How has the season been so far for Mumbai?
What we tried in the last one and half years was to identify players who could fit the bill to play for Mumbai with the temperament they had. Last year, though, was not that bad. It was pretty much a young side and rebuilding sessions were going on. Today we find ourselves in a situation wherein the last year’s experience that these players gained has proved to be useful.
This year we decided not to chop and change. We thought that if a cricketer can make his debut for Mumbai, he should be good enough to be given at least six innings. I have spoken to them along with my committee that this is the 20 from which the team will be chosen to play for Mumbai. As a result of which they were not afraid of playing games where they needed to play for themselves. I must say that overall it’s been a very good performance. It’s not been a Shreyas Iyer performance like last year. This year almost everyone has participated in Mumbai’s performance so far.
Eight league matches, four wins. Would you have liked more wins?
I think 35 points is a very good takeaway from these games. We had a tough draw this season. We played Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh and the other sides were also good. There were times totals of 500 or 600 were not enough to defend. So flat tracks did not help is going the full distance of games. Having said this, Mumbai has to look afresh and harder at its spin bowling department.
Should the home association have say in pitch preparation?
The home association can have some say, but the representatives (BCCI pitch and grounds committee) supervise pitch preparation and certify it. This is very important. After all, the game has to be played the right way. In my personal view, a fast track is a good pitch, a dust bowl is not a good pitch. When you say an under-prepared wicket, a good and fast wicket cannot be an under-prepared wicket. Some matches played by other teams ended in two and three days; that’s not the way forward for India’s domestic cricket.
I am not an expert on making wickets. The Wankhede always had a lot of life and bounce in it. The second day was good for batting. From the third day it started to turn, but not vicious turn. It had bounce, seam and turn, that’s important about the Wankhede. This year it has become a belter and that’s one of the reasons Mumbai is struggling in the spin department. Fast bowlers have bowled on flat tracks, but somehow or the other, modern day cricket is such that the batsmen take risk and are able to belt the ball all over the ground. This has made bowling a lot more difficult proposition. Batsmen are not afraid to step out and hit the ball over the fielders and as a result spin bowling has lost its sting.
Is limited overs cricket the reason for the diminishing skills of the spin bowlers?
The SG ball starts moving after 15 or 20 overs and hence every team is forced to play three seamers. There is the odd spinner in the side. The SG ball has made a huge difference to domestic cricket. Long spells have been bowled by seamers in domestic tournaments and that’s made the big change. Spinners don’t seem to be important in a four-day game unless they are given dust bowls.
Shardul Thakur has taken enormous load in the circumstances.
He did not have much support last year because Dhawal Kulkarni was not fit. He has support now. Dhawal has missed a few games because of fitness issues. He was rusty in the beginning of the season. Now he has worked on his bowling technique and he has taken wickets. Shardul has taken the brunt of the attack, but he’s a young and strong man and at 24, if you are not going to take the brunt of bowling, then who’s going to take it.
Is Kulkarni weighed down by not being considered for the national team?
It could be playing on his mind, but one has to work hard and prove the selectors wrong. I don’t want to discuss the India issue. But there is nothing like picking wickets and prove a point. Once you do that, no one can stop you. The season is long and Dhawal should not get disappointed. The present Indian selection committee is looking at people to come back. The competition has been so intense that only 15 can be selected in a squad.
Three left-arm spinners played this season, suspect action issues, a part-time off-spinner taking wickets and no trace of a wrist spinner…
We are disappointed with Mumbai’s spin department because the guys (Vishal Dabholkar and Ankush Jaiswal) who have picked wickets have been reported for suspect actions. All this happens because of certain type of cricket they play. I think the MCA on its own should have taken firm action when bowlers with suspect actions were brought to their notice. The umpires need to look at these cases closely. They play in local tournaments and everything seems to be hunky dory. The problem with Dabholkar is that when he pushes the ball there’s some degree of discomfort with his action. What happens when we pick him again and the captain wants him to bowl to a flatter trajectory, the question is “can he do that”! There is no time for us to defend that. Given a particular scenario when the batsman is tonking you, what will you do? Will he (Dabholkar) bowl with an action that will not be questioned. We have no answers. There are two or three left-arm spinners in Mumbai and they will be seen in action next year.
The main problem is in the off-spinning department. My team can only select what’s available to us. I am going to ask the coaches as to what they have done in the last few years. The MCA has to look at this seriously and ask questions like are the coaching methods correct? Where are the off-spinners in the country? It’s really surprising.
