Atul Sharma speaks exclusively to SPIN
Buy the June issue of SPIN featuring an exclusive seven-page interview and photo shoot with Atul Sharma, here.
The new issue of SPIN magazine is in the shops on Friday (May 8). We’ll have full info here from Wednesday but I just wanted to flag up one story that I think is going to make a bit of a splash.
This is my interview with Atul Sharma. UK-based cricket-watchers will never have heard of him at all, I shouldn’t think; while, among Indian supporters, even the biggest devotees of fansites will know only a little.
No use Googling Atul Sharma or looking at cricinfo either. Because they don’t have anything on him.
The thing is: Sharma has never played a senior game; in fact has not played a competitive game of any kind for seven years – and yet he is in the Rajasthan Royals IPL squad, alongside Shane Warne, Dimitri Mascarenhas et al.
The story that explains these two apparently contradictory facts is – and I don’t think I’m overegging it here – one of the most remarkable in modern sport.
Sharma, now 23, has spent the last seven years teaching himself to bowl at speeds in excess of 100 mph. He’s trained with US Olympic javelin coaches and built the body of a power-athlete, rather than of a traditional fast bowler. He’s also worked with the English fast bowling coach Ian Pont, a firm believer that pace and control need not be mutually exclusive – indeed, that the two are both influenced by the same factors.
Anyhow, I’ve had a very long and enjoyable chat with Atul in which he has told me his full story – including overcoming injuries that threatened to stop him playing at all. I found his story unique and genuinely inspiring – he has not been involved with any official academies or coaching set-ups; he’s funded everything himself, just following a teenage hunch with complete single-mindedness.
Not that I want to hype him(!). I think getting a pro contract at 23 having never played a game is remarkable enough in itself, even were he never to take a wicket, or to bowl at ‘just’ 85 mph. But he does seem to be on the verge of being India’s and possibly the world’s fastest-ever bowler.
We’ve also had some beautiful pictures taken of him training in South Africa – showing his innovative action step-by-step – by the top snapper Jurie Potgieter.
The issue is out in the UK on May 8.
Buy the June issue of SPIN featuring an exclusive seven-page interview and photo shoot with Atul Sharma, here.
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[...] been closed, so I’ll post the link to an article on SPIN: The Cricket Magazine’s website here: Atul Sharma speaks exclusively to SPIN : SPIN – The Cricket Magazine Definitely going to look out for that magazine, would like to read the interview with Atul. [...]
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Why are you dedicating 7 pages of your magazine to a bowler who hasn’t even bowled a single ball in a game for 7 years (according to you)?
I could understand a quarter or half a page article about the feel good story but 7 pages? Is there nothing else to write about?
Hi Shekhar – I can sort-of see your point – but have a look at the story and the pics and then tell me if you think we’ve gone too far. The magazine’s full of plenty of people who HAVE played lots of games in the last seven years – this month Ian Blackwell, Courtney Walsh, Andy Flower, Michael Vaughan, Azhar Mahmood, Shaun Udal etc etc – so I hope you’ll agree there’s a decent mix of new angles about old subjects as well as the Sharma story. I genuinely think that for someone to pick up a pro contract – in any sport – without having played any games is a remarkable story, whatever happens next. And, having spoken at length to Atul, I wanted to tell the story first and properly before anyone else made a half-baked attempt at it.
Awesome. We were all very excited when Ian Pont first announced about Atul on our website. We have been talking to Ian, it’s now good to hear from Atul himself. We wish Atul and ourselves all the best.
hi
me really excited to see when atul is going to bowl in compitative cricket. i heard about this atul long back, he got a gifted genetics, now wanna see how he is with the cricketing skills.we all excited atul its been long time see a 100 mph speed in cricket.
best of luck atul for for your cricketing feature.
regards,
dinesh