MUMBAI: As MS Dhoni and Co get ready for the ODIs with almost nothing to show after a humiliating Test series defeat to England, a gloomier picture is beginning to emerge back home.
The series that ended bizzarely with a 0-4 whitewash has seen our bowlers struggling to prove their fitness and generate pace. But scratch the surface and try to go little deeper - it is bound to leave one short on hope.
Karsan Ghavri, who heads the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) bowling academy at Mohali, says in one-anda-half years of the academy's existence he hasn't seen a single fast bowler touching 140kmph.
Lack of genuine pacers
The BCCI-owned bowling academy gets around six to eight best fast bowlers from various state associations every three weeks and has trained around 120 such youngsters in the age group of 17-19 years so far. But, surprisingly, none have clocked beyond 135kmph.
"Young bowlers in a group of six to eight come to the academy for a period of three weeks. They undergo bowling drills, bowl at the nets, their diets and training sessions are monitored, there are gym sessions and it's a comprehensive programme. Whenever we get the time we try to organise matches against the local teams to check their match fitness. But out of the six or eight maybe only one is good and we shortlist the candidates and send the list to the BCCI. Then it's the Board which has to keep an eye on them all the time.
"Out of the 120 boys we have trained so far, we have shortlisted around 15 boys who are good and some of them bowl at 135kmph at the nets. But I haven't seen a fast bowler touching 140kmph still," says Ghavri.
Shortage of time
But there is little the former India pacer can do as three weeks is not sufficient time to groom a fast bowler. "Most of the boys either have a faulty run-up or fail to adjust their body balance. We try to correct them as much as we can but three weeks is not enough. Each camp should be of, at least, five to six weeks' time to allow us fine tune their skills. Then we can accommodate more matches to check on their match fitness and introduce more modern drills for a lengthier period."
Is the Board vigilant enough?
With cricket manifesting itself in different forms and the IPL snaffling up talented youngsters there is a huge risk of the hard work getting wasted. Ghavri wants the BCCI to step in here, keep monitoring the progress of the shorlisted candidates and arrange for frequent tours abroad for better training and acclimatisation.
"The boys come to the academy only for three weeks, but what happens after that? They have to be looked after in the future and the BCCI should play a larger role here," he says.