In the past, Bombay had all-rounders who batted at No 7 and bowled 30 overs, like Jimmy Diwadkar and Ramesh Powar. That’s the reason they could be included in the side. Today we are not able to pick bowler all-rounders. There has to be a very concentrated effort to find a solution to this issue in the six months after the completion of the season. Powar had the guile and that seems to be lacking among the current practitioners of off-break bowling. So ask him to teach the guys how to bowl, not clinical spin bowling as taught by coaches, but practical spin bowling in situations.
The MCA should use the spinners – P owar and Nilesh Kulkarni – who knew the tricks of the trade and ask them to impart the knowledge of how to take wickets. No one can coach a Ranji Trophy bowler anymore. Coaching can be done only up to the age of 20-21. But there has to be willingness among these players to give back and everything doesn’t boil down to money. If Mumbai has made what you are today, you should also be able to give back to Mumbai without looking at financial considerations.
The MCA let go Wasim Jaffer, but Akhil Herwadkar appears to have fulfilled the promise he showed a few years ago…
Wasim has been a great cricketer. I would think that Wasim would walk into any Mumbai team of the past 75 years as an opening batsman. But there is a time one has to go also. And Wasim said that he needs to give opportunity to young cricketers. Over the last five years he has imparted knowledge to our players. It’s not a question of letting him go, probably he was also looking for a professional career.
Mumbai needs to look at four genuine opening batsmen. At the moment we have one or two, but beyond that what! There seems to be a struggle. Thank God our opening batsmen are doing well, but what if they fail consistently. The selectors have shown immense faith in his (Herwadkar’s) talent. We have waited for his initial failures, but we knew that this boy has lot of talent. He’s played for India U-19. There is a case in point for Armaan Jaffer. He has a great future. If he bats the way he is batting, Mumbai has found somebody. Mumbai’s batting is not a concern at all at this point in time. There is tremendous competition for the middle order.
Shreyas Iyer seems to have changed the batting dynamics. Modern batsmen are all fearless. And with Shreyas scoring several hundred runs in the last two seasons, his confidence level must be very high. What one has to see is his temperament when he’s not doing well. But he’s doing superbly. They say after the first season, one gets exposed, Shreyas has notbeen. He’s not changed his game. But the selectors and Chandu Pandit have given confidence to the players. They all know that they will get six chances at least. Cricket is a game of form.
Does Jay Bista have it in him to establish himself as an opener?
He is a very talented cricketer. A guy who scores a doubles hundred and three hundreds in BCCI’s under-23 competition has to have talent. But as he grows in senior cricket he will also have to pick the right balls to hit. The bowlers are clever and field placings are clever and the SG ball does a lot. So his maturity will come and the coach Chandu Pandit will coach him properly. We will also talk to him. He will have to choose the right balls, but without restricting himself the shots he plays. We will tell him to go out and play shots and not slash that everything that comes his way. Look at Armaan Jaffer, the more you see him, the more you are convinced that he’s a top bracket player. When he gets his opportunity is a matter of time.
Sarfaraz Khan opted to leave Mumbai but Suryakumar Yadav decided to stay put with Mumbai. There were reports that he may leave Mumbai
No selector can give guarantee to anyone or no guarantees are asked for. When Sarfaraz left I was not in India. He’s a highly talented cricketer, but I don’t want to delve into why he left Mumbai. Surya has always been a Mumbai man.
Siddhesh Lad too has grown this season. He worked a lot with Ricky Ponting, Mumbai Indians head coach…
He’s batting at 6, but he deserves to bat higher. The middle order is so strong – 3, 4, 5, 6. They have contributed. Siddhesh has shared the dressing room with Ponting for 50 or 60 days, and I am sure he must have picked his brain all the time. IPL has made a huge difference to Indian cricketers, the batsmen are fearless and play shots. They hit the first ball for a six. No one even tried it in our era.
Aditya Tare seems to have settled down as captain?
It’s a completely young Mumbai team last year and we did not know whom to appoint captain, because none of them had led their club sides. Tare seems to have come out as a man with a good head on his shoulders. He analyses the game well and is a very good communicator.
It seems to be a case of the Mumbai selectors, coach and captain looking at one direction?
I want to put it on record. After a long, long time everybody is moving in the same direction. Our selection committee meetings are meetings of discussion, not arguments. Winning is the ultimate, but not everything. I am looking to build a strong base for Mumbai’s future. It may take two or three years to win the competition. If we win it this time, it’s happy days.
Should MCA start the Lifetime Achievement Award?
Why not! Better late than never. I think Mumbai has taken the lead in so many things. I am sure it will be a good thing because Mumbai has so many players that other States do not have and who are deserving of this award. They may not have played for the country. Paddy Shivalkar is the first player who comes to mind. Good idea.
