BCCI’s pace academy in Mohali aims to fulfill the eternal quest of finding fast bowlers.
It’s been over a month now since the Indian cricket team returned from its disastrous tour of England. What was supposed to be the ideal chance to prove their credentials as the number one Test team in the world turned out to be a damp squib. One of the main worries — and a big reason for failure in England — is the state of fast bowling in the country.
To solve the fast bowling conundrum — along with others — the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced in 2010 that it would set up four specialised academies in Mohali, Chennai, Mumbai and Nagpur. Of all the academies, it was the fast bowlers’ academy in Mohali which it was keen to develop the most. So after 18 months of inception, how is the academy doing?
At the outset, BCCI refuses to talk about the academy and all requests are turned down by the officials saying “we aren’t allowed to speak to the media.” The man who is in charge of the pace academy in Mohali is Karsan Ghavri. While Ghavri isn’t too forthcoming either on how the academy functions, he does say that it is still early days and a lot needs to be done.
At the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, it’s 4.30 pm and a handful of hopefuls are doing their warm-up exercises in a corner of the stadium before they get into the drills of bowling at the nets. There’s not much to speak as far as infrastructure goes, since the academy is run out of the existing stadium. There’s a speed gun which BCCI had given to the academy to monitor the speed of the youngsters. Apart from that it looks like any other summer coaching camp with youngsters eager to impress.
Mostly in their late teens, these are a group of fast bowlers determined to break the myth that India cannot produce fast bowlers. Their chances are slim, they know, but the chance to get professional training is something they don’t want to miss. “To come here and learn not only about bowling but also how to maintain your fitness levels and what to eat, what to avoid is eye-opening to me,” says a teenager who moved to Chandigarh from Patiala to become a cricketer.
They are not too keen to share their names to avoid unnecessary attention. “My aim is to play cricket for India and I believe this is the first step towards that,” says a teenager from Chandigarh. Most of them believe that this stint will get them noticed and give them a chance to play at least at the domestic level. “After all, this is how you take that chance,” says another youngster from Mohali.
The academy calls up bowlers in groups of eight to train them for a duration of three weeks. As a part of the training programme, their diets, training and gym sessions are monitored by Ghavri and the other professional coaches at the academy. Apart from Ghavri, there are three other professional coaches including a fitness expert. The fitness expert tells them what is the right food to eat, what exercises to do to make sure they have the right amount of body strength.
About 200 boys have attended the training camp and about 20 of them shortlisted and recommended to BCCI. But the players feel that training at the academy and bowling at the nets is completely different from giving them match practice. At times, matches are organised against local teams but that isn’t enough. Ghavri doesn’t talk much but he was quoted earlier as saying that none of them has crossed the 140 kmph mark. Proded further, he says: “We are looking at fast bowlers not necessarily express pace bowlers.”
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The idea behind the academies is to have a rich talent pool and identify them at a young age. They should then be given all the support needed to hone their skills. If the selected youngsters are considered good enough, the next step is to send them to the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
In the last few years, India has seen its fast bowlers either fade out or plagued by fitness problems. V R V Singh belongs to the former category, while Ashish Nehra falls in the latter. A former BCCI official says that the academies — not just the one in Mohali — haven’t produced the desired results. Media reports suggested that the quality of bowlersat the Mumbai batting academy is really poor. “There’s a lot of discontent at how these academies have been functioning,” he says.
According to the accounts of BCCI released earlier in September, it had spent about Rs 9 crore on these academies. “What are the results,” questions a former Indian fast bowler. It’s all well and good to have academies and coaches in place but you need to have a long-term vision, says the fast bowler. BCCI on its part has appointed M P Pandove, a long-time cricket administrator, as the chairman of the committee to look after these academies. The committee is supposed to look into how or where these academies are falling short and what can be done to improve their standing.
The youngsters who have trained at the academy feel that they have benefitted from the three-week camp. “The coaches were helpful and taught us how to work on your action and that bowling at express pace doesn’t make you a good bowler,” says a 19-year-old who was a part of the camp in May this year. He spent the three weeks working on his fitness as well. But has he heard anything from the coaches or the Board since then? Nothing so far, he says. “But I will keep working hard to get noticed and at least get picked for the zonal teams,” he adds.
How important the role of these academies will be in the future of Indian cricket isn’t clear.
