more thoughts on Cricket

The title of this post might suggest another article on the current Indo-Pak series that whinges about the pitches and the resultant dull matches. However, as such articles have been written ad nauseam and as I bear no ill will to my audience, I will spare you this agony.
Fast bowlers...to me, there is nothing in Cricket more exciting than watching a genuinely fast bowler in the middle of an inspired spell. I have personally seen only two fast bowlers bowling live. The first time was when the West Indians had come to India in 1994 and I have gone to the Wankhade Stadium in Mumbai to help them in their practice sessions. I watched Cameron Cuffy, who at 6'7" looked like nothing I had ever seem before. I saw him bowl efortlessly and at speeds that my 14 year old eyes could not really believe. I played most of my Cricket as an all-rounder...a competent middle order batsman and a work-horse medium pacer. At peak form, I was fairly quick though I have always struggled to get bounce, partially due to my lack of vertical inches. Watching Cuffy get head high bounce with just a casual flick of the wrists was an immensely satisfactory sight for me.
The second time was when I faced Zaheer Khan. This was at the height of his prowess, in the season of '99-2000, when he was about to break into the Indian team. At that time, he was one of the fastest bowlers in India and was bowling consistently in the high 140 km's per hour. Also, we were playing on the Western Railway ground, which possesses one of the fastest pitches in Mumbai. I did not last very long but I did realise that the speeds that we are used to in Pune Cricket are just not good enough to compete in the brutal Mumbai Cricket scene. Over the years, Mumbai has produced some very high quality fast bowlers...Salil Ankola, Abbe Kuruvilla and Ajit Agarker are just three in a fairly long list.
In the domestic cricket scene, there are only two genuinely quick bowlers that I have heard of in recent times...Munaf Patel and Vikram Rajvir Singh. Munaf plays for my state, Maharashtra, though he is originally from Gujarat and Vikram plays for Punjab. Both are very young (Munaf is 22 and Vikram is 20) and have performed very well in their short first class careers so far. If there is one thing that India lacks, it is a genuinely fast bowler. While accuracy and control can be learnt, pace is innate. Therefore, I think we should groom both these youngsters to play for India in the next couple of seasons. A rotation policy can ensure that both get adequate rest and therefore are not injured due to overuse. Selecting them now is essential if we want them to be part of the Indian squad for the next world cup. Additionally, both are competent lower order sloggers.
In the past, we have erred in not giving opportunities to fast bowlers when they were at their peak. Kuruvilla was one of the fastest bowlers in India in his early 20's but was only given a chance when he was nearing 30, by which time he had slowed down a great deal. We should learn from our past errors and give opportunities to young fast bowlers (and I mean genuinely fast) as they are peaking so they can serve India for a number of years.