Will TNCA’s talent hunt to address the State team’s bowling shortcomings pay off?

Campers go through their drills at the bowling camp for medium pacers in Tiruppur.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Tamil Nadu’s lack of depth in the bowling department, especially pace bowlers, has been hurting the team’s performance in First-Class cricket for a while. To address this the TNCA started a talent-hunt programme scouring the State earlier this year.

S Mahesh with fast bowlers at the camp in Tiruppur.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

After a thorough process over the last three months with an overwhelming response to the selection trials held at the district level first, followed by the final selection in Chennai, 77 bowlers have now been selected.

The break-up of the 77 reads as 30 medium pacers, 16 off-spinners and leg-spinners each and 15 left-arm spinners.

In June, these shortlisted bowlers had an intense three-week camp at Tiruppur (medium pacers), Theni (off and left-arm spinners) and Chennai (leg-spin) under the respective TNCA coaches.

TNCA fast bowlers camp in Tiruppur
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

TNCA Academy head coach and former TN player P.C. Prakash heads the programme with specialised coaches for the various departments.

Former TN all-rounder S. Mahesh headed the medium-pacers camp with R. Jesuraj and S. Arvind, while M. Prabhu and Bharathan handled the off-spinners. Similarly, Charkradar Rao and Siva Prakash were in charge of left-arm spinners, while T.S. Mukund and Bhaskar conducted the leg-spinners camp.

S. Aravind guiding the campers at Tiruppur.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

“We had a video analysis at the start of the camp, and coaches devised drills specific to individuals based on the analysis. After three weeks, we again did a video shoot to show the progress and gave these bowlers a routine to follow,” said Prakash.

TN has struggled with a lack of depth in the pace department, and it will be interesting to see if someone from the shortlisted 30 goes on to greater heights.

“We started with general observation on bowling fitness followed by drills, spot bowling and centre wicket simulation. I started these boys with the semi-new ball,” said Mahesh about the pace-bowling camp.

“A good thing is most of these boys are already fit. So we have spoken about how to follow routines before and after practice sessions, matches and workload management,” he added.

R. Jesuraj with the pace bowlers in Tiruppur.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

S. Arvind said, “Many of these bowlers are used to bowling only on matting wickets. So we had to teach them how to bowl on turf wickets and the lengths needed for it. By the end of three weeks, we could see considerable improvement.”

Prakash explained that there will be regular but shorter-duration camps in the future. “We want to move them to other centres and make them bowl on different surfaces. It is a long process, but we have good experienced and qualified coaches. These players are ready, and by the second day, they pick up what is being taught. They just needed an organised programme, which we are trying to do,” he said optimistically.