He stood drinking water by the gallon after a hard morning's work at the nets with the boys at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. Former India medium pacer, coach and selector Madan Lal Sharma had just finished putting the bowlers of the India 'A' team, which will tour England, through their paces.
Later, back at his hotel, he shared a few thoughts exclusively with M D Riti on his training.
What are your plans for training these boys?
They are all fully matured. They have been playing for the 'A' team. You can just guide them; that's all. It's not as if you need to change a lot of things with each player. The thing only is that they are going to England, and need to have good experience for England. I tell them how to bowl, where to bowl.
Will you be working with all the kinds of bowling?
No, no, I will only be working on pace bowling; they have a specialist for spin.
Is your work here similar to what you did with the South African and West Indian teams?
The basics are the same. The difference is that this training is more enjoyable. We are not doing the same thing every day. We are doing different routines every day, different tactics; like some days we have training, some days skill. That's why its more enjoyable and less boring.
What do you think went wrong with the Indian bowling in the World Cup final?
I think they [the Indians] just got more excited. I think that's the only reason they bowled a different line. I was in a World Cup final after all, and everyone was geared to do something. That's where you control your mind. But these things happen in cricket. You are excited, you are waiting for the big day. Sometimes, such things happen.
Javagal Srinath, for example, could be hit for boundaries on both sides of the wicket
That's the time you control the line and length. That's the time when you come back, because it's the final game. But, somehow, when you are hit after just 10 or 15 overs, it's very difficult to recover. When the total is just over 100 in 15 overs, for example, the other side can also plan their game very well. They do not have to take any risk. If you saw in the World Cup, for example, once they [Australia] played the 15 overs, they did not take any risks. They only took it after 35 overs. The game plan was like that. If we had taken a couple of wickets in the beginning, the story would have been different.
Why is India now not able to produce good pace bowlers?
I don't think you are right. We have a very good pace bowling attack just now. We have Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Aavishkar Salvi; they are all coming up. The scene is changing. A couple more, like Balaji, are now coming up and playing up. We are not short of pace bowlers just now.
There is still a feeling that once Srinath and Anil Kumble go, the next line does not look promising...
No, no, there are a lot of youngsters who are very good bowlers. People always think that when the existing players go nobody is there to replace them. But when Sunil [Gavaskar] or Kapil [Dev] went, there were bowlers who replaced them. Likewise, when these bowlers go, people fear there will be a vacuum; actually, someone else will just take over, and become a hero. People will then think he is the best man. We will never be short of good pace bowlers. It takes time, that's all.
Do you think this scientific approach to cricket that you follow at the academy will help create a different class of cricket players that India turns out? Until now, it's mostly been people coming from gully cricket?
Definitely, it will make a lot of difference. Even a 10-20 per cent difference makes a lot of change. The player who reaches this level has the basic skill anyway, but if you put him into a scientific programme of training, telling them what to do and what not to do, it makes a lot of difference. The academy follows a very interesting schedule that prevents boredom from setting in too. We have to keep up the interest of the players and make them work harder and harder every day.
