Fringe benefits for the seconds stock

In a training camp studded with superstars, nine people are condemned to life on the fringes. Like extras in a Bollywood set, they know that...

Written by Chandresh Narayanan

Bangalore | September 4, 2003 12:00 AM IST

5 min read

In a training camp studded with superstars, nine people are condemned to life on the fringes. Like extras in a Bollywood set, they know that they will come only so close to the stars — so near, yet so far.

They are the net bowlers, those whose job it is to provide fodder for the batsmen to perfect their strokes. Two have had their brush with stardom — Test discard Tinu Yohannan and New Zealand one-day tourist Rakesh Patel. The others — Punjab’s Amit Uniyal and VRV Singh, Gujarat lad Munaf Patel, Bengal boys Sourav Sarkar and Sabir Ali, UP’s RP Singh and S Sreeshanth of Kerala — are aware that there are six degrees of separation between them and the players they idolise.

While some, including Sreeshanth and Uniyal, come highly recommended after impressive Ranji performances, others have been picked purely on the basis of promise.

What’s common to all is the fact that they bowl under almost no pressure. Not even instructions to bowl in a particular style at a particular batsman — fast and short to Ganguly, for example; just the basic command to bowl the same line and length. That’s left them enough time and space to lose focus and be overwhelmed by the experience. Their aims are simple: get as close as possible to their heroes.

If Kolkata’s Sourav Sarkar is thrilled to be bowling alongside Zaheer Khan, Amit Uniyal is keen to impress those watching him bowl. ‘‘Just by bowling to the likes of Sachin, Sehwag and Sourav, we are learning so much. They are very helpful’’, says RP Singh as he recounts three days of fame for the bunch of seven.

Sabir Ali says he hasn’t been in awe of anyone. ‘‘They are all big names. But I have managed to be as normal as possible, not get tense on how I will bowl to them.’’ Some are aware of how far they actually have to go to be the players at centrestage. Quite often such breaks come at an early age and the bowlers called up for gaining experience fizzle out after the initial burst of performances.

This is what troubles Amit Uniyal, who wants to keep picking wickets so that his four years on the Ranji circuit finally pays off. ‘‘Bowling in the Ranji Trophy does not really teach you anything. You need to be bowling at a higher level to improve as a bowler, this is where this camp comes in handy.’’

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While the personal heroes range from Sachin Tendulkar to Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, the near-unanimous choice, for obvious reasons, is Javagal Srinath. VRV Singh says if he got the chance, he would walk up to Srinath and say: ‘‘Sir, will you please teach me how you mastered in-swing bowling.’’

CAMP DIARY

Jugraj accident has journalists in spin
The accident involving hockey player Jugraj Singh in Jalandhar made waves here too. As the news broke late on Tuesday night, journalists from all over India went into a tizzy, confusing Jugraj with Yuvraj. Team manager BN Ramesh was kept up virtually the whole night by calls and, unaware of the Jalandhar accident, patiently told each caller that Yuvi was fine and fast asleep. Eventually, sensing something was wrong, he went and checked on the Chandigarh all-rounder before closing shop.

Yoga casts its spell
n After the talk sessions by Prannoy Roy, Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone, it was the turn of yoga guru BKS Iyengar on Wednesday. The Pune-based expert held a lecture-cum-demonstration at the indoor nets of the National Cricket Academy (NCA). Sachin Tendulkar and selector Kiran More listened with particular interest after having previously visited the guru for treatment — Tendulkar had met him after his famous back injury in 1999. While some juniors were less than impressed, yoga regulars like Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Murali Karthik listened with full attention. Karthik was in complete awe of the guru — he’d recovered from a career-threatening back injury thanks to yoga.

Arun Lal plays the by-stander
Another interesting visitor on Wednesday was Indian Cricket Player’s Association secretary Arun Lal who was at the camp on Wednesday afternoon. His presence was more interesting as it came on the heels of the talks over graded payments between senior players and BCCI, though he said he was in the city in connection with TV commitments. When asked about ICPA’s role in the discussion between the players and the BCCI, Lal claimed it was just an ‘advisory’ role . ‘‘The four seniors (Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble and Sachin) who are talking to the BCCI are also office-bearers with the ICPA, so there is no need for people like me to get too involved.’’
(Chandresh Narayanan)

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