Cricket’s not so natural obsession
Yet another series, yet another set of worries. No, am not talking about strategies, but of injuries and the effect it can have on the Indian dressing room as they gear up for the first Test on Boxing Day against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. With Ishant Sharma ‘reportedly’ suffering from an ankle injury, talks about replacements have already begun. As usual, there has been a lot of ambiguity about his fitness. Zaheer Khan too did not look pleasing in his spell.
Fitness woes have worried many teams, and interestingly, I too bought this idea of too much cricket taking the sheen out of the players. But, injuries to Varun Aaron, Shaun Marsh and newbies such as Pattinson have completely crucified the ‘over-cricket’ theory.
Flashback to the era of Kapil Devs and Allan Borders who hardly missed Test matches and it could raise a few eyebrows somewhere. Players such as Kapil, Dennis Lillee, and Jeff Thompson were natural athletes who went on to become legends without too much tinkering in their bowling action or attitude towards the game. In one of his interviews, Wasim Akram, one of best left-arm pacers the game has seen, said, “The bowlers must be on the field running, than being on the gym lifting weights.”
The importance of preserving natural talents can’t be overstressed. Legends such as Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar were not ‘perfect’ when they started off, but their coaches never once tried to change their batting stance. “Minor alterations are fine, but not major ones. With Laxman, I never once tried to change the way he played, simply because it used to work for him. Others in the Academy tried, but sans much success,” concedes John Manoj, coach of VVS Laxman.
For a sport that has produced cricketing wonders such as Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath, Dilip Vengsarkar, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has over the years by-passed these players and gone for foreign names to coach the national side. It is not to put the likes of Greg Chappell, Gary Kirsten and Duncan Fletcher down, but players of the calibre of Gavaskar and Vengsarkar would have done something right in their playing days to have won so many caps for the country.
The emphasis on modern methods is absolutely fine, but must not be overdone. I am yet to understand the logic behind starting a practice with a session of football, but that’s exactly what the Indian team does.
Have we ever seen a football team practice cricket as part of their training session? NO.
Training methods must be modern, but not with over-analysis that puts a doubt in the mind of the player. Don’t we all like to see ‘natural’ talents in action? We all do. I am afraid; there are a lot of bowlers and even some batsmen who are being manufactured according to some of the coaches’ whims and wishes, which can be very damaging.
Anything that is not natural will not last long and the earlier the so-called modern day coaches realise this, the better it is for the game and for its countless practitioners.
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