Srinath, shouldering a painful burden on the run-up to success

Baig advocated to his trainees a smooth run-up, pushing of the right hip very quickly by the right leg at the delivery which automatically brings with it the bowling shoulder and a fine follow through.

No wonder, Srinath, India’s spearhead, who is a shoulder bowler, suffers from a rotator cuff tear and there is a big question mark over his future. There is a striking similarity between Srinath and the ageing Wasim Akram, who cut down his run-up of his younger days and uses his shoulder instead for extracting pace. Both are suffering a similar fate.

On the contrary, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall had a fine run-up and a smooth transitional delivery. There was never a trace of exertion on their faces while bowling. Waqar Younis, indeed, has a smooth run-up. But he has suffered, and will, from back pain because of wrong placement of feet at the delivery.

‘‘If you have a good run-up, fifty percent of the problem would be solved. Usually, for a side-on bowler the pace comes from the run-up. He uses his body for speed. There is less of exertion and the outcome is huge. A front-on bowler, who has a whipping action, is bound to use his shoulder,’’ said pace guru TA Sekhar, the coach at the MRF Pace Foundation.

‘‘A whipping action puts more strain on the shoulder. Srinath is more of an arm bowler than a body bowler. We always felt that he will have problems with his shoulder. Probably, he could not have used the gym because of the tight schedule,’’ said Sekhar, who is hopeful Srinath would come back.

‘‘He cannot be written off. Ambrose and Jeff Thompson had similar problems, but they came back. It depends on the extent of the injury, rehabilitation and on the player himself,’’ he said.

Many doctors and physiotherapists have offered to treat Srinath’s problem. But isn’t prevention of injury better than cure ?

‘‘It is important that bowlers develop a running action, which is mechanically sound and rhythmic. Neglect of gymnastics and agility and mobility work in formative years is the root problem for later year injuries,’’ said AJ de Souza, who, like Ken Bosen, is one of the few knowledgeable athletic coaches in India.

‘‘Speed is the outcome of fluid motion without wasting energy. Time spent in the air through a leap means loss of ground contact and is a direct loss of momentum. The momentum gained from the speedy approach is to suffer a 25 percent loss through a cross leg jump at delivery stride and is no more powerful than the slow bowler’s trip in to toss. Srinath tends to stop at the delivery stride, loses momentum and uses his shoulder to generate pace,’’ he said.

‘‘The javelin throw technique is a carbon copy of fast bowling action. The Finnish cross step method corresponds to the side-on delivery action in bowling. The outfielders’s throw-in from the boundary line into the wicketkeeper’s glove matches a javelin field trial. The close resemblance of javelin throw to fast bowling is evident in as much as medium and fast bowlers achieved honours in the event like Binny, Thompson and de Villiers,’’ de Souza said.

Ed Tucker, an American coach who spent time watching Finnish training methods, says in an article in Track and Field News that it is not strength but power which counts.‘‘Strength means the maximum force applied in a single muscular contraction, but power is the ability to release maximum muscular force in the shortest period of time. The same parallel can be drawn to a fastball pitcher in baseball. When the resistance is low, it is the speed of delivery that counts, not the strength of the throwing arm,’’ he said.

Finland, a small country which has been a leader in javelin, devised a programme that works specifically on the power of their throwers. The single most important aspect of their training is the six month pre-season training with diminishing weighted balls. It begins with a five pound ball and after two months it is reduced to four and then to three etc. It is designed to develop the back muscles, shoulder muscles, strengthen the elbow and in turn develop all muscles involved when throwing. Taking six months to allow the entire body and mainly the throwing muscles time to adjust to the overload results in physiological benefit.

Isn’t there a lesson here for a fast bowler ? Srinath, not a natural athlete like Marshall or Holding, in all likelihood, must have neglected to strengthen his shoulder muscles. It is to be seen whether MRF Pace Foundation would take Srinath, who in the strictest terms was not a regular trainee of the Pace Foundation, like the father accepted the prodigal son in the Biblical parable.

But the advise to those youngsters who want to make Srinath as their role model and imitate his action is: don’t ever !