Amol Muzumdar has played domestic cricket for nearly 20
years. He was the record holder for the most runs in the Ranji trophy up until
6 months ago. (Wasim Jaffer broke Amol’s record last year). Many experts still
believe he is one of the finest batsmen never to play for India. Amol was kind enough to have a nice dinner
and share few of his thoughts on the modern game.
Modern Day Fitness
Regime
The young bowlers are breaking down because there simply not
bowling enough. They spend so much time in the gym working on all sorts of
muscles but the only way you develop the correct muscles is by bowling. Also in
the past a slight niggle would go under the radar but with the amount of
support staff and fitness tests it hard to go under the radar.
The person that has played the most cricket in the last 5
years is MS Dhoni. I can assure you he is rarely in the gym and he is India’s
fittest player. What does that say about the modern day training methods?
It is important to have balance and the best example is
Dravid. Rahul only works on the muscles he needs for running between wickets
and his forearms or wrists required for batting. That should be the key element to modern day
fitness.
Indian struggle on
Bouncy wickets
When I started off as a youngster we played a fair bit on
matting wickets growing up. It helped us improve our back foot play but
nowadays in Mumbai there aren’t too many matting wickets. Best example is Wasim
Jaffer, he is probably the best back foot player I have seen in India and that
is because Wasim grew up on matting wickets for Anjuman Islam (school in
Mumbai).
Although these days there are Emerging and Under 19 tours
overseas but the young players do not get enough exposure at a younger age with
a bounce.
One other reason is the wickets in India just are not
conducive enough to bounce apart from couple of them.
Domestic pitches in
India
Absolute no doubt the wicket at Wankhede is the best in
India. It has always provided equal opportunity for bowlers and batsmen. It is often the case the domestic pitches go
under the radar but the one at Wankhede and perhaps Mohali have always been
taken care of and hence have been great wickets over the last 20 years.
It is good the administrators are giving attention to pitches
but it can be difficult to change a nature of wicket due to adverse conditions
we get across India.
Due to different pitches we get in India I also believe an
Indian domestic player is more complete player than any other domestic batsmen
in say England, South Africa or Australia.
Rohit Sharma
Rohit is a phenomenal talent and I think in the next year he
will show it to the world. If you observe a lot of his dismissals they are due
to him playing early at the ball, that shows he picks up the ball so early and
sometimes it takes time to adjust. The
other positive thing is he always looks to hit straight. The last ball he
smashed for six in the Deccan chargers (Deccan Charges vs Mumbai Indians) match
if you observer closely he plays the shot with a straight bat – when in a situation with 1 ball 6 to get most
cricketers would go across the line but Rohit did not – he went with his
natural shot. Class player always has time and Rohit seems to have ample of
time.
Competitive cricket
in Holland (During the off season Amol plays cricket in Holland for 4months)
There are 8 clubs and each club is allowed 3 international
players. There are players from South Africa, England, Australia – so it is
competitive. It also gives exposures to the cricketers in Holland and there is
plenty of talent coming through. There
are 4 turf wickets and 4 synthetic wickets. The synthetic wickets the ball
doesn’t move off the seam but there is good bounce. The Holland cricket
association last year sent there emerging players to New Zealand for a
development camp for 4 months. It shows the administrators are keen to develop
the sport.
Famous Cricket Story
you have heard.
When I was doing my Level 2 coaching in England I had to privilege
to chat with former West Indian Garfield Sobers. While teaching kids the leg glance and when
one kid couldn’t get it right he said to me I wish Collie Smith could show them
the leg glance. Then he told me about the talent of Collie Smith, he said I had
seen Collie play some remarkable shots and one of them was the behind back leg
glance. Once the ball had pitched on leg or middle, Collie would get inside the
line of the ball and then instead bringing the bat in from of his body he would
let go off the top hand and then hit then hit the ball behind his back with
towards square leg. Collie could execute it perfectly just about every time in
the nets.
Best spinner in India
Murali Kartik has been the best spinner for a while but in
the last 6months it seems that age has caught up to him. Fingers on a finger
spinner eventually get tired and spinners aren’t able get the revolutions on
the ball. In India we primary get finer spinners so seniors like Harbhajan and
Kartik have past their prime with the amount of bowling they have done. In terms of modern day spinner Ashwin fits
the bill well because he suits the modern playing conditions. In modern
condition I mean he is best at saving runs which leads to getting wickets.
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