Of Indian cricket and fast bowlers

Having just finished watching the cricket match between India and Sri Lanka an interesting thought crossed my mind. "Why can't Indian Cricket produce fast bowlers?"

There are numerous theories on this topic doing the rounds. Theories ranging from physical built of the Indians, lack of red meat diet among Indian players etc. But what could be the real reason for this?Can't a country of over billion people can't produce a fast bowler who can clock regularly over 90 miles per hour?

The answer is YES we can produce fast bowlers provided we are allowed to remain one.

The old cricket saying goes 'fast bowlers hunt in pairs'. The most recent example to this is the dreaded W's of the Pakistan cricket team. The 2 Ws, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis terrorised batsmen all over the world. One with toe crusing yorkers and the other with the ability to swing the ball in both directions at fiery pace.Wasim Akram was hand picked by none other than the great Imran Khan. When Wasim Akram burst into the international scene, he had a very good mentor in Imran Khan. Imran Khan was more of a line and length bowler and Wasim Akram had the liberty to as bowl fast as possible to intimidate the batsmen. Similarly when Waqar Younis came up Pakistan had Wasim Akram who was more of a containing & wicket taking bowler. This allowed Waqar to express himself.

Take the history of any fast bowler you will find a similar situation. Be it Glene McGrath,Bret Lee,Walsh, Ambrose or a Shane Bond. Fast bowlers always had a good line and length bowler the other end. This helps the fast bowlers to bowl fast and not worry about bowling line and length to contain the flow of runs.Can we say the same about Indian cricket?

The answer is a big NO. Jawagal Srinath was very lucky to have a Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabakar. But the current Indian fast bowlers are not that lucky.Take example fo Munaf Patel. I remember he was considered to be the quickest in India clocking regularly over 90 miles. However now he is made to worry about line and length. The sole reason being, India does not have a bowler who can bowl on a tight leash. India does not have a bowler who can contain. The lack of a containing bowler does not help the fast bowler's cause. He starts to think that he should be a containing bowler rather than an attacking bowler. Vikram Raj Vir Singh is another example. And I am sure his career will take the same path as Munaf Patel.

This is not just a problem with the fast bowlers. Guys like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is a naturally attacking batsman is not allowed to express himself. This is because he is treated as a regular batsman in the team and is expecte to score runs every time he takes guard. This situation is not doing any good to Indian cricket.The Indian Captain Rahul Dravid, in his post match press conference says, that he takes full responsiblity for the current situation of Indian cricket. But is he the only person responsible for this mess? I guess the board will have to come up with a long term plan about improving the quality of the players rather than worrying about increasing the bank accounts.

Cheers
PG