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The Rediff Interview /T A Shekhar

'We feel that Sachin is a national treasure...'

The MRF Pace Foundation has often gone beyond its brief, to play a pro-active role in Indian cricket.

Thus, when Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad sustained injuries, the MRF Academy not only played an active part in the rehabilitation process, but on its own initative, funded a recuperative trip to the Australian Cricket Academy.

And yet again, when Sachin Tendulkar's back problems escalated into a national obsession, it was MRF MD K M Mammen who took the lead in arranging for the star batsman's trip to Australia. MRF has, thanks to Dennis Lillee's presence as head coach of the pace foundation, good contacts with the Australian outfit, and has never been backward in using those contacts for those cricketers who have needed stints there.

Incidentally, the MRF academy has also sponsored Ajit Agarkar to a stint at the academy, to facilitate his recuperation after a foot injury.

Shobha Warrier caught up with T A Shekhar, the former fast bowler and now head of the MRF Pace Foundation, for a chat about Tendulkar's problems in particular, and those of Indian cricket in general. Excerpts from the conversation:

It has been reported that the MRF Pace Foundation suggested Sachin's trip to Australia....

Sachin Tendulkar Photo Credits: Allsports

Yes, Sachin came to the Pace Foundation the day before he was to leave for Colombo. It happened like this. Dr. Anant Joshi, who has been treating him, told us that he was bringing Sachin to the Pace Foundation to find out whether he was fit enough to travel to Colombo and play the Aiwa Cup. While Sachin was here, our MD had come to the foundation. He said, "Why not we send him to the Australian Cricket Academy where they have excellent facilities? There they can screen his back completely and have a good rehabilitation exercise programs so that it doesn’t recur at all?" We at MRF feel that Sachin is a national treasure, and that these problems should not trouble his career.

Did Sachin agree as soon as Mr Mammen suggested the idea?

He was very keen, definitely. See, he had the problem before the World Cup, and it persisted even after that competition. He didn't want to take the risk of having it happen time and again, he wanted to put an end to the problem. We suggested this option, and he agreed, so we immediately made all the arrangements.

Sachin does endorse MRF, did that have anything to do with your role?

Even otherwise, we would have sponsored his trip because our association with Sachin did not start now, it has been going on for a long time. We have had our eye on him ever since he hit the headlines with that huge partnership in school with Vinod Kambli, our company has been keen to associate with him right from that point in time.

I think he has to undergo pucca rehabilitation and exercise programs throughout his life. If you have to play at that level -- and that too given the pace at which these players are playing -- I think they have to keep themselves completely fit. For that, they need a pucca exercise program and a recovery program. It is not like the earlier days where you take a gap of six months and then play. Today it is very tough. In a year, they play about 150 days and another 100 days, they travel. It is very tough, there is not enough recovery time.

So what is responsible for a lot of our cricketers breaking down? Too much cricket, or inadequate training programmes?

The more you play, you are bound to get more injuries. After all, your body is not a machine, wear and tear will be there, and nobody can give you any guarantees about that. But yes, if you take precautions like injury prevention programmes, then you can prolong your career. At any given point of time, you will have some nagging injury or the other, no cricketer is one hundred per cent fit all the time, there will be pain here and there and you have to play with that. I don’t think any modern day cricketer can say, throughout my career, I didn’t have any injury.

Tendulkar has been treated in India and also in London. How different is the Australian academy's treatment going to be?

Australia is to cricket what West Germany is to athletics, because they have done a lot of research in injuries related to cricket. Dennis Lillie for instance had a back problem midway through his career, Jeff Thomson had 20, 30 pins inserted in his shoulder. Recently we sent Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad to Australia. We, the foundation, has a reciprocal arrangement with the Australian Cricket Academy and through that program, we had sent these two fast bowlers. After the surgery and treatment, they felt better and more confident to bowl.

We (Sekhar and Ram J Srinivasan as coaches and Dr. Gopal, the foundation's medical head) had also gone there a couple of times for updating ourselves, and we know the facilities that they offer. I have gone to the headquarters of Australian sports at Canberra, and I have not seen such facilities anywhere else in the world. They have experts concentrating on back, trunk, etc and they have the latest methods, which they have adopted from other sports like ballet dancing and Swiss ball exercises. These exercises will strengthen the trunk so that spasmodic pain will not occur.

Could you tell us a bit more about the academy, in terms of injury related research?

