Lucknow: As one of the genuine swing bowlers, Praveen Kumar’s India career was fairly short. Now the chief of Uttar Pradesh’s senior selection committee, he plans to start a bowling academy in home town Meerut with focus on unearthing swing bowlers.
Kumar hopes to be the chief mentor of the academy, which if all goes well, would be launched next month.
“Everything is ready with all modern facilities. There would be two sections at the academy, one section exclusively for swing bowling training. I hope to get the academy started by Diwali,” Kumar told HT on Saturday.
“I want the art of swing bowling to flourish through the new generation.
“There is plenty of bowling talent in Uttar Pradesh. I want more swing bowlers come up in UP after me and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The academy will also help stop migration of talented cricketers from UP to other states like West Bengal,” said Kumar, referring to the migration of UP’s own Manoj Prabhakar and Mohammed Shami to Delhi and Bengal respectively.
“Swing bowling isn’t an art, it’s engineering where one knows it well to give a twist to your delivery. Now, I hardly see young bowlers get it to swing in all formats. There are plenty of pacers in domestic cricket, but most focus on pace and bouncers.”
Kumar finished with 112 international wickets, including 27 in just six Tests. He has spotted talent for the upcoming domestic season in the ongoing UPTwenty20 League in Lucknow.
“There are a few talented swing bowlers, including Lucknow’s Naman Tewari, who was part of the India U-19 squad at the last youth World Cup. He will certainly be part of the UP side this domestic season,” said Kumar, who retired from all forms of cricket in 2018.
Recalling his early cricket career, Kumar, 38, said he worked on swing bowling on his own. “I used to shadow practice swing bowling at home while watching swing legends like Waqar Younis on TV. I was always keen to know the hand-eye coordination of a swing bowler and it helped shape my bowling style.
“I didn’t even have a coach or guru to teach me the art of swing bowling, I developed it on my own,” said Kumar, who is among the applicants for the national selectors’ post from Central Zone.
“For swing bowling, a bowler must have patience and the ability to experiment. I tell youngsters that you bowl 45 minutes as per your choice, but do experiment in your bowling the next 15 minutes during one hour training daily. It will surely help improve bowling techniques.”
Kumar, who took 267 first-class wickets at an average of 23.61 from 66 matches, said coaches in domestic cricket don’t tell trainees how to improve swing bowling.
“Nowadays, coaches tell a bowler about his mistakes, but not how to rectify them. In Meerut, there are over 200 seam bowlers at various academies, they see me and Bhuvi as their idols,” he said.
“For the first time I was told about the knuckle delivery by Sachin (Tendulkar) paaji. I even took wickets in international cricket by bowling with just one finger. It was difficult in the beginning, but after a few attempts I mastered it. It was South Africa pacer Charl Langeveldt who introduced the art of knuckle delivery to world cricket.”