UP Swing

Newspaper profiles of Praveen and Bhuvneshwar often use phrases like ‘dusty bylanes’,’dry and lifeless pitches’ and ‘unforgiving conditions’,to describe the circumstances of their early cricketing life. Whoever wrote these profiles never visited Victoria Park.

On this July evening,the sky above the ground,uniformly cloudy,lightens towards the west,where the sun glows feebly like a lightbulb nearing the end of its life. Next to the outfield’s southeastern edge is a squat,white,single-storeyed building,topped by a balustrade that parts to accommodate a length of engraved lettering. “O’Donnell’s Pavilion,” it says.

Rajendra Chauhan,Victoria Park’s curator,says that the ground and the pavilion date back to 1936. The ground belongs to Meerut College,who have given the Meerut District Cricket Association permission to use their facilities. Sometime in the mid-90s,the ground acquired a turf wicket. This,Chauhan says,was the last pitch prepared by P Sitaram,who spent many years as the curator at Delhi’s Ferozeshah Kotla.

By the time Praveen and Bhuvneshwar took their first steps in the game,the facility was already home to an academy run by Sanjay Rastogi,who had previously taken the new ball for Meerut University,and Vipin Vats,who had kept wicket for Uttar Pradesh in the ’80s. Vats,according to Rastogi,left the academy two years ago.

Victorian conditions

Other factors also conspired to provide Praveen and Bhuvneshwar the ideal environment to grow as cricketers.

As you turn into Meerut from the Delhi highway,you climb a flyover,next to which squats a building with a sign that says “Sanspareils Greenlands”. SG,of course,supplies the ball used in Test and first class matches in India. A few kilometers on,you reach HRS Chowk,an intersection marked by a plinth with a football on top and cricket bats bearing the HRS logo on its sides. Sareen Sports,meanwhile,is located in the Victoria Park area. Coach Rastogi,watching over practice at the ground,wears a cap with the SS logo on it.

“All the manufacturers are on the lookout for good players here,and supply them with free kits,” he says. “SG balls are easily available here,so we practice with the same ball used in the Ranji Trophy.”

The Victoria Park outfield,freshened by an early morning shower,is lush but perfectly mown. You imagine that it would take a while for an SG ball to lose its shine here. At other times of the year,conditions might be dry and parched or close to freezing. Whatever the weather is like,the ground is always dotted with figures in white.

“Our season is 12 months a year,7 days a week. We play a lot of practice matches here,around 4-5 every month. If there is a Ranji game here,our boys play matches on that ground,” he says,pointing over the concrete steps of the small grandstand,towards Victoria Park’s ‘B’ ground. “We don’t play Twenty20; nothing less than 50 overs — maybe 40 if there is rain. We also play a lot of two-day matches. You learn a lot more if you play matches and bowl long spells,rather than just bowl at the nets.”

It was to this environment that the two Kumars came as boys.

“We first spotted Praveen when we had gone for a wedding in Kharkhoda,which is around 10-15km from here,” says Rastogi. “He was playing a local match there. We were impressed with his bowling,and told him to come here. From then on,Praveen would cycle 15km from his house every day to get here for practice. Sometimes he would come here twice a day.”

Bhuvneshwar,meanwhile,came here because he was rejected by another academy. “They were full,and didn’t have room for him. So they told him to come here instead. He was 13 at the time,and he came with his sister,” Rastogi says. “We asked him what he could do,and he said he was good at bowling. After just 2-3 days in the beginners’ nets,we transferred him to the senior nets.”

Moving away

Both Praveen and Bhuvneshwar started off as inswing bowlers. Praveen,who has arrived in an SUV,recalls the day he discovered this natural tendency.

“I was playing a local match. It was cold,and it was going zuk-zuk,” he says,miming a ball kissing the pitch and zipping through. “I just did this” — he sends down an imaginary delivery,his arm going beyond the vertical,coming down from almost behind his head before brushing his ear at release — “and the ball moved this much” — he parts his palms,stopping when they are about eight inches apart. “After that,someone told me that’s how you bowl an inswinger.”

Over the next few years,Praveen says he taught himself how to bowl the outswinger.

“With a little bit of brain,it isn’t difficult. You pick up little things,by observing other bowlers. If you move your arm away from your ear,you can get it to swing the other way,” he says. “In the nets,I would try to bowl three overs of outswing,and then bring one ball in. That shift is important — you have to pitch that one ball in the right place. Maybe initially,when I was around 16,it was a little difficult,but it became easier as I kept practising it,and playing more matches.”

Watching Praveen at work,Bhuvneshwar,three years his junior,absorbed a few lessons.

“By the time I was finding my feet,PK had already won age-group trophies (under-19) with the UP team and was the star of the nets. We all used to try and replicate his action,grip and figure out how he keeps deceiving batsmen. He would think batsmen out rather than blow them away,which was fascinating to watch,” Bhuvneshwar says. “I remember a practice match where I was trying a lot of things. PK walked up to me and asked me to concentrate on inviting the batsmen to drive by pitching the ball up. Before long,I had my man. That turn of events taught me a lot.”

Praveen says that his development was similarly accelerated by the presence of skilful peers.

“We had a very competitive environment. If one of us could do something,everyone else tried to learn it as well,” he says. “Before going to sleep,I used to think about how I would bowl the next day. I would talk a lot about bowling. That’s very important. We had a small group,and we would all talk about bowling.”

Praveen says he didn’t find this atmosphere when he played for India.

“Not really. I haven’t talked about bowling that much with most of them,” he says. “Except with Zak bhai (Zaheer Khan),after I had been in the team for a while and started approaching him.”

From everything he has said,Praveen comes across as mostly self-taught. Asked how much he learned from his coaches,he pauses and smiles at Rastogi. “Aap hi bataaiye,” he says.

“Both PK and Bhuvi had very natural actions. Neither me nor Vipin Vats changed anything,” Rastogi says. “We told them when they needed to make minor adjustments,but apart from that,all these boys are self-made. No one here is over-coached. If someone is bowling well and taking wickets,you don’t tell him,your arm is coming down like this,it needs to come down this way. We don’t mould the bowlers. We mould ourselves to suit the bowlers.”

Praveen,asked to pose for photographs,calls out to the fast bowlers. They come running across. Others,unmindful of the celebrity in their midst,and probably used to his presence,carry on. One group is in the nets. Another,split into pairs,toss catches back and forth.

“There are around 250-300 kids who play here now,” says Rastogi. “A lot more have started coming after seeing PK and Bhuvi play for India. Earlier,we never used to have more than 150 at a time.”