Indians to train under McGrath
Indian pacers couldn’t have asked for better facilities to prepare for the allimportant tour to Australia where they will play four Test matches, a tri- series before the 50- over World Cup. The Indian cricket board and MRF Pace Foundation on Tuesday signed a five- year partnership to groom and fine tune fast bowling talent in the country. The tieup means the pacers will train under the most successful fast bowler in Test cricket, Glenn McGrath and also get access to the pace school’s facilities in Chennai.
Brijesh Patel, director of the National Cricket Academy, said Indian bowlers would benefit a lot when they train under McGrath. “The Aussie has played all formats of the game and can definitely add a lot of value to the tieup. BCCI is not just looking at youngsters to train at MRF but also want our experienced bowlers to spend time with Glenn. Injury prevention and fitness are the areas our fast bowlers have to concentrate on. I am sure the tieup will help us produce many fast bowlers in the future,” he said.
Brijesh said the board would also send its nation- al coaches to the Pace Foundation to interact with McGrath. “We definitely need our coaches there because they also have to learn from Glenn’s experience. A few years ago we had a programme for coaches under Dennis Lille which was a big success. We need to have similar programmes regularly,” he added.
McGrath said he would work closely with all coaches for the betterment of Indian cricket.
Rahul Mammen, wholetime director of MRF Ltd, said bowlers would be divided into two categories — Elite and Probables. “The training will be in batches. The Elite group will include bowlers who are on contract with the BCCI. A maximum of 10 trainees will participate in this camp, the duration of which will be two weeks. The selected pace bowlers can attend the camp during all three visits of McGrath in a year,” said Rahul.
The Probables category will include 20 upcoming pace bowlers identified and shortlisted by the national selectors. The trainees will be split into two groups of 10 each and attend the camp in May-June and July- August.
Varun Aaron has already started his training on Monday under McGrath as a part of the tie- up.