Several critics and experts believe that he needs to see a shrink or have his backside spanked, but I’ll bat for the beleaguered S Sreesanth. Spare the couch and the rod, I say; plain mentoring could yield better results instead.
I don’t doubt that M.S. Dhoni and Gary Kirsten will have entrusted Zaheer Khan this task as one of his responsibilities. But since Sreesanth is now in Bengaluru, it might be a good idea for him to have a heart-to-heart chat with Javagal Srinath too.
The former pace spearhead had gone through some rough times early in his career, yet retired as one of the finest bowlers from India, so there’s obviously something that he can tell which must be of value if Sreesanth cares to listen.
Srinath knows a thing or two about the travails of fast bowlers, and having lived out his career competing at the highest level, has a shrewd understanding of the psychology of players who succeed at this level despite not being very gifted, and those who fail despite their intrinsic talent. Moreover, he is empathetic about Sreesanth.
Interacting with him on a television panel discussion after the match against Bangladesh, Srinath made a cogent argument why the mercurial fast bowler may have bowled as loosely as he did in the first match.
Sorely disappointed at being left out of the original World Cup squad, Sreesanth suddenly found himself drafted in after Praveen Kumar was injured, and then just as suddenly discovered he was playing the first match after Nehra reported unfit too.
In trying to make the most of this windfall situation, he tried to bowl too quick, get a wicket with every delivery rather than keep the batsmen in check on a fairly docile pitch and wait for them to make mistakes. “He let emotion get the better of him,’’ explained Srinath. “But he has the skills and can do extremely well for the side if he knows how to rein himself in.’’
I buy that. It is pertinent to focus on Sreesanth’s abilities too rather than only his fragility. He has a most beautiful, late swinger perhaps — and that delivered at fairly high pace which should keep batsmen on tenterhooks more often than he has managed.
When he gets his rhythm and can keep temper in check, Sreesanth looks a magnificent wicket-taking bowler — till he lapses disappointingly into loose, erratic stuff that one saw at Mirpur on Saturday last.
But much as Srinath, Zaheer and other fast bowlers will offer as the problems of Indian pacers in his defence, it must be said in all fairness that that Sreesanth has been confusing emotion-driven petulance as aggression for so long that he has now got stereotyped as a show-pony rather than a true-blue cricket.
This has queered the media perception about him. When Sehwag made a matter-of-fact statement — that Sreesanth was the only Indian player who didn’t fare well against Bangladesh — it was taken as a jibe; when Dhoni took a dig at him — saying that it was better if Sreesanth instigated opponents rather than his own team — it was seen as a statement of fact.
This creates a credibility gap which Sreesanth needs to bridge if he sees a long-term future for himself. Temperamental fast bowlers are not new to the game. For instance Dennis Lillee, whom Sreesanth emulates in many ways, including wearing a headband and the exaggerated appeal on bent knees, was one such character.
But take away 250 of Lillee’s 355 Test wickets and what you would be left with is a caricature. If the two do meet, Srinath must also tell Sreesanth is now old enough to decide what he wants to be.