BOMBAY, 15 July 2005 — Perhaps, never before in the history of Indian cricket had so many converged at one place to try and better the prospects of a national side.
Coming close on the heels of an unprecedented hype over the appointment of coach Greg Chappell, was a rush of not a few renowned and not so known specialists at a short-duration training camp for probables at Bangalore.
The camp is being held prior to the selection of the team for the tri-series in Sri Lanka later this month. Besides trainer Gregory Allen King and physiotherapist John Gloster, who are not new to the Indian team, there was a rare appointment of a kinesiologist in Dr. Charles Krebs.
One is yet to gather fully what his exact field of specialization is, other than from a very loose use of the term “biomechanic.”
It is understood that one more bio-mechanic man is expected to join the team shortly.
Then Gregory King’s mother, Glenys, who is supposed to be an expert in hatha yoga, spent a few days at the camp, as the son put the trainees through special sessions of the ancient training method.
Henceforth, any reference to Geoff Boycott’s mom by fellow commentators would never be a joke, I suppose.
Another person who was roped in would make you hold your breath.
He is aerospace scientist Dr. S. M. Omkar. No one has been able to clarify the rationale for his presence at the training.
As another yoga expert, was he there to help our players’ reluctant dives in the field to get propelled further than usual?
We now come to the ex-players.
Dennis Lillee supervised the exclusive sessions for pace bowlers during which India’s own Javagal Srinath was present.
Lillee is a frequent visitor to India as a director of the MRF Pace Foundation. Srinath’s appointment as the Indian team’s bowling coach is still being debated.
The highly busy training session which concentrated on physical fitness of players has gone through without half-a-dozen of the leading players absent from the camp.
Actually these are the players who need trimming the most as they are known to skip regular exercise during the team training sessions.
Some of the players were away in England and may be joining now, just a few days before the squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka is selected.
It is only now that the newly appointed coach Greg Chappell is going to come into the picture. There will be just five days of nets and fielding practice.
Of these two will be taken away by the matches that are going to be played between two team selected from among the probables. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and the first signs of competition in an international arena will reveal how good the training has been.
One only hopes it will not be a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.
