Divakar Vasu has an important job on hands these days. The former Tamil Nadu and South Zone all-rounder is a bowling coach (chucking protocol) for the ICC, the BCCI and the IPL.
A worthy cricketer in his time — Vasu began as a left-arm paceman of some venom before switching over to spin — he has 3001 runs (ave. 35.72) and 240 wickets (ave. 25.11) from 76 first class matches.
When The Hindu caught up with Vasu here on Tuesday, the ICC and BCCI coach provided rare insight on how he worked on India left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha who had been suspended from bowling in domestic and international cricket owing to a suspect action.
Vasu, along with former India off-spinner M. Venkataramana, corrected Ojha’s bowling action at the ICC-accredited bio-mechanical centre at the Sri Ramachandra Sports Medicine Centre here.
Explaining the bowling action as a chain of sequences, Vasu said, “From front foot landing, to the position of the hip and the shoulder and then when the arm, wrist and fingers are used to release the ball, to the follow through, the process has to be cohesive. If there is a flaw in this chain, things can go wrong with the action.”
Vasu revealed, “Ojha was using his elbow joint to generate spin, and not employing his whole body. His action was chest-on and he was not pivoting.”
Here Vasu explained, “If a bowler has a side-on action, which also means he will pivot, his action will be clean. He would also be using his entire body to spin the ball, and not just rely on wrist and fingers.”
During a month-long process at SRMC, Ojha’s action was gradually corrected. “His action became less open-chested. We worked on the point of release, body alignment, wrist position at the gather and front foot landing.”
Vasu elaborated, “Ojha’s front knee was facing covers rather than first slip. It had to be more towards the target.”
Importantly, Ojha was not converted into a round-arm bowler. Vasu said, “There is this belief that if a bowler chucks then getting him to bowl round-arm can make his bowling legal again. However, operating round-arm will also make him far less effective.”
Ojha’s action was subsequently cleared. Vasu said, “Ojha showed great commitment and sincerity during the process. His action became illegal sub-consciously and he understood that. Ojha could adapt to the changes. It is impossible to correct a wilful chucker.”
Vasu said a bowler banned or suspended for illegal action required counselling. “They need to be spoken to, given confidence. They go through a lot of trauma. Here, the ICC, the BCCI and the Hyderabad Cricket Association gave Ojha support. Now, his action is clean.”
Ojha required some more time to be effective with his new action, felt Vasu. “Muscle memory is not something you can easily change. It will take time but I am sure Ojha will come out a better and a more potent bowler.”
Vasu believed chucking had to be detected and corrected early by coaches at age-group level. He said playing across formats and trying out too many variations were among the major reasons for illegal action.
Chucking, though, is a menace these days and Vasu is a busy man.
