Is Nacheem answer to Indian cricket146;s oldest conundrum?

Ask Nacheem about the North-East8217;s cricketing mystery and he gives his own example. 8216;8216;As a kid I played every possible sport. Come to my house in Guwahati and I can show you school and district-level certificates in almost every sport. If my aunt hadn8217;t dragged me to a cricket camp I8217;d never have taken this sport seriously.8217;8217;

Nacheem insists that virtually every kid in Assam plays cricket but the lack of an organised setup and of local role models means most cricketers don8217;t take the sport seriously.

8216;8216;I was lucky to have a coach at an early age. He showed me the run-up, the grip and rest of it.8217;8217;

That coach was Kamal Das. When Nacheem first walked into the Railway Cricket Academy in Maligaon as a 10-yr old, Das, chief coach at the Assam Cricket Academy, spotted something extraordinary in the boy. 8216;8216;His attitude and focus and also his willingness to learn was what surprised me at that time. I knew that if this boy got the right guidance during his formative years he could make it8217;8217;, says Das.

And so Das asked the then RCA coach, Rajib Rajbongshi, to pay special attention to Nacheem. A couple of years laters, Das took him under his wings at the ACA. Later, as a member of the East Zone junior selection panel, he pushed Nacheem8217;s case at the NCA in Bangalore and, from there, the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai.

Nacheem attended one camp after another, played one tournament after another, all the while meeting bowling coaches and former stars. But he8217;s always spent some time with Rajbongshi whenever home.

The U-19 World Cup was no different. Did the coach give his ward some formula for success?

8220;Not really,8221; Rajbongshi says. 8216;8216;I just told him that to be successful on those wickets he has to pitch the ball up, rely on swing more than just raw pace and make the batsman play each and every delivery. I also asked him to bowl stump to stump as much as possible.8221;

But Nacheem seems to have done that and much more. Did his success surprise his coach?

8220;He had pace from the beginning,8221; Rajbongshi said. 8220;All he needed was to maintain the physical fitness required to bowl consistently at that speed. As he was a natural athlete and a hardworking boy I knew that was coming.8221;

Talking to Nacheem in Colombo is tough because of the constantly ringing cellphone. All one can understand of the rapid vernacular are several 8216;thank yous8217;. 8216;8216;The scene is the same at my place, my parents have regularly attending calls from newspapers, friends and relatives.8217;8217;

But while celebrating Nacheem8217;s success it8217;s wise to remember the story of Mark Julian Vermon Ingty. The boy from Shillong showed promise and was seen as the one who could break the North-East jinx. One Duleep Trophy game saw him taking seven wickets; he disappeared soon after.