Sreesanth - Kerala cricket's great hope
Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, born in Kothamangalam on Feb 6th 1983, is without doubt the best thing that has ever happened to Kerala cricket. Propelled to the national squad by an impressive performance in the Challenger series in 2005, he has taken international cricket by storm with his incisive pace bowling and aggressive attitude. He really came of age as an international fast bowler when he routed South Africa in the First Test at The Wanderers, with a match haul 8 for 99, and was instrumental in leading India to a historic Test win. That India still allowed South Africa to come from behind and take the series 2-1 is another matter-and certainly not the fault of Sreesanth, who bowled his heart out on the tour. Today, he is definitely the first choice to partner Zaheer Khan with the new ball in Test cricket.
However, Sreesanth is still not an automatic choice in the XI for One-Day Internationals –and with the number of ODI’s being played far outnumbering the Tests, a player appearing in the XI only in Test cricket can find himself sitting idle for prolonged periods. The lack of match practice can also lead to an erosion of confidence, which directly affects the performance in Tests.
Though Sreesanth has the happy knack of striking when needed, his tendency to concede too many runs in this aggressive quest for wickets is obviously the reason for his not being an automatic choice in the ODI eleven. He has to learn, in ODI’s, to restrict the scoring opportunities – which often leads to wickets anyway-, particularly at the death. He has already shown glimpses of his batting and fielding abilities. If he can achieve more consistency in these areas, and direct his natural aggression inwards to motivate himself to greater heights, there is no reason why he should not be the lynchpin of the Indian attack –in both forms of the game- for some years to come.
What Sreesanth needs to guard against, however, is letting himself be carried away with all the attention being lavished on him and his family, predictably, by the local media - print and visual. I am sure he is intelligent enough to realize that these very people,not really cricket savvy and who are already hailing him as the 'star’ of Indian cricket, will be quick to write him off the moment he loses form and his place in the Indian team. But, I am worried when I see him allowing his biography ( the guy has only started out on his international career, for heavens’ sake!) to be published in a so called ‘Sports Magazine’ in Malayalam. This same magazine, in its ‘analysis’ of the teams in the 2007 World Cup, have written off the New Zealanders –led by Stephen Fleming, currently the best captain on the international circuit- as one without a ‘game plan’! So much for its knowledge of the nuances of cricket.
Normally, biographies are brought out at the end of distinguished careers, but how would these new generation ‘sports journalists’ know that? And the antics and pronouncements of Sreesanth’s mother and other family members are absolutely irrelevant to cricket. The lady even went to the extent of expressing her relief that Robin Uthappa ( half Malayali, as our dailies constantly remind us ) was also in the team, since it gave her son somebody he could communicate with- surely, that was carrying matters too far! Thankfully, her son has already revealed his communication skills and is very much an integral part of the Indian team.
Sreesanth would do well to ignore all the hype and ‘stardom’ bestowed on him ( and his mother! ) and concentrate on his game and fitness. Fast bowling is hard work, especially with today's tight international schedule, and he has to try and avoid missing matches due to niggling injuries and subsequently losing his place in the team. A fast bowler’s career is relatively short as compared to a spinner or a batsman, and comebacks are harder to achieve ( remember Ashish Nehra, Balaji?).
And so, it is important that this impressive and highly promising cricketer from Kerala stays focussed. As far as hard toil and dedication to his craft is concerned, Sreesanth only has to look as far as Haryana for the ideal example to follow - Kapil Dev Nikhanj never missed an international match in his career due to injury. Of course, the difference today is the senseless increase in the number of matches-many of them meaningless- being played round the year.
Hopefully, our local media will also desist from continuing with their nauseating brand of ‘coverage’ and leave Sreesanth alone to concentrate on his cricket.
posted by Vicky @ 10:21 PM
1 Comments:
Good one. We all Sree to be back, but does Sree think of a long career?
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