast bowlers "the eternal quest".

But T A Sekhar, head of the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai, has a different view on fast bowlers, and he has been on the quest for over two decades now. "How many Brett Lees has Australia produced in the last decade? Or how many has England produced? Brett Lees can't be made, they are born!" Point taken.

Sekhar makes another valid point: "How many matches does Brett Lee miss in an year?" As we speak, Brett Lee is recuperating from one of his many injuries. "It is a tough job to become a tearaway fast bowler and it takes a toll on the body."

And, Sekhar asks, why are we obsessed with the speed factor? "Speed can never ensure a long career, and at the end of the day how you learn to improvise with time is what matters."

Citing the example of probably the best fast bowler of the current generation, Glenn McGrath, Sekhar recalls seeing him bowl at a speed of 145 kmph in 1993 at the academy. "Sooner or later, you have to realise that it is the line and length that are more important."

Pace does play a major role, he says, but then you have to suffer on other counts. Sekhar fires off another bouncer: "Who would you like to have on your team, a fast bowler who is always on the sidelines or a medium fast bowler who takes wickets regularly?" The answer is obviously the latter. Then again, India haven't even had consistency in the latter.

"It is true that fast bowling has been a weakness for us, but we are trying to unearth talent and then nurture it properly." There are quite a few talented youngsters coming through the ranks and Sekhar, who is on a nationwide hunt for new talent, in association with the energy drink Gatorade, sees the future as pretty bright.

"It's not that we ask anyone to cut down on his pace early in his career, but then Indians haven't got the muscular build like that of West Indians or Australians." So, rather than focus on pace, the advice to young bowlers is to concentrate on the other aspects. "It's brilliant if you have a mixture of both, but even if you are good at either, you can make a career out of it."

He blames the frequency of injury for blocking the emergence of consistent fast bowlers. Without taking any names, he says that there have been instances where a bowler who has shown a lot of potential succumbs to injuries and his career is cut short. "Injuries are part and parcel of the game, but yes, we do need to have a proper fitness regime for bowlers and tell them to stick to it."

He says there is enough talent "" the only problem is to unearth it. More talent searches should be conducted on a regular basis, according to him, to at least locate people who can be trained at the academy.

While finding a "genuine quick bowler" could still be a distant dream, we should be content to get someone who takes wickets on a regular basis and has a long career ahead of him. So let the quest continue, but let's modify it according to what we really need.