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Prasad: Injured in his shoulder, or his pride?

Prem Panicker

A day after the national selectors announced the team to tour Toronto and Pakistan for eight one-dayers, comprising two different series, against Pakistan, the mystery of Venkatesh Prasad looms large over the cricketing horizon.

That he is out of the Indian team is known.

But has he been rested, due to a suspect shoulder? Or dropped for some other reason?

Depends who you ask. Chairman of selectors Ramakant Desai says Prasad was injured during the Sri Lankan tour. The medium pacer denies it and, in fact, said on television that he has absolutely no injury serious enough to merit the axe.

Where lies the real truth?

Administrative manager of the Indian team in Sri Lanka Ratnakar Shetty indicated in his end of tour report that Prasad had injured himself in a fall while practising.

The incident occured on July 14, two days after the Indian side reached Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup. The bowler then went on to play the Asia Cup and, subsequently, was taken for consultation to an orthopaedic surgeon recommended by the Lankan board. He was accompanied by Ratnakar Shetty.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging, the prescribed test in such circumstances, was inconclusive. However, the surgeon gave Prasad a dose of ultrasound rays and, diagnosing suspected rotary cuff tear - the selfsame injury that had laid low Prasad's strike partner and statemate Javagal Srinath at the start of the Caribbean tour earlier this year - recommended expert consultations.

During the last ODI of the tour, Prasad was in noticeable pain - so much so that in the fifth over of his opening spell, he clutched his shoulder after every delivery and, midway through the over, consulted his captain. At the end of the over, Prasad left the field. He returned after an hour - but only to field in the deep, and when the ball came to him, it was noticed that he was lobbing it back underarm, rather than throwing it back to the bowler or keeper.

Team physio Ali Irani informed BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur about Prasad's injury on Wednesday, two days before the team for Toronto was picked. Immediate medical attention and complete rest was Irani's prescription.

The selectors promptly decided to rest the new ball bowler, and dropped him from the Asia Cup squad.

That would have been that - except that when Prasad was asked by a television network how serious his injury was, he promptly replied that he had absolutely no injury whatsoever, and was fully fit and able to play if he had been picked.

And that has opened up a can of worms and, in the process, reflected badly on all concerned.

While the truth of Prasad's injury - or lack of it - will become known over the next few days (watch for updates on the Rediff cricket pages), the role of Ratnakar Shetty and Ali Irani raises a few fundamental questions.

Shetty, in response to a question, said that while the MRI showed nothing amiss, there definitely was some inflammation to Prasad's shoulder. Averring that he had no knowledge that rotary cuff tear is suspected, Shetty said, "Prasad could not throw the ball while fielding."

Which raises vivid memories of the ODI final in Durban, South Africa - and a Javagal Srinath who, on that occasion, fielded in the deep and lobbed (and, on two occasions rolled) the ball back to the bowler.

Irani, for his part, has informed the board that Prasad does have rotary cuff tear in the right shoulder.

A question needs asking - if Prasad was injured on July 14, if the injury was serious enough to warrant consultation with an orthopaedic surgeon following the Asia Cup, if - even going by Shetty's testimony - inflammation of the shoulder had been diagnosed, then how is it that he was made to play in the two subsequent Tests against Lanka, and the three (plus one abandoned) ODIs that followed?

In this period, Prasad bowled 66 overs in the two Tests (for two wickets, incidentally) and 27 overs in the ODIs (again getting two wickets).

Leaving aside the question of whether or no Prasad's shoulder has been damaged a la Srinath, sticking with Shetty's version that there was just some inflammation, how then was he asked to bowl a further 93 overs with that injury?

Ali Irani, we are told, is a physiotherapist. He was privy to the original injury. He was the one who informed the BCCI about his suspicion of a rotary tear. All of which raises the question - what kind of physiotherapist, knowing - or even suspecting - an injury, allows a premier strike bowler to continue to shoulder a workload heavy enough to tax a fully fit player?

Again, remember Srinath? After his shoulder packed up, Irani gratuitously informed the media that he knew that Srinath was carrying a big injury right through the South African tour.

So how many more Indian players are going to end up under the surgeon's knife - or the selectors' axe - because the Indian side is burdened with a physiotherapist who is so clearly unfit for the job he is being paid good money to do?