The fitness of the Indian fast bowlers must be of real concern to the decision makers in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Either our priorities are wrong or the approach to rehabilitation process of injured fast bowlers is primitive.
How else does one explain the present scenario of all the senior fast bowlers in the National Cricket Academy to get themselves fit and the Indian attack being left in the hands of Ishant Sharma and debutant Abhimanyu Mithun.
If workload is a big issue for fast bowlers then recovery is also a very important issue. It's not only the skill a fast bowler possesses that fetches him wickets but also the fitness to implement the skills, and for that to happen the bowlers have to be match fit. But there is no recovery period.
How many matches did Sreesanth play before he was picked for the Sri Lanka tour? If he wasn't fit enough to tour England with the India ‘A' team, obviously he wasn't match fit. He ought not to have been picked for the Sri Lanka series.
Ishant Sharma continues to be inconsistent. Munaf Patel was quick. Now he is a line-length bowler. Irfan Pathan has lost both speed and swing. And R.P. Singh is in the IPL mode. One can't be blaming bowlers all the time. Their training methodology is not being monitored by the NCA.
Big problem
The biggest problem Indian fast bowling rehabilitation system has is that only contracted players are allowed to be treated and trained at the NCA, which is expected to even assist the players of the affiliated units. Being part of the BCCI, these units have every right to take advantage of the facilities at the NCA. Most of the associations have no proper trained physios and trainers and that affects the training programme of fast bowlers.
If a fast bowler is the main bowler of the team, he is forced to play by taking cortisone injections. Last season, a State fast bowler was given a spell of 21 overs after he returned from a back injury. The coach wanted to check his fitness!
While England, Australia and South Africa have high performance centres to monitor the fitness progress of fast bowlers, the NCA seems to be more keen on producing coaches rather than working on the second string. The specialised academies are not connected with the NCA. It's absurd.
The specialised academies train one group of teenagers for a few weeks. Once the off season tournaments begin next month, for the entire season the boys will be busy playing for their respective States.
What then would be the role of coaches of these academies? It's a waste of money and effort.
The BCCI needs to rethink about the activities of the NCA. A few years ago a technical manual was written by Frank Tyson with the assistance of the coaches from the NCA keeping in mind the needs of Indian conditions. It was a very good document.
Instead of circulating it to the associations, a non-technical Australian writer was assigned to write another manual. It seems to have been withdrawn because of some glaring technical mistakes. There is no technical manual prescribed for the coaches of the States now.
The Indian coaching staff in the NCA is experienced enough to coach the second string. With Sandeep Patil at the helm, the NCA should be able to complement the efforts of the national team.
