Intense county stint may have done Zaheer in: Srinath

Former India pacer Javagal Srinath today squarely blamed Zaheer Khan’s...

Former India pacer Javagal Srinath today squarely blamed Zaheer Khan’s intense English county stint — he played for Worcestershire as replacement for Australia’s Nathan Bracken and also for Surrey — for the aggravation of his ankle injury.

“I think his bowling more than 500 overs in the English county league took its toll. A similar workload when he was just 21 would have been a different story. He would probably have been able to take it in his stride. But at 29 it becomes difficult,” Srinath said while announcing the kick-off to the Gatorade Pacers 2008 event, which starts tomorrow in Hyderabad. This year’s edition will witness 1000 school and colleges from seven cities.

The Baroda pacer, India’s pace spearhead, has been forced to fly back after his dodgy ankle failed to heal and Punjab’s VRV Singh has gone over as replacement.

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The ongoing Sydney Test has missed both. Incidentally, even Sreesanth could not go because his shoulder injury has not yet healed properly.

Such incidents may have shown up Indian pacers as injury prone, and Srinath was disappointed with such injuries. He said that team physio John Gloster should set standards himself.

“Why they are breaking down so often is something the only physio can answer. I can understand his frustration as most of the pacers have got injured at the same time, but as the physio, he himself should be setting the standard. I think you should not wait for the injuries before taking action,” he said, indicating that preventive measures may have fallen short of desirable levels.

Srinath agreed that there was a lack of bench strength as far as pacers are concerned, “but Ravi Shastri is working towards creating the bench strength at NCA. He is currently working with 20-25 pacers and they will be staying there only and soon we will have a quality pace bowling bench strength,” he said.