With a long summer round the corner, the Indian pace battery is in for an intensive three-week camp that will see speed guru Dennis Lillee conduct the show. And the hub of the special camp’s activity for the country’s top speed demons will be the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore, where the likes of Pathan, Sreesunth, RP and VRV will slug it out under the watchful eyes of the legendary Australian. The Indian cricket Board is trying to work out a 21-day phase between May and July to conduct the fast bowlers’ conditioning camp.Speaking to The Indian Express this evening, a BCCI functionary pointed out that plans are very much afoot to bring in the legendary Aussie, who would anyway visit his academy, the MRF Pace Foundation, this summer.“As things stand, Lillee will head the fast bowlers’ camp. But the issue now is to find the right slot to fit in a three-week programme. We have to see whether we can make use of the break between the England home series and the West Indies tour,” said the Board official.While BCCI has decided on staging the programme, it is still finalising on the dates — possibly between June 21 and July 12. The England series winds up on April 15 and the tour of the West Indies begins from May 18. “By the time the Indians return from the West Indies (July first week), it would be too late as we have to time the camp keeping in mind Lillee’s availability,’’ the official said.The official explained that the idea of conducting a separate camp for the quick bowlers was to finetune them over a period of time. “Last year, we tried to utilise Lillee, among other experts, for camps. This Bangalore camp, with the Aussie great, is part of that plan.”The pace programme follows last summer’s initiative when an elaborate speedsters’ conditioning camp was conducted shortly before Greg Chappell took over the Indian team’s reins.
