English fast bowling guru Frank Tyson surprised by Kerala Seamer's drastic drop in pace
English fast bowling guru Frank Tyson surprised by Kerala Seamer's drastic drop in pace
Former England pace terror Frank 'Typhoon' Tyson is surprised that India's pace attack has proved so fragile on the current tour of England. Tyson (81) knows a bit of Indian fast bowling talent. In the early 1990s, he spearheaded the Bombay Cricket Association-Mafatlal Bowling Scheme and later on, worked at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore with courses for coaches.
Jun 13, 1955: Frank Tyson bowls against South Africa. Pic/Getty Images
Tyson, now based in Queensland, Australian, was astounded by S Sreesanth's drop in pace. "At one stage, I thought India had a decent set of fast bowlers. The spirit seems to have gone out,"u00a0 Tyson to MiD DAY from Australia yesterday morning.
Tyson in 1953. PIC/Getty Images
"Sreesanth is not half the pace he was. I watched them take the field yesterday and they looked a downhearted lot. I was listening to the commentary and they were saying how the Indian bowlers were bowling just above medium pace," said Tyson.
Jaded Sreesanth
"Sreesanth was a lot quicker two or three years ago. He gives me the impression he is jaded. He is pretty much resting on his previous laurels. He perhaps needs a rocket up his b**. He must find some motivation from somewhere," said Tyson.
Medium pace won't fetch bowlers success, Tyson insisted. "First of all, you don't go into a Test being a containment sort of side. You must have a definite plan, a definite policy. If you want to get the best out of a pace attack, you must not try and wear the opposition down with a monotonous sequence of medium pace bowlers all the time," said Tyson.
The former ace's speed impressed Sir Don Bradman. He blew the Aussies away in the Melbourne Test of the 1954-55 series. Pundits here are debating whether this is the best England team. Former England captain Nasser Hussain is convinced that this is the best England side he has seen. Tyson believed that the 1954-55 attack was supreme. "The 1954-55 side was a good England side. I would say that," said Tyson with a chuckle.
Back to India.
He believed attitude is king: "A lot of it lies in the attitude with regards to the task ahead. I can almost put the television off and say I think it is going to be so and so (score) by the end of the day and not be far off the mark. That is not a healthy sign."
Why go foreign?
He didn't appear impressed when informed that India's bowlers were coached by a foreigner - South Africa's Eric Simons.
"I'm a bit divided on these overseas players coming into the side for mentoring," he said. For the record, Venkatesh Prasad was India's bowling coach on their last Test tour here in 2007 when India ended up clinching the series 1-0.
"A person of national pride has a good motivational factor built in his game. You look at players like Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman. They are very much the elder statesmen. They should be the people inspiring the younger generation. They are not going to be around forever and they should be playing the senior counselling role to the younger players," said Tyson.
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