Atul Sharma debut on ice – for now

It now appears unlikely that Atul Sharma will make his debut in the current IPL.

The 23-year-old fast bowler, who has come to attention by winning a contract with Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals, despite not having played a competitive game for seven years, has been sidelined by a shoulder injury throughout the tournament.

Ironically, despite Sharma’s unusual, javelin-inspired training and speeds of up to 100mph, the shoulder  injury was sustained after a fall during fielding practice.

Remarkably, Sharma has remained in the Rajasthan squad for the duration of the tournament, despite being an injury doubt; while other name players such as Mohammad Kaif were omitted when the parties were cut back to 16.

Sharma’s innovative action was given the okay by Australian Institute of Sport boss Greg Chappell, after an extended net session with the Royals’ Shane Watson last December. Thanks to his reported ability to bowl faster than anyone in the world, the young fast bowler has attracted a lot of buzz on Indian fans forums, since his signing for the Royals. He has given no media interviews until his seven-page exclusive in the current issue of SPIN magazine.

However, intriguingly, Rajasthan Royals have recently announced a charity Twenty20 challenge match against English T20 champions Middlesex Panthers, at Lord’s on July 6. The game is in aid of the British Asians Trust.

If Sharma’s return to full fitness, as expected, is a matter of weeks away, the fixture would provide a high-profile setting for his debut.

Atul Sharma exclusive interview and pics in June issue of Spin magazine

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 whole package runs across seven pages of the June issue, 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.

The first Indian Idol

Over 25 million Indian TV viewers saw Sukhvir Singh win cricket’s answer to Pop Idol . The young fast bowler tells SPIN how he’s enjoying his prize: a season with Leicestershire…

From SPIN, August 2007

With the Big Brother winner set to pick up a hundred grand, five months in Leicester may seem like one of the less glamorous prizes reality television could offer. But for the 25,000 young Indians who entered the Cricket Star television show in January it represented a dream. 

The prize of a year’s contract with Leicestershire had hopefuls queuing round the block in 11 regional heats. TV audiences of 25 million saw contestants whittled down via a series of cricket and non-cricket tasks, before a public vote made Sukhvir the champion. And judging by Sukhvir’s demeanour at the County Ground when SPIN met up with him, he could not have been more pleased if he had been granted the riches of fellow reality TV winner Shilpa Shetty. 

Instead of the three-week fascination of Heat readers, the 19-year-old son of a Punjabi bus driver craves a more long-term dream: to play cricket for his country. And he believes joining Leicestershire gives him a superb opportunity to help him reach this level.

“I want to play for India within the next three years,” Sukhvir tells SPIN, through his translator and house-mate Venkatesh Gurumoorthy, who works with Leicester as an analyst. “During this time I need to develop and learn my craft as a fast bowler. Coming here to England will help this.” 

Cricket Star seized the imagination of the Indian cricketing public: Indian legend Kapil Dev was the Simon Cowell of the judging panel; Geoff Boycott, Waqar Younis and Monty Panesar made guest appearances, offering the hopefuls masterclasses; the winners of one task got to train with India before an ODI (Sukhvir clean bowled Virender Sehwag); and the final XI got to take on (and beat) Twenty20 Cup champions Leicestershire in a T20 clash. 

Leicestershire coach Tim Boon says Sukhvir will be treated like any other professional. But first-team action is off the agenda and he is likely to be limited to games for club side Leicester Ivanhoe and the Foxes’ Second XI. “As well as practising in the nets and matches, I am also working a lot in the gym,” says Sukhvir. “The bowling coach Lloyd Tennant has told me to build up my stomach and back muscles, which he says will enable me to bowl quicker. I am getting a lot of encouragement from the players as well. Jeremy Snape and Paul Nixon both said they were impressed with my bowling action.”

Sukhvir took some time adjusting to the temperature of a Leicester summer, but he sees more positives than negatives in the English conditions. “I do wish I had brought more jumpers, but the weather is helping me here. I am working on swinging the ball both ways. This is one of my big priorities. As well as to learn English.” 

He made a dramatic entrance for Ivanhoe, taking three wickets the day after arriving in Leicester, but found it slightly tougher to make an impression on his debut for Leicestershire Seconds against Derbyshire. A wicket-taking delivery with his final ball in the match, though, suggests he could establish himself at this level before long.

Sukhvir has set his goals higher, though. “I would love an opportunity to play for the first team this year if I take lots of wickets for the seconds. I have to perform well and take more and more wickets. Next year I’d love to come back and play for the first XI.”

