Former Indian seamer Venkatesh Prasad has emerged as a candidate for the role of Australian pace bowling coach. Following the appointment of Troy Cooley as head of the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, Cricket Australia are looking for a new man to take his place after the World Cup next year, and Prasad offers many of the attributes required. He is the ex-bowling coach of the Indian team and has more recently been employed by the Indian Premier League’s Chennai Super Kings, where he worked alongside Australian paceman Doug Bollinger.
As a crafty swing and seam merchant Prasad enjoyed success in conditions as helpful as England and as unhelpful as the subcontinent.
“I would certainly consider it, it would definitely be an honour to share your expertise and be part of a very good team in Australia,” Prasad said. “It is nice to know that people are thinking about me as an option.”
Prasad has shared his lucid thoughts on the Australian bowling attack while commentating on the series for Indian television, and has several points to offer on tactics and also their curious lack of reverse swing.
“They’ve got some wonderful bowlers but they lack the vast experience that they had before,” he said. “They need to work on more consistency, I feel it is not just about the talent. Against a batting line-up of the quality of India’s, batsmen who are very good against spin and also on pitches that don’t offer much encouragement to the pace bowlers, they were not showing a lot of patience.
“It can be important in those situations to have your plans and wait for things to happen - if you try to do too much you will provide scoring opportunities for the batsmen.”
Describing himself as a primarily tactical adviser, Prasad has remained in contact with the Indian attack since being shoved from his role by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in 2009.