|
Champaka speaks
|
Who after Mashrafe
Bin Mortaza? If you ask the question to the new
Bangladesh bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake, the
answer definitely would be Rubel Hossain.
“He (Rubel) is an amazing talent. A rare bowler
who can bowl at 140kmph and above,” the former Sri
Lankan paceman told reporters while praising the
young Chittagong fast bowler at the team hotel in
Kimberley on Friday. |
 |
“Rubel is now under
a rehabilitation programme and I always keep in
touch with him and I think when he will be fit, he
should be here with the national team.
"He is a very exciting talent and one of the guys
I am very, very keen to see progress,” said the
Lankan, who has been actually assigned for the
pace academy for a two-year tenure and only joined
the national team in South Africa after the last
moment withdrawal of Sarwar Imran.
Champaka, who played 18 Tests and 62 ODIs for Sri
Lanka, was very much aware of the fact that right
now his main job would be to keep his number one
bowler Mashrafe fit who has been constantly
complaining about injury.
“I would like to bring changes in his technique
when there will be no international engagements
which will help him (Mashrafe) play for longer
period and what I believe is that if you have the
right technique you face less injuries,” he
explained.
“I observed few things and already have spoken to
him. Hope we would be able to sort out the issues
during the off-time,” Champaka added.
The former pace bowler was sympathetic about
Mashrafe's current situation and found nothing
wrong when a bowler with both his knees operated
become scared of any physical problem.
“There may be some
psychological effects because one must be scared
of anything if he has so many injuries in his
career. But only hard work on technique and
fitness can give him a guarantee. He has a lot of
cricket left in him because he is now just 25-26
years old,” said Champaka.
He also said that it's very natural that one pace
bowler lives with injury and especially in the
very hectic international schedule of these times.
"There is none (bowlers) who doesn't have
any injuries in his career. There are bowlers with
smooth actions like Brett Lee and Dale Steyn who got
some injuries.
"I am not too much aware of his injury because there is
a physio who looks after the matter but he is a very
good bowler and I like to see him play in the middle,”
said Champaka, who earned a reputation of a wholehearted
cricketer in his days.
He said that the pace spearhead might be given a rest
for the side matches or unimportant matches but there is
no scope for the team to given him rest from any
international games.
“Now the problem is we don't have many bowlers who can
replace Mashrafe but in the other countries they have
the luxury of giving rest to their key bowlers.
"We have to develop it and then of course we can think
of resting the bowlers like Mashrafe but we can't do it
right now,” he said when asked whether resting Mashrafe
for a few matches could be a solution for his long
career.
Although many fear about the lack of pace bowlers in the
pipeline, Champaka was very optimistic after working
with some guys in the last eight months.
“I have been involved in the pace bowling academy, the
first of its kind in the country, and there was a
four-month training programme from where I picked up
twenty boys. It's my challenge to build them to the next
level.
“The young guys were very enthusiastic and keen to
develop and I think talent is there but we need the
right environment to train and develop their skills,” he
said.
As per his observations, it's hard to search the talent
in the country as there is no proper school cricket
structure in the country and Champaka emphasised on good
wicket and competitive first-class cricket to develop
fast bowler in the country and he said that everybody
should understand that there is a need for good fast
bowlers when a team tours outside the Indian
sub-continent.
Champaka was looking forward to the two-match Test
series. He believes that his fast bowlers including
Shahadat Hossain would definitely show some improvement.
One can't however see any drab picture in future pace
bowlers if they listen to the Sri Lankan.
|