This single-minded desire to reach the top in cricket has been there since he first watched his heroes on television back in Chandigarh and would emulate playing in the streets of his village with a tennis ball. “Cricket has always meant everything to me. I changed my schools because my first one only played Kabbadi [British Bulldog-style Indian game] and I wanted to play cricket,” he says.

Two years ago, Sukhvir was seen playing by T.A. Shaker, the chief coach of the MRF Pace Foundation – the academy for fast bowlers founded by Dennis Lillee in 1987. From there, Sukhvir spent time at the Mohali Academy and was eventually chosen as the sole representative of the Punjab in Cricket Star’s final squad of 23. 

Sukhvir worked with Lillee himself at this time and credits the great fast bowler for honing his action. “I was very raw when I went there. He taught me to bowl outswingers and corrected my follow-through. It was a wonderful experience to work with him.”

One thing Lillee couldn’t change was Sukhvir’s demeanour. Nicknamed “Happy” by his fellow contestants, Sukhvar prefers to look to the new generation of Australian quick bowlers for his role model. “Brett Lee is my idol. I like his personality, his action and of course his pace. It is my aim to bowl at 160km/hr [100 mph] like Lee does. I even like his music!”

(SPIN found this very encouraging, until we realised it was not Lee’s pub rock band, but his Bollywood single that he was referring to.)

Like Lee, Sukhvir has no problems channelling aggression on the pitch, though, as India opener Robin Uthappa found out when he edged him over third man for six in one of the tasks. “It was tough to bowl to him, especially because my back was sore at that time. But after his lucky six I bowled a few bouncers at him – that got his attention.”
The man behind the show was Channel 5 commentator (and former SPIN columnist) Simon Hughes. “I liked Sukhvir and thought he had potential early on,” says Hughes. “I gave him a few bowling tips – not that that probably helped him much. I was a little disappointed that he didn’t really develop in this time. It was a surprise when he won.”

Sukhvir concedes he did not play to his potential in the matches or cricket tasks in the Cricket Star contest which saw the 23 contestants honed down to 11 before the public voted for their winner.

It was a rocky ride. Three times below-par showings left him up for eviction, his destiny in the hands of his team-mates. (Players’ exits were theatrically confirmed by selector Sanjay Manjreker who would walk up to the loser and rip the Cricket Star crest from his blazer). 

Sukhvir was hindered in his performances by a back injury that flared up before the halfway point of the competition. “I began bowling very well and did well in the early tasks but then the back injury came, which really scared me. I prayed to God that it would be okay and that I would make it to the end and thankfully I did.”

So, why did he win? Sukhvir believes it is due to India’s ongoing desire to find a genuine fast bowler. “I bowled quickly early on, at least 134 km/hr [84 mph] and I was getting lots of calls saying ‘India needs a fast bowler. You should be playing for India.’ That’s why I think they voted for me. They liked my personality, but it was more because I am, or have the potential to be, a quick bowler.”

Hughes is less sure that Sukhvir’s success was 100 per cent cricket-related. “People liked his attitude. He didn’t look the most talented player and didn’t produce the best results. But people liked him and he got a lot of non-cricket support. Although he didn’t develop as a cricketer during the 11 weeks, he did develop as a person. He won the non-cricket activities and showed he had a very good attitude and natural talent.”

Hughes is hopeful that the Cricket
Star project will grow quickly in the next few years, branching out to other countries, although it seems unlikely that an English version – with Shilpa Shetty rumoured to be a presenter – will now happen. “I would love to see one here. But you need someone to get behind it and back it. Then broadcasters will get involved. It would be great for the ECB and I think they would really benefit from it, but sometimes they’re not forward-looking enough in this respect.

“Sri Lanka looks like it will be the next country to do it. We are hoping to start there in January. There is also interest in Pakistan and South Africa, though India is the country where it has the most potential.

“India has a bit of complacency about the way they pick up their players. Getting junior players is not as effective as it could be, so this kind of talent search really does benefit Indian cricket. The next one will be a lot bigger. The press were a bit slow on the uptake, but with a big advertising campaign behind us the next one will be better.” 

Already, Sukhvir is a well-known name at home. And with eports filtering back on his every move in Leicester, he will be under real scrutiny when he returns to India shortly after turning 20 in September. He will be looking to impress the Punjab state selectors. “When I go back I will play for my club in the Punjab tournament – and hopefully then get a chance to play in the Ranji Trophy.”

The expectation of the Indian population can be a mixed blessing; just ask those players whose houses were attacked after the World Cup. But Sukhvir doesn’t seem the type to let the attention get to him. “Of course I feel extra pressure because of those who voted for me, but this only makes me more determined to play well over here and prove that their faith in me was justified.”