Curious case of Venkatesh Prasad

Was Prasad really injured or was he not up to the mark, or were these mere excuses to keep him out? Prasad says he has been `fit’, and Dennis Lillee, who has spent some time with the bowler says: “If they (the selectors) are saying that Prasad is not bowlingwell then I would say that, `they don’t know what they are saying. I am saying that he is fit and bowling really well.”

According to the cricket fraternity, one of the `real’ reasons for Prasad being kept out, was a perceived insult to one of the senior selectors. The other — as seen by Karnataka cricketers and officials — is that Karnataka is now at the receiving end of the ire of the Board. After all did not the state secretary, C. Nagaraj, make known his ambitions of forcing his way into the Board during the last elections.

It seems Prasad, who was leading the Board President’s XI against Sri Lanka at Cuttack, ignored the diktats of Kishen Rungta, the present chairman of the selection committee. The buzz is that Rungta wanted Prasad to bowl first on winning the toss. Prasad had one look at the flat wicket and opted to bat first. He was proved right when the team finished the truncated first day on 180 for one from 46 overs. Probably Rungta wanted to see Prasad and company take a pasting on the firstday. The turn of events probably did not go down well with him and he bided his time to strike at the bowler. Lending a further twist is the fact that Prasad’s return was announced when Rungta was absent from the selection meeting.

Prasad was kept out of the first two Tests against Lanka and just about made the team to Sharjah. There he was kept out till the Indians were virtually out of the tournament. Included in the side for the final one-dayer, against the West Indies, he bowled superbly, especially in the slog overs. So much so that Brian Lara, the West Indies captain reckoned him to be the toughest Indian bowler to hit. Prasad, who has two different varieties of the slower delivery, totally foxed the West Indies batsmen during the slog overs.

But when it came to choosing the team for the one-day series against Sri Lanka the selectors claimed that Prasad was being `rested’. Of course, the selectors have changed their tune in the New Year. Probably embarrassed by the `rest’ excuse, they claimed thatPrasad was yet to recover from the shoulder injury (which Prasad claims he never had) which prevented him from throwing.

Prasad, who underwent a short stint at the Australian Cricket Academy (ACA) along with Javagal Srinath, was asked to re-work on his throwing action. The ACA personnel felt that a baseball-style throw placed less stress on the shoulder and increased the playing span of fast bowlers.

Prasad, who fields in slips for Karnataka, is working on the new throwing technique, though Srinath has simply gone back to his pre-first class playing days style of throwing.

But obviously this `throwing’ excuse is just the selectors way of saying they did not want him in the team — Bhagwat Chandrashekar’s inability to throw with his polio-affected arm did not prevent him from being India’s most successful Test bowler. If the selectors were really concerned about Prasad’s shoulder and wanted to nurse the thoroughbred they could have insisted that he fields in slips or in one-run savingposition.

However, when these selectors found that this `throw’ excuse did not have many takers they changed their tune yet again. After the Bangalore Test against Australia, Rungta, by now chairman of the selectors, claimed that Prasad’s performance was “not up to the mark.”

This looks like a joke, for Prasad has 58 wickets from 18 Tests, eight of those Tests being played in the flat wickets of the West Indies, where even Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh struggled and Sri Lanka, where every bowler on either side was thrashed. His outstanding performance during the year fetched him the CEAT International Cricketer of the Year Award for 1997.

The chairman of the Karnataka State Cricket Association selection committee, Brijesh Patel was not at all impressed with the statement about Prasad’s performance. “Some of the players they are touting as replacements for Prasad have not picked up 100 wickets even in nets,” he said ridiculing the selections.

“There is a definite pattern in witch-huntingKarnataka players. The selectors dropped Anil Kumble earlier claiming he did not spin the ball. Well, the Australia series exposes their limited grasp of realities. Shane Warne who turns the ball far more than Kumble finished with 10 wickets in the series to Kumble’s 23!

“Rahul Dravid is being kept out of the one-day series under one pretext or the other. After all this is the same batsman who blasted Allan Donald in a one-dayer in South Africa. The selectors are now targeting Venkatesh Prasad.

“Their job is to build a player’s confidence. But these guys seem more interested in destroying players’ confidence,” he said in dismay.Prasad would have been a great asset in the Bangalore Test, particularly after Javagal Srinath pulled out. His ability to use the new ball effectively and then bowl his unique brand of leg cutters with the old ball could have been decisive on the crumbling Bangalore wicket. Instead, a limited bowler like Harvinder Singh was persisted with. But then who is bothered about losing aTest, when a player needs to be taught a lesson.

In Lillee’s view

Venkatesh Prasad, suave and soft-spoken, prefers his bowling to out-talk the babbling selectors. Prasad, in Chennai to have his usual session with guru Dennis Lillee, said: “Dennis is the best person. He will talk about me.”Evading the topic of why was kept out of the national team he said, “I came to get a few tips from Lillee. Karnataka is in the Ranji Trophy semi-finals and I have to play a crucial role in that and I came to brush up a few things.” When quizzed about his shoulder, he smiled and said: “There is nothing wrong at all.”

When Lillee was confronted with the question of Prasad’s fitness, he said, “I am not a doctor. There is nothing wrong with his bowling. He is bowling well. He is bowling as quick as ever and moving the ball in the air.”Lillee does not want to lambast the Indian selectors but said: “I don’t know what the Indian selectors have said because I haven’t read their statements in the press. If theyare saying that Prasad is not bowling well then I would say that they don’t know what they are saying. I am saying that he is fit and bowling really well,” Lillee said.