Mumbai cricket has always been known to produce batsmen. Fast bowling has never been its forte. It went on to throw some seam bowling talents like Salil Ankola, Paras Mhambrey, Abey Kuruvilla, Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan. But with the retirement of Agarkar, injuries to Khan and Dhawal Kulkarni's unavailability due to national commitments, Mumbai is lacking a genuine pace spearhead.
In an attempt to fine one, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has come up with a raw talent search for tennis ball bowlers from the age group of 16 to 19 years. The selection will run across Mumbai and Thane starting at Sporting Club Committee ground, Central Maidan, Thane on May 7 and 8 from 9 am onwards.
So what is the criteria for selection?
"He needs to be quick. Really quick," Lalchand Rajput, chairman of the Sharad Paward Indoor Cricket Academy committee who is the brain behind this idea, said.
"We are lacking good fast bowlers. And this is just a way of looking at raw talent. There are a lot of good fast bowlers around and a huge pool of talent available in tennis ball cricket. We will find some and groom them. Even if we get one or two, it will be an achievement," he added.
"We are basically looking at speed and not line and length at the moment. Once they get selected they will be under the watchful eyes of our fast bowling coaches in our academy and will be worked upon on various areas. During selection, there will be one selector from the academy and one from the MCA," said Rajput, who is also a managing committee member.
MCA joint secretary, Dr PV Shetty, elaborated on the process.
"We will have trials at four-five places like Bhiwandi, Thane, Palghar, Dahanu, New Bombay, Dadar and South Mumbai. We will pick 15-20 good prospects before grooming them at our academy in BKC," said Shetty.
Shetty said the MCA is going to come up with more such schemes to find new talent.
"It was Indoor Academy committee's idea which was liked and passed by the managing committee. We need good fast bowlers, and hence we are going ahead with this. We will come up with more interesting schemes to unearth some new talent," Shetty added.
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