Javagal Srinath - strike bowler or plain workhorse?

Anant Gaundalkar

While the Indian team began its campaign in the Independence Cup four-nation quandrangular tournament with a fine win over the in form New Zealand team, a certain Javagal Srinath was packing his bags en route for South Africa. And yet another consultation with Dr Mark Ferguson, the renowned sports injury specialist, about the rotary cuff tear that has kept the Indian pace ace out of the frontlines ever since the beginning of the Caribbean tour.

It has been mentioned before, but it bears repeating here, that the injury was sustained not in South Africa, as hype - and the Indian physio Dr Ali Irani - would have us believe, but in Toronto, Canada, where India played Pakistan.

And how was the injury treated? Srinath returned home and asked for permission to take rest rather than play the Challenger Trophy that pitted the Indian senior team against India A and India B. The permission was denied, and Srinath was made to play all the games. He then played against Australia in a one-off Test. The Titan Cup triangular. The home Test series against RSA. The away series against that same country. The triangular ODI series in RSA. And then, finally, broke down completely.

At a time when countries like Pakistan, Australia and South Africa, having realised the dangers of overworking their main bowlers, are devising plans to keep them match fit by reducing their workload, it is interesting to take a look at the performance of Srinath, vis a vis his contemporaries, in the ongoing season.

We give below the workloads shouldered by the world's premier bowlers from the start of the 1996 English summer till May 31, 1997. And it is immediately obvious that while Srinath's bowling partner Venkatesh Prasad has bowled the most number of deliveries (3290), Javagal Srinath stands at the top when it comes to the balls per Test ratio ( 286:33), which works out to 47.4 overs per Test and puts him well ahead of the next most hard-working bowler, Wasim Akram of Pakistan.

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