Why INDIA doesn’t have a Shoaib Akhtar???

Why INDIA doesn’t have a Shoaib Akhtar???: His arms swaying rhythmically by his side, holding a brand new hard white leather ball, he is running like a panther, his long locks flying past his ears. Sporting a blue jersey, he flies past the umpire, takes a giant leap and lands on the popping crease. With a demonic swing of arm, he releases the ball at supersonic speed that curves inwards as it lands close to the toes of the batsman. The already scared batsman tries in vain to block but he is a little late and out goes his stumps, uprooted and cart-wheeling 10 feet behind towards the wicketkeeper!!!

Who, amongst all you cricket frenzied fans, can tell me what is wrong in the above paragraph? Answer is the Blue jersey!!  Yes, with blue Indian jersey you  don’t associate supersonic speeds or stumps cart wheeling to 10 feet behind. It is a well known fact in cricket world that Indian speedsters are never expected to cross the speed gun markings of 95miles/hour or 150km/hour. Why is it so? When Pakistan, South Africa, Australia can have bunch of bowlers who regularly cross 150kmph, why can’t India have someone who can  be called an express bowler.

Gautam Gambhir once admitted, “… facing balls at 125 kmph  and 140 kmph won’t have much of a difference, but facing a ball at 145kmph and 148kmph surely needs skill. There is hell of a difference”. Traditionally, Indian fast bowlers have been seen clocking at late 130’s  or a few in early 140’s. But India has never produced an express bowler  who can bowl consistently above 150kmph, threatening the 161kmph record owned by the legend Shoaib Akhtar.

Quick Link : Top 10 fastest deliveries ever bowled in international cricket

Now let us find out the reason that Pakistan, a country similar to India, produces fast bowlers in dozens while India, a country of billions is still striving to find a single fast bowling legend.

• Fast bowlers are actually born and not made. Youngsters with agricultural backgrounds, raw energetic village boys are the ones tailor made to be genuine fast bowlers. It requires immense hard work, physical endurance and crude force along with genetically big structures to become an average fast bowler, let alone the thought of express bowlers whose demands are huge.

• The childhood practices in street cricket are the main culprit. Gully cricket is where every Indian cricketer starts. Firstly, as mentioned by Shoaib Akhtar in an interview, we Indians lack fast bowling No child in his normal senses would imitate Ashish Nehra, or Lakshmipathy Balaji while choosing roles during gully cricket. All they want to be is Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag, Yuvraj and Kohli. Someone who idolizes Sachin will always focus on his batting. Hence we need to give some stars to our young budding cricketers whom they can imitate and eventually surpass. In Pakistan, they produced Wahab Riaz, Irfan Khan, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar because they all followed Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and Waqar Younis in their teens. Indian children can barely look out for a name to follow.

•  Bad coaching is another big factor. If I recall, team India has seen a few genuine quicks in the past, but for shorter time frames, like Munaf Patel (150 kmph), Zaheer (148kmph), Ishant Sharma (153kmph), and of the late Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav (both 154 kmph). They came, they surprised everyone, they injured themselves, went to the MRF pace academy (it’s a slaughter house for genuine fast bowling talents). These guys went there, freshly shocked and battered due to injury and courtesy some negative feeds from the mediocre Indian coaches, they decided to cut down on their pace, ending up bowling in mid 130’s or early 140’s, a speed that batsmen relish upon. These mediocre coaches /mentors, who never bowled express pace at their own times, scare these youngsters with stats of their high economy rate, and force them to focus on line and length and sacrifice speed, which the boys happily do to save their spot. At that very point,  a speedster dies and a military bowler is born. Somebody who would bowl day in and day out at 128kmph, do no harm to his body or opposition batting line up.  Munaf Patel and Parvinder Awana are perfect examples, both of them were the winners of speed hunt competitions and used to bowl at 150kmph regularly but we can see where they are now.

• Pitches in India are not too conducive to fast bowling. Dead slow tracks, end up extracting the juice out of the bowler’s knees, rendering him more prone to injuries. More the injuries, lesser the fitness, and lesser the speed. Also, it’s a general misconception that ball only swings at moderate speeds. Bowlers like Dale Steyn, Mitchell Starc can easily swing the ball both ways at scorching speed and are thus unplayable at times. Speed is a very important factor. The fraction of time available to the batsman while facing Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar, Shaun Tait was nearly around 0.2 seconds, quick enough to startle a batsman. Also, the typical robust attitude of a fast bowler doesn’t come naturally to the usual docile Indian men of urban India. Hence India produces Vinay Kumar’s, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s one after another, a band of military bowlers, who eventually fade away in the crowd. India badly needs express bowling superstars.

• Diet is a controversial reason to say the least. Cricket pundits often argue over the fact that eating hard red meat is essential to build the structure for enduring the stress of fast bowling. Indian bowlers like Ishant Sharma, who is a pure vegetarian, loves rajma instead, a kind of pulse not known to nurture tear away pace bowlers. While others believe that diet supplements, proteins can fulfill the need of the body, Shoaib agrees on the fact that building muscles in gym is of utmost importance as it increases the muscle mass and increases strength and stamina. A careful trainer, nutritionist and physiotherapist are as necessary to build a genuine pace battery as are the pacers themselves. Express Pace bowling requires super human effort, extraordinary force goes in each and every delivery thereby the risks of injuries are ever so increasing in their careers. Players like Shane bond, Nantie Hayward, Fidel Edwards, Shaun Tait (the last genuine express bowler)  were way faster than their counterparts, hovered in mid 150’s consistently but their bodies couldn’t hold the stress for long and broke down. During their short careers, they were lightening quick. All they needed was a concerned board who could nurture them and use them conservatively.

• It is now more of a batsman dominated game, people focus on not getting hit for six rather than aiming to send the middle stump cart wheeling. The number of limitations on bowling and field setting has further ruined the attitude of fast bowlers. Hence the art of attacking bowling is rarely seen. A  few of the deadly pure speedy spells that we have seen in the past are, Mitchell Johnson vs. England in ashes, Mitchell Starc in world cup 2015, Wahab Riaz vs Shane Watson, Shoaib Akhtar in IPL vs Delhi Daredevils, Shaun Tait vs Pakistan in a T20 game. Those were the superhuman efforts that not everyone can dream of.

• Now the question is, can India ever produce a bowler who would bowl consistently at 155 kmph like Shaun Tait, someone who would torment the psyche of batsman like Shoaib Akhtar, someone who would send down lightening quick deliveries like Brett Lee??  The answer is Yes!!! Hire good fast bowling foreign coaches, let people like Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami, and Varun Aaron bowl in excess of 145 kmph for the next 5 years, and stay assured that a boy somewhere in a remote village would emerge in the coming 5 to 10 years and become India’s hero for generations to come.