NEWS
Follow UsUmran Malik has hit the floor of Indian cricket in a fashion never seen before. There were bowlers who could clock 145Kph but maintaining the pace while still having a lot of wickets to show for your name needed some extraordinary zing. However, injuries are the occupational hazard of a pace bowler and a little bit of wayward management might put a dent in a promising career, waiting to be explored at the international level.
Munaf Patel, who once used to be India’s fastest bowler, shared his own experiences of being a proper fast bowler and what the BCCI need to do in order to retain a prized talent like Malik.
“My advice as a 21-year-old to Umran would be - Jaao aur josh se ball phenko. Yehi hai,” Munaf Patel wrote in his column for Indian Express. “Watching him run into bowl, I feel like bowling too. It is so good to see such kids getting opportunities in the IPL. The scouts that go out to spot talent… It feels good that the world’s biggest league is benefitting our players, especially those who come from small places. Otherwise, who knows how he would have come in and where he would have played. Now he is the league’s fastest bowler, and that makes me very happy.
“The BCCI should not wait for him to perform in the domestic circuit and then bring him into the Indian team. You take him as the 17th member of the squad if you want, but do take him along. He will learn about the culture and various situations and will learn to adapt if he stays around with everyone. It is something that has to be done,” Patel added.
Given the fact that Malik has come from a small village in Jammu, infrastructure was not readily available for all. Patel hopes that the BCCI takes good care of him in the coming days, so as to ensure Malik lasts long in the Indian cricketing ecosystem.
“When I first came on to the scene, social media wasn’t as big as it is now but there was certainly excitement around. It is a natural reaction if somebody comes up from a small place where there is no infrastructure. Umran has come up the same way I did. You need to take good care of him. He will last long only if the BCCI does that.
“If you see, Zaheer Khan had also arrived as a 145-plus bowler, Ashish Nehra was there, I was there, VRV Singh was there, Ishant Sharma was also quick when he came in. At present, you have guys like Umesh Yadav, and Navdeep Saini. There needs to be a system in place where there is a restriction on the number of matches a fast bowler plays in a year.
“Now, of course, technology has advanced in terms of physiotherapy and training, but still you will have to take care of him. If you use him too much, then chances are he will suffer a big injury and that means he will then have to start cutting down on his pace. But right now, he is bowling like soney pe suhaaga,” the former Baroda and Mumbai pacer concluded.
