27 August,2011 06:39 AM IST | | Harit N Joshi
Many in India's cricketing fraternity believe that the National Cricket Academy (NCA) should now be calledu00a0 'Mechanical Cricket Academy'. "NCA believes in copybook coaching. They are very orthodox in their approach. Rather than solving a problem, they only complicate it," an NCA source told MiD DAY yesterday.
Kamran Khan
The Bangalore-based academy has come under heavy criticism in the wake of India's debacle in the Test series against England recently. The source cited an example of Azamgarh pacer Kamran Khanu00a0-- one of the finds of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2009.
"Kamran is a classic example in the recent times. He came to the NCA after he was reported for a suspect action in the IPL II in South Africa. The pacer was made to bowl side-on which changed his style and rhythm completely. The poor fellow followed everything in order to continue playing cricket.
"But he drastically lost pace, which was his principal weapon. His speed dipped to around 90kmph. He also lost his confidence. The way he was handled was very depressing," the source pointed out.The source, however, informedu00a0 that Kamran's revival started when Rajasthan Royals' technical director Zubin Bharucha took him under his tutelage.
Australia to the rescue
"They (RR) sent him to the Centre of Excellence (CoE) based in Australia to rectify his action and get back his pace. The important thing was that they did not change his natural action despite rectifying it," the source revealed. Kamran took nine wickets in eight matches for Rajasthan Royals before switching over to Pune Warriors in the last IPL.
"Kamran needed special attention because of an unusual bend in his bowling arm. He has a slinging action because he fell from a tree during his childhood and that resulted in his right arm being bent. And within a few months, Kamran was back at his best," the source said before adding, "that's the difference between the NCA and the Australian centre. They (CoE) treat each case differently. They understand body dynamics really well."
Kamran was unavailable for comment despite repeated efforts. NCA director of operations Sandeep Patil also refused to comment when MiD DAY contacted him yesterday. "My contract with the BCCI does not permit me to speak to the media," he said.