They have a fantastic research facility there, it has to be seen to be believed. They have motion picture cameras worth millions. Whenever they take a fast bowler into the academy, they make him bowl and the motion cameras take pictures. They get the skeletal view of the bowler’s hip bones, shoulder bone, knee bones, ankles, the position the bowler is at the time of delivery, etc and from this, they find out what pressure goes into each joint. If they spot a problem, like say undue stress on any one part of the body, they devise corrective measures. By looking at the pictures, they can also figure out if the player had stress injuries before. The screening is so good, so complete, that no one can hide an injury.

Why then do we not have such an academy here in India? Is fitness a neglected science here?

If you want to do research on fitness, it has to go on forever, as the learning process never stops. And it should not confine itself to cricket alone. There are many points which you can pick up from other games and they can be made useful to cricket too. The problem is, we do not have the kind of facilities Australia has. We can -- and should -- however take a leaf out of their book and start doing something on fitness. We can get a professional trainer from there, and train our top cricketers. Initially there will some resistance, because we are not used to this. But soon, it will get into the system -- the thing is, someone has to make a start.

In India, we have talent, but as far as fitness is concerned, we are not on the same level as the other countries. It is high time we look at the fitness schedule also in a very professional way. We say that we have 980 million people here, so why should we bring in a trainer from outside. That attitude won't help -- after all, we have 980 million but we have only one Sachin Tendulkar.

Is it true to say we don't have doctors capable of attending to sportspersons, handling sports-related injuries?

Yes, that is true, we do not have doctors who practice sports medicine. There are some who practise sports medicine, part time. Dr Anant Joshi is the only qualified doctor for sports injuries that we have, but he is more of an orthopaedic surgeon. But in countries like Australia, South Africa, Germany, etc. doctors specialise in sports medicine, treat only sports-related injuries, and they become very adept at what they are doing.

Who should then take the initative to look after players' fitness? The Board? The MRF Foundation?

We have taken the initiative several times already, and we would like to do it even more, but ultimately it is the responsibility of the board. We can treat Sachin, we can treat Srinath, we can treat Mohanty, we can treat Prasad, but what about the whole Indian team? We would like to do that too, but it is up to the board to take the initiative and employ experts and educate the players about the importance of remaining at peak fitness during the season and even during off-season. The board should do all these things on its own, not the corporates. And today, the board is quite rich, they can afford to do the right thing.

It would then be stating the obvious to say that Australian and South African cricketers for example are way ahead of the Indians?

Indians are definitely not as privileged as the Australians or the South Africans as far as fitness and sports medicine are concerned. This might sound like blowing my own trumpet, but at the Pace Foundation, we have now developed a good program for the fast bowlers and also a general fitness program for other cricketers. We have a state of the art gym, a swimming pool, coaches, physio-therapists, etc, and these facilities are made available to our recruits. But if you are an Australian or a South African, you get these kind of facilities right from school level onwards. Here, we only have the pace foundation. Another problem in India is that players are taught the don'ts, but not the do's. Sure, if you learn the don'ts, 75% of the battle is won but to really reach the highest peaks, you need to know the do's, you need to focus on proper programs. And that is where we are lagging behind.

Is our lack of infrastructure due to the fact that we are a poor country?

Yes, it does cost a lot. For instance, that camera I told you about, the specialised one, it costs 15 million rupees. Another thing I should point out is that friendship is not the currency when you are consulting experts in other countries, nothing is for free. Here the system is different, celebrities are pampered. In Australia, I have seen Dennis Lillee standing in queue in the supermarket -- he may be a legend on the cricket field but there are no special rules for him. Once, he jumped a traffic light and got a dressing down from the police. Here, celebrities are fussed over, and they expect everything on a platter, they don't make the necessary effort.

Ajit Agarkar is also being sponsored by you, what seems to be his problem?

Ajit Agarkar Photo Credits: Jewella Miranda

Agarkar came to us and we found he has a problem with his bowling technique. He gets into a position where he is not able to bowl over the top of his body, he is actually bowling around his body. That puts a lot of pressure on his back, groin and hamstrings. Basically, he came here with a hamstring problem, we found that if he is not to keep having this, he has to correct his technique. For him also, the Australian academy is coming up with a rehabilitation program to strengthen the back, the trunk and the hamstrings.

After going through treatment at the Australian academy, is Agarkar expected to come here to the pace foundation to work on his technique?

Well, yes, when Dennis Lillee is here next, and if Agarkar is not at the time playing for the country, he will definitely come here to improve his technique.

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