Srinath, the fastest. Review on Javagal Srinath

Advent of genuine express pace bowling in India

For many many years, India did not produce a genuine express pace bowler. When pace bowling had reached its height in India with the advent of Kapil Dev, Still he was at his best only fast-medium.

Then in 1991, there came a tall 6’3” skinny lad who entered international cricket.

Javagal Srinath made his debut in International cricket in the 1st test versus Australia.

His run-up was not very long, but he was very athletic and possessed an extremely high ratio of fast-twitch fibres. He came in loping to the crease and at the last moment exploded at the crease and gave his all to the ball.

People and the Australian batsmen were surprised by the electrifying pace he generated. In 1990, Waqar younis, another tearaway from Pakistan was rated as the world’s fastest bowler. After seeing Srinath, Waqar, a genuine quickie looked barely medium-pace. Such was the speed that Srinath generated. Many of his deliveries exceeded 100miles an hour but no one rated him faster than waqar or the fastest bowler in the world and one of the fastest bowlers in the history of the game. He in fact should be rated to the likes of Eddie Gilbert, Jack Gregory, Jeff Thomson, Charles Kortright and Harold Larwood which they didn’t because of racist attitudes of whites to the Asians, and being south Indian, north Indians do not treat south Indians their equal and think of them low and behave towards them in a racist manner. Srinath;s officially recorded fastest delivery was 156km/hr(97 mph) during India’s tour of south africa1996-97 when he was carrying a rotator cuff shoulder injury.Imagine how fast he would have bowled when not injured!

He bowled mainly inswingers to the right handed batsmen because of is cartwheeling action.Waqar would normally bowl within the 140-145km/hr range and occasionally crank it up to the 152-153 km/hr mark though he was never as quick as his mentor Imran Khan. He was hyped up so much so because he was under the clutches of Imran, who was a flamboyant and boastful person who was proud of his protégé. This created a psychological fear in the hearts of many abatsmen. Wheras Srinath came at a time when Kapil Dev was at the fag end of his career and wanted to break Richard Hadlee’s world record of 431 test wickets to become the highest wicket taker in test cricket. Therefore Kapil was given more overs to bowl and Srinath was not given a chance and ultimately lost his place in the test side for a span of about two years although he was a regular member of the one day side. He was out of the game when he was at his fastest. After his shoulder injury, he lost most of his pace but still was amongst the fastest bowlers in the world for a year or two after that. Despite injuries, he was clocked at 149.6 twice, once versus Australia in India and once in the super sixes in the 1999 world cup again versus Australia, that ball being the second fastest ball in that world cup. Earlier, Srinath’s speeds were not known to the public because of lack of use of speed guns so extensively as done these days. And that too being in his thirties and after injuries, he was bowling at a good speed despite that. Waqar succeeded in international cricket because of a deadly late inswinging Yorker he possessed. But for that one delivery, he would not have survived in international cricket.

Indians are made to believe that they are one step always lower than the whites in anything and that south Indians are physically inferior to the north Indians. South Indians are physically superior and more athletic and possess a much higher ratio of fast twitch fibers than the north Indians. Indians are n number of times superior to the whites and south Indians are n number of times superior to the northern Indians.

Whenever Srinath’s profile was flashed on the television screen, it was written “Right arm fast medium” instead of “right arm fast”, and even in the newspaper, the press would write “Indian mediumpacer Javagal Srinath” and not “Indian fast bowler Javagal Srinath”. Suppose they had done the same to waqar there would have been an uproar by the Pakistani public and the Pakistan team in support of their player. Many people still keep on asking and write in the newspapers and magazines that why have Indians not produced a genuine express pace bowler, even after the advent of Srinath is so surprising. That too even after producing a genuine express paceman of world class they still do not want to admit they have produced one and that they can produce many more and that too that south Indians have greater ability to bowl at express pace than north Indians.