Cricket Xtra: Mohammed Shami proves his mettle

Ajit Vijaykumar 05:44 08/08/2016
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  • Comeback trail: Mohammed Shami.

    No one wants to endure pain, especially if there is an easier way out. The task becomes trickier if rewards are not guaranteed at the end of the road. Which is why I am amazed to see fast bowlers continue to push their bodies beyond breaking point in the Test arena.

    Mohammed Shami came back into the Indian Test team after a year and a half on the sidelines following knee surgery. For a fast bowler, a knee injury is one of the worst you can get, as bad as a shoulder or back injury. The damage that fast bowling does to the body is inherently intense, with bruised toes and bad backs an occupational hazard.

    Test cricket accentuates the difficulties and for a pacer to willingly put himself through it deserves special credit because he doesn’t have to.

    Limited overs cricket and T20 leagues have made life slightly easier for cricketers. No longer do they need to play first-class cricket in England or other countries during the off season to make decent money.

    The IPL and Big Bash offer more than enough cash in a handful of seasons for a decent cricketers to retire happily. It’s tough to take decisions that might jeopardise those options.

    Shami is probably the only fast bowler in India who can walk into all three teams and it’s no wonder he is rated very highly by the senior players and team management.

    While Ishant Sharma is quicker and, arguably, fitter, Shami is a more complete bowler and has that rare ability to make things happen. So as he played back-to-back Tests against the West Indies and bowled his heart out, he was taking a big risk with his knee.

    It would have been easy for him to ease into the format and see how the body responds. But Shami went the other way.

    After the second Test in Jamaica, coach Anil Kumble had this to say about the 25-year-old: “I thought he bowled the best spell that I have seen, a fast bowler running in and right through the Test. Even in the last session he was running and bowling at 140 (kmph). That says a lot about his fitness and motivation.”

    Shami bowled 30 overs in the first Test and 29 in the second. Whether things go as smoothly in the future is unknown but Shami has shown great character by putting his body on the line,the same way Ryan Harris did for Australia.

    The now retired pacer famously clinched a series win in South Africa in 2014 despite being unable to even bend down as loose cartilage floated around his right knee. Interestingly, Shami did something similar for his country at the big stage earlier as well.

    During the World Cup in 2015, Shami used to get fluids sucked out of his damaged knee before every match as neither he nor the management wanted to disrupt the momentum the team had generated. The downside to that move was a long time away from cricket following surgery, including more than a month on crutches.

    Harris picked up just 113 wickets from 27 Tests as he was a late starter in the format. Shami has 55 from 14. No one can say how long Shami will last in the longest format but what can be said with certainty is the heart shown by the Bengal quick will linger on in the minds of fans.

    BCCI strikes back

    Despite being one of the most powerful cricket boards, the BCCI have been forced to endure all the barbs directed at it by the Supreme Court of the country as the judiciary try to clean up the system.

    I have maintained that while the court’s intentions are noble, the course of action it has chosen is unnecessarily harsh. It is trying to fix things that aren’t necessarily broken.

    The BCCI too knows it and it has decided to take the fight to the opposition. The board had appointed former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju as head of a four-member panel to ‘interact’ with the court-appointed RM Lodha committee that came up with the initial road map which would change the way the BCCI functions.

    Justice Katju is one of the foremost legal authorities in the country. His declaration that “what the Supreme Court has done is unconstitutional and illegal” can’t be dismissed easily.

    It is sad that legal matters have gained so much importance in Indian cricket. But the reality is the actions of the apex court threaten to uproot the foundations of the cricketing structure. All attempts have to be made to stop the baby being thrown out with the bathwater.

    The BCCI will not go down without a fight and those running the game in India can still hope to keep the board’s structure intact. Some changes must definitely be made to have more transparency and accountability.

    But if it can be done in a less violent manner, it will be more acceptable.

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