There is no doubt that if at all India is really passionate about any sport it is none other than the gentleman’s game “Cricket”. And that tells you why the talk of the town is whether Virat would be able to better Sachin’s record or not and not Sunil Chhetri continuing the legacy that was started by someone like Baichung Bhutia who was the lone fighter for India in the International football arena until he retired.
Therefore, in a game as popular as cricket, it is but obvious that the national team is expected to do well most of the time. While the nation can boast of producing world class batsman like Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, etc. and quality spinners including the likes of Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Anil Kumble , Harbhajan Singh and now a wicket-keeper batsman Dhoni; in its contribution to the art of fast bowling, India lags far behind the other Test Playing Nations. Why?
In India, where cricket is no less than a religion, one is bound to expect excellence in all the departments of that particular game. Add to that population of 1.25 billion doesn’t seem to be strengthening the case for lack of genuine fast bowlers in India. There is no doubt that India has produced good medium pacers and the contribution of Kapil Dev as a fast bowler cannot be overlooked. With 434 Test wickets and an average of 29.64 he is one of the very best that the world cricket has produced, leaving apart his heroics with the bat and as a captain.
Zaheer Khan is also an Indian fast bowling legend of the game who played a key role in India’s 2011 World Cup victory. Many more Indian bowlers promised a lot at the international level at their initial arrival but gradually disappeared as their speed and accuracy declined. Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, Manoj Prabhakar, Chetan Sharma, etc, were absolutely amazing talents yet they couldn’t be like the Imrans or the Waqars or the Shoaibs or the Lees.
One of the key reasons why a kid is more attracted towards batting in India rather than bowling is the way we celebrate our heroes and the kind of role models available to us. What Sachin Tendulkar means for Indian batting; Zaheer Khan does for Indian bowling yet Sachin’s 100 or a 50 gets more attention than the fifers or the breakthroughs produced by Khan or Pathan in crucial situations. As children we look upto someone like Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Azhar as our role models. But bowlers seldom find the kind of inspirations that they would want to find in any Indian bowler.
Thus a few more of Khans and Kapil Devs and Srinaths are required to inspire a new generation of kids to become fast bowlers. With Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, M. Shami, Ishant Sharma clocking speeds in 140s and being somewhat successful in troubling the batsman, India seems to be going in the right direction. But will it break the stereotype that India cannot produce genuine wicket taking fast bowlers? Time holds the answer.
