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Munaf has turned into a spinner

2011-06-14T22:05:00.001-07:00

"Munaf has turned into a spinner"

Bowling legend Andy Roberts is baffled as to why young Indian pacers suddenly lose speed after showing early promise and start "spinning the ball."

"When Munaf Patel came here in 2006, he had some pace," said Roberts wryly, "Now he is spinning the ball!"

Roberts was speaking from his experience of having worked with Irfan Pathan briefly during the 2006 tour by the Indians after the then coach Greg Chappell requested him to look at the left-arm seamer's problems.

"You have to remember this happens only once they make it to international stage. May be they are better off without these coaches.

"These coaches turn you into line-and-length bowler. Not what you naturally are. These boys then lose their ability."

Roberts, who picked up 202 wickets from 47 Tests at 25.61 average, is hailed as the father of fearsome West Indian fast bowlers of 70s and 80s. He certainly is not impressed by the fast bowling in world cricket presently.

"Shaun Tait throws his arm. Dale Steyn, whom I like, also occasionally throws his arm. Less said about the West Indian pacemen the better. The likes of Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards are not running in fast enough at the batsmen," he said.

"They saw Curtly Ambrose run in smoothly and ping the ball. But he could do it because he was so very strong.

Others must run in hard in their run-ups.

"There are two ways to bowl fast, either you steam in or you have a lot of strength to bowl even if you are relaxed in your run-up," Roberts explained.

Roberts is dismissive of the notion that today's cricketers play a great volume of cricket.

"Too much cricket? They play mostly Twenty20s and one-dayers. It's 4 or 10 overs a match."

He also sought to correct the notion that reverse swing almost exclusively was the preserve of the Pakistani bowlers in the 90s.

"We began the reverse swing. When Pakistanis came here in 1977 they were surprised to see us do it. It's no rocket science, you keep the ball polished on one side and it would reverse swing. For it to happen, the other side must have a bit of moisture on it.

Inevitably, Roberts is asked to compare who he thought was better between Sachin Tendulkar and Sunny Gavaskar.

"Sachin is one of the game's greats. No questions about it. However, you judge a batsman on how he handled the best of pacemen and best of spinners of his era.

"In the 70s, West Indies had the quick ones. England had a very good spinner in Derek Underwood. And Sunny always did well against them."

Nobody was said to have a more deceptive bouncer than Roberts in the game. Gavaskar has mentioned he had two bouncers -- one a slower one with which he set a batsman up and the other a quicker one which a batter could only see as a blur.

"You can't bowl 95 mph all the time and hope a batsman would surrender. They get used to it after a while. You need to vary the pace, the angle, the seam or swing," Roberts said.

"I could bowl everything: seam, swing, pace, slower one, bouncer, cutters, everything."

Asked to pick the favourite batsman and fast bowlers of his era, Roberts said, "Viv Richards to me was the best player of short-pitched bowling ever.

"I liked Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Malcolm Marshall ...Imran was a great bowler but he wasn't an out-and-out fast bowler. Same was the case with Richard Hadlee."

Like most of his era, Roberts can't see the revival of West Indian cricket any soon.

"The top brass needs a kick in the back side. Presently our cricket is flat on its back. The board at one time had 18 directors.

"I was once told by a director that I could become a coach if I had a level 2 or 3 coaching certificate. The same man asked me to come to Trinidad and give a lecture on fast bowling in his academy. The knowledge is with me. But I can't be going around asking for work," he said.

Raina: Batting let the team down

2011-06-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

Raina: Batting let the team down

India`s stand-in skipper Suresh Raina admitted that his batsmen let the team down after they were handed a crushing 103-defeat by the West Indies in the fourth ODI on Monday.

"Credit to Windies for batting well. But we did not bat well at all to be honest," Raina said after the match.

"Our shot selection was wrong, we had no partnerships. Rohit (Sharma) was there but I and Yusuf (Pathan) got out at that time.”

"There was no partnership. Batsmen have to be there when chasing a total like 240-245. And the West Indies played well in the batting powerplay."

Raina was, however, pleased with his bowlers` performances.

"(Amit) Mishra and (Ravichandran) Ashwin bowled well for us, Ashwin got us the wicket of Pollard who was batting well. Ishant and PK also bowled well," he said.

Rival skipper Darren Sammy was delighted that his team managed to break a sequence of three successive defeats.

"We showed a lot of character and it`s good to come on the winning side. We played a lot better today, we have been improving throughout this series. We posted 250, bowlers have been getting early wicket, today we handled it better," Sammy said.

Opener Lendl Simmons and Kieron Pollard -- both made valuable half centuries -- came in for praise from the skipper.

"Since Simmons came back he has been our main run-getter. Pollard got runs down the order, we keep losing track in the middle. As long as we keep improving, we are still a young team," he said.

About Andre Russell, Sammy said, "He is a total team man, I spoke to him and he told me, skipper I am going to give my best. He has a bright future."

Man of the Match Anthony Martin, who acknowledged the loud cheers from the crowd, said the familiar conditions worked in his favour.

"The conditions I know very well, it helped me a lot. Thanks to the crowd for supporting me. I am going to do the best I can," Martin said.

Asked what was his strategy going into the match, he said, "I just decided to keep it tight and let the batters do what they wanted to do."

Raina was asked some pointed questions on the continuing failure of Yusuf Pathan and Subramaniam Badrinath, as well as opener Shikhar Dhawan.

"We will see how the team combination works (in Jamaica). We have to play the first Test there also so we will try to play to our potential. The thing with batting is that you need to build partnership, you have to respect good line and length."

Despite India's loss, Raina's captaincy so far has been very encouraging. First coach Duncan Fletcher and now Simmons is very impressed with the way Raina rotated his bowlers and set up his field.

Raina said he has learnt a lot watching how Rahul Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni go about their task as a captain.

"You watch them and learn how to be positive, how to play to your strength and how to cope with tough situations."

Raina didn't forget to praise the West Indies for the comeback they managed here.

"One needs to give them credit. They played good cricket.

It's been a good comeback for them," he said.

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2011-06-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

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2011-05-31T01:17:00.005-07:00

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1st Test: England v Sri Lanka at Cardiff, May 26-30, 2011

ENG, SL

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1	Thu 26 May 03:30 PM IST	ENG vs SL	Sophia Gardens, Cardiff	England won by an innings and 14 runs

2	Fri 03 Jun 03:30 PM IST	ENG vs SL	Lord's, London	To be played
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India in West Indies T20 Series, 1 T20 Cricket Series, 2011

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IND, WI

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2	Wed 08 Jun 06:30 PM IST	WI vs IND	Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad	To be played
3	Sat 11 Jun 06:30 PM IST	WI vs IND	Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua	To be played
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