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November 15, 1997
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The Cricket Interview/Venkatesh Prasad
Right arm, over!
Bapu Krishnarao Venkatesh Prasad is a late learner -- he was 18 before he first played cricket in earnest, having preferred hockey as his game until then. "They didn't have cricket in my school," is his simple explanation.
Thus, his first ball bowled in anger was only after he entered college. A year later, he was opening the bowling for Bangalore University. And a six wicket haul against Madras University in 1989 had people sit up and begin to take notice of the aspiring quick. A job in Syndicate Bank saw him turn out a string of good performances for the bank side, but it was his Ranji debut haul of four wickets, against Kerala, in 1991 that put him in the national spotlight.
Around this time, Prasad -- who, until then, had learnt the skills of quick bowling on his own, with minimal help from the likes of Roger Binny and Jayaprakash -- went to the MRF Pace Foundation for an extended stint under T A Shekhar and Dennis Lillee. And it was here that he learnt to rein in his penchant for just slinging the ball down, and began developing into the thinking man's quick bowler. The leg cutter, with which he earns a lot of his wickets, is a Lillee trademark.
Though Prasad, since his Test debut against England at Birmingham in 1996 (his ODI debut came earlier, in 1993 against New Zealand at Christchurch) formed a potent combination with statemate Javagal Srinath, there were still some questions being asked about his ability to perform creditably on really pacy wickets.
Epitomising the doubting-thomas school's mindset was South African fast bowler Brett Schultz. When the Indian side landed in South Africa in December 1996 for a three Test series, Schultz in a media interview scoffed openly at Prasad's chances of coming good. Our wickets, argued Schultz, are meant for pace bowlers, not seamers. It is pace, averred Schultz, that will get wickets here -- not variations. And so on, and forth.
Prasad replied, in the best possible fashion. Beginning with a dream leg-cutter to get rid of opener Gary Kirsten, he went on to a 10-wicket haul in the Kingsmead Test that outshone the performances of Alan Donald and his own running mate, Srinath. And, in the process, became the first quick bowler since Clarrie Grimmett (13 wickets in 1936) to take ten or more on what is rated the fastest Test wicket in the world.
At the end of the South African tour, Hansie Cronje revealed in a media interview that he rated the Srinath-Prasad combination as one of the most potent in international cricket. If Srinath were fully fit and India had one back up seamer for the overworked pair, said Cronje, the results of the tour could have been considerably different.
When Srinath opted out at the start of the West Indies tour through injury, Prasad was forced to take up the leadership of the Indian attack, performing as both shock and stock bowler. Then came Sri Lanka -- and a fall in the nets just before the Asia Cup that resulted in an inflammation of the bowling arm.
Despite the injury, Prasad bowled on. On the flat tracks in Colombo, however, Prasad found himself totally helpless against batting lineups determined to belt the cover off the ball -- until, that is, he found himself bowling to the Pakistan batsmen on a juicy wicket at the Sinhalese Sports Club. Before the rain came down and spared Pakistan's blushes, he had reduced them to 5 for 35 and, in the process, proved that the injury had only hampered, not entirely killed, the attacking bowler in him.
Rested -- rather controversially -- from the Indian side that toured Toronto and Pakistan, Prasad went about the process of recovery, making a quick trip to the MRF Academy for tips from his guru, then following up with a fortnight long stint at the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy in Australia. And now he is back -- as good, he swears, as new.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf caught up with the ace quick in Bombay, when Prasad -- just named to lead the Board President's XI against the visiting Sri Lankan side -- came down to receive the Ceat International Cricketer of the Year award. Excerpts, from an exhaustive interview:
In your debut year, you have been named Ceat's International Cricketer of the Year. How does it feel?
But do you think that with this performance, you have raised people's expectations to an unreasonably high degree? Will it be difficult for you to live up to the standards you have set yourself?
Well, yes, in one sense. But whatever version of the game I play, whether it is one day, three day, or a Test, I try to give my 100 per cent. That is my nature, and I don't worry about other things, I just go there and do my best. Definitely, there are lots of expectations in people's minds -- all I can do is try and live up to them.
Just at the time you had established yourself, you had an injury problem. What exactly happened on that Sri Lankan tour?
It was nothing major, actucally. It was a small pain, I fell down when bowling in the nets, otherwise there was no major problem. I am okay now and the two week stint with the cricket academy in Australia was really very good for me, it helped a lot.
But after that fall, you went on to shoulder the bulk of the Indian attack in Sri Lanka. Did this aggravate the problem?
No, I don't think so, it didn't really affect my bowling all that much. The real problem was that it hurt a lot when I threw the ball in from the boundary. Now I have learnt the techniques of throwing the ball in, during my stint in Australia, so that too is fine now.
This throwing technique, care to elaborate on that?
It is based on baseball, actually, it minimises strain on the shoulder. I have just learnt the technique, now I have to get used to it.
Ali Irani, the then Indian physio, said in an official report that you had rotator cuff tear...
I would not like to comment about it, frankly.
Tell us more about your stint in Australia.
Srinath and I went to the Australian cricket academy, stayed there two weeks, former Aussie stars Rodney Marsh and Wayne Phillips are in charge there. We trained under Richard Done, the academy's resident physical trainer. He taught us a lot of new techniques, some of them for strengthening our shoulders, add upper body strength, and then of course there were the throwing techniques we had to learn, to reduce the burden on our shoulders.
"I am more comfortable bowling to right-handers" -- the Venkatesh Prasad interview, continued.
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