Akram optimistic on Sri Lankan quicks

From left: Cricket Committee Chairman Aravinda De Silva, SLC Secretary Mohan de Silva, SLC Vice President K. Mathivanan, SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala, former Pakistan Captain Wasim Akram and Sri Lanka Captain Angelo Mathews

By Madushka Balasuriya

The future of Sri Lanka’s fast bowling contingent looks bright but more mental toughness is required if they are to flourish over a longer period of time, according  to Wasim Akram.

The former Pakistan captain and fast bowling living legend was speaking following a workshop for national players and coaching staff held at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo yesterday. Akram, known widely for his mastery of the art of swing bowling, was glowing in his appraisal of Sri Lanka’s young fast bowlers following his session with several Under 19 and ‘A’ team bowlers.

“I think Sri Lanka’s fast bowling future looks quite bright. What I look for in a bowler is pace and swing. The Sri Lankan Under 19 and A team boys, they all had pace, they just need a little bit of tweaking an I think that’s where I come in. I think the problem nowadays is that fast bowlers are not swinging the ball as much. Pace is important, but if you ask any batsman such as Aravinda, he’ll explain to you that if the bowler is swinging the ball he’s more difficult. You would rather face pace than a medium pacer who swings the ball both ways. You have more of a chance to take a wicket if you swing the ball.

“Most of the bowlers I saw today had pace, 135-140 km. And quite a few were slightly nippier. But the goal of fast bowling is basically how to get batsman out on slow wickets because we do get slow wickets at the international level in the subcontinent. The idea in the long run is to teach them how to believe in themselves and how to outfox the batsman, because in test cricket the batsman is not going to throw his wicket away. That’s why you have to come up with different ideas as a bowler, especially on a slow wicket.”

While Akram was only able to offer his services for a few hours last morning, players will have the chance to pick his brain for longer in the future with the ‘King of Swing’ poised to join the team in several spells over the next two years as a consultant, the timings of which will be dependent on both his availability and the team’s needs. During these periods Akram is expected to serve as a consultant for young fast bowling talents, offer advice to coaches on how to proceed with training programs, and identify and earmark future prospects.

The latter is a role Akram, who himself was identified as a teen prodigy by Imran Khan, has played to great effect in Pakistan spotting early the talents of several of Pakistan’s current crop of pacemen.

“The idea is to work with all the coaches, so that they can follow up on whatever I have been teaching the boys. Eventually the plan is to pinpoint some bowlers who can go on for the country,” he explained. 

“In one of the camps I held in Pakistan a few years ago I spotted [Mohammed] Aamir and I said keep an eye on this boy. And then I said the same with Sohail Tanvir the year after, when I did a camp again for 10 days. And even two years ago I did a camp in Karachi for 10 days and I picked up three or four bowlers who are playing for Pakistan now – Rahat Ali, Imran Khan, Sohail Khan. But I think it’s also down to a bit of luck and you have to an eye to pick talented players. My idea is to give the names to the SL cricket board and they will follow those bowlers through the system.”

SL cricket heading 

in the right direction

Bringing down a former cricketer with the pedigree of Wasim Akram is the latest in a string of initiatives undertaken by Sri Lanka Cricket to hasten the development of the game in the country and structurally and technically position them at the forefront of the sport.

The mover to bring Akram down is the first of a series of brainstorm events to be conducted by International Cricketing Legends in Sri Lanka over the coming months. In addition to this the soon to be unveiled SLC Brain Centre which will offer coaches, selectors and players to unprecedented levels of data analysis, the recruitment of High Performance Manager Simon Willis who is undertaking a holistic revamp of the player development, and the inclusion of former players in the decision making process, Akram believes Sri Lankan Cricket is heading in the right direction.

“At the workshop in the morning there were a lot of bowlers. The great Malinga was there, Kulasekera was there, which shows that everybody wanted to learn. Also a lot of coaches, who were once players that I had played against were there, such as Champaka [Ramanayake], Chaminda Vaas, and Pushpa [Ravindra Pushpakumara]. 

“With the involvement of these former players as well as the likes of Aravinda De Silva I can see that Sri Lankan cricket is in good hands, and I’m honoured to be a part of it.”

Sri Lanka Head Coach Graham Ford also felt that initiatives such as this provide something different in terms of player development that could not be attained elsewhere.

“Over the years I’ve attended a lot of coaching courses and at the end you get your certificate and yes you do benefit from those courses, but there’s nothing like getting a chance to get face to face and get information from an absolute great and a legend of the game. That’s when you really learn. So for all of us today, we’ve all learned a great deal and there will be a lot of discussion about what Wasim had said to us during the day and I’m sure we’ll start to grow our fast bowlers that much quicker as a result.”

Mental toughness a must

One aspect Akram highlighted as a critical aspect of developing high quality fast bowlers is being able to push through certain pain barriers. This he believes is something the modern generation of players have been shielded from when compared to fast bowlers of the past.

“When I came into have a chat with all the bowlers, I told them fast bowling is not easy. Fast bowlers, no matter the age, you will have niggles. You will have sore back, you will have a stiff hamstring, you might feel that your hamstring might get pulled. You might have a sore shoulder if you had to bowl a long spell.” 

“Especially on South African pitches the bowlers will get stiff because of the sand content in the ground and the square is rock hard,” he added in reference to Sri Lanka’s upcoming Test series in South Africa.

“So it’s not an easy job. A little bit of pain or headaches or fever has never stopped me from playing a Test match. I said I was going to play the game and within one spell everything came back to normal. Now what’s happening is when there’s a little niggle players say they’re not playing. That’s the mental toughness that is needed.”

Sri Lanka Cricket Committee Chairman Aravinda De Silva echoed Akram’s thoughts, referencing his own playing career in which he played through recurrent groin strains.

“As we look at modern day games we see a lot of trainers and physios try to make sure that bowlers don’t bowl more than certain number of deliveries, don’t play too many games. I think here we need to strike a balance and really understand why we’re getting most of our bowlers injured in most occasions. We need to understand what they have done in the past to be able to be some of the greatest bowlers ever. 

“There are pain barriers which cricketers have to go through and some of the great bowlers of the past really had pain barriers beyond imagination such as Lillee, Imran and Wasim. Wasim is someone who’s had constant groin injuries which he used to play with and I was a guy who had similar injuries when I was young. I played cricket right through my career with a groin injury and only four years ago I got a surgery done. 

“If we take another instance Arjuna batted through a test with a fractured finger and took us to victory; I think that sort of mental toughness is what we require and that’s the mentally we’re trying to instil in these youngsters by bringing in some of these legends and giving their insight.”

Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe