'Yes, there have not been any express fast bowlers that are coming from the MRF Pace Foundation that we used to have back in the years.'
'But that's not going to happen anymore. Now, in the next few years, you are gonna see a lot of really good fast bowlers coming out from the MRF Pace Foundation again.'
One of the fastest bowlers to have played for India, Varun Aaron, is now taking strides into the world of coaching.
India will soon have the first of its kind high performance centre for cricket which will see Aaron partner with the legendary Glenn McGrath at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai.
Aaron, who played nine Tests and as many ODIs for India, credits MRF Tyres MD Rahul Mammen for his vision to reinvent the MRF Pace Foundation as the best fast bowling academy of the world.
There was a time when the MRF Pace Foundation, established in 1987 with support from Australian pace great Dennis Lillee, was the most-sought destination for all of India's fast bowlers including the likes of Javagal Srinath, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Venkatesh Prasad, Munaf Patel, S Sreesanth and others.
Top foreign pacers like Shoaib Akhtar, McGrath, Chaminda Vaas, Heath Streak and Mitchell Johnson also trained at the MRF Pace Foundation during their careers but in the last 8-10 years the academy hasn't produced any top level pace bowlers.
Aaron, who has been associated with the MRF Pace Foundation for nearly two decades now, was the last fast bowler from the academy to play Test cricket for India. And it is no surprise that the Jharkhand pacer wants to bring back the glory days back to the MRF Pace Foundation.
Aaron, who retired from red ball cricket after the recent Ranji Trophy season, is keen to groom the next generation of fast bowlers at the MRF Pace Foundation's high performance centre.
In an exclusive interview with Harish Kotian/Rediff.com, Varun Aaron reveals how he came up with the idea of a high performance centre in India and how he plans to produce good fast bowlers for India in the coming years through the MRF Pace Foundation.
The first of a must-read two-part interview:
You have quickly switched over to coaching after retiring from red ball cricket. You will team up with Glenn McGrath at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai. Can you tell us more about this exciting partnership?
I have been associated with MRF Pace Foundation for the last 20 years and been a consultant for the last 7-8 years, but never an active role because I was playing.
It all started off with me having a meeting with Rahul Mammen, who is the MD of MRF Tyres about nine months ago where we felt that we needed to upgrade the facility.
I gave him a plan and it's great that he had the vision to make the MRF Pace Foundation the premier fast bowling academy of the world.
He accepted the plan and we broke ground eight months ago where we completely brought down the old facility and we are creating a completely new facility.
My presentation was basically to start a high performance centre and also do a fast bowling hunt all over India to get some more fast bowlers.
We did the pace hunt and we found three fast bowlers, who bowl in excess of 140 kmph. There were 2,500 bowlers registered and out of that the top three guys were selected.
I have been helping MRF in building the high performance centre for the last eight months. Now it's almost done and it should be opening by the end of April at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai.
Will this be a first of its kind in the country? What new things will we see there?
This is going to be the first cricketing high performance centre in India. When I say high performance centre, I mean, it's not just a gym and ground, we have actually imported some very top of the line high performance equipment from Sweden, Italy and Germany.
Basically everything that the players do we generate data, if they do a cable crossover, the cable crossover gives data, if you want to train speed, you can train speed on this machine if you want to train concentric movements, you can train concentric movements and if you want to train eccentric moments you can that train too. So these are very specific machines and apart from that, obviously setting up a state of the art gym.
We are going to have a state of the art high performance centre, where we are going to have a lot of variables to generate a lot of data to see what how the boys are doing on a daily basis when it comes to like their sleep, their diet, their well-being, their recovery... I mean it will be very corroborated, very specific.
What drew you towards this high performance centre concept? You have been playing continuously in domestic cricket, where did you find the time to plan all this unique stuff?
First of all, I am also studying to be a sports scientist. I am doing a course at the Sri Ramchandra University in Chennai to be a sports scientist. Through all my injuries and all my years of playing cricket it has not been the easiest journey with my injuries. I have actually learned a lot, I have learned a lot about my body, about training about obviously about fast bowling.
I want to pass on my knowledge of fast bowling to the next generation and make sure that they are fit and strong, they have lesser injuries and they basically don't make the mistakes which I made.
I would love to teach them the skills and equip them to bowl fast, bowl all the variations possible that the T20 game now requires and just help them be a complete fast bowler.
I just want to pass on my knowledge and MRF is a great place to do this because they have the most importantly they have the vision, to basically to do something which they have done for the past 37 years.
Now is the time when we want to really up the ante and be one of the world's premier high performance centres for cricket.
You were the last fast bowler from the MRF Pace Academy to play Test cricket for India. Once a popular destination for all of India's top pace bowlers, why has the MRF Pace Foundation taken a backseat in the last 8-10 years?
I think every team, every organisation goes through these transition phases so it might have just been something like that. I mean, I can't really point a finger at one thing. But the truth is that yes, there have not been any Indian Test cricketer that is being produced, there have not been any real express fast bowlers that are coming from the MRF Pace Foundation that we used to have back in the years.
But that's not going to happen anymore. Now, in the years to come, in the next few years, you are gonna see a lot of really good fast bowlers coming out from the MRF Pace Foundation again.
Will the MRF high performance centre work in tandem with the BCCI, who have their own batting and bowling coach set-up at the National Cricket Academy?
I am not going too far down the line. The first thing is that we get it up and running, which is going to happen in the next few weeks. We start our programmes and then I am sure once we have a really good model, once we have revamped our current existing models, then I am sure we can look at other things.
We will be working with the Sri Lankan Cricket Board, we will be working with the Afghanistan Cricket Board. Two guys from Sri Lanka are already there, the pacers from Afghanistan are coming.
It will be like the MRF Pace Foundation back in the day where we had state of the art equipment, where we had state of the art coaches, all the guys from all over the world used to come right so that's happening again.
I have taken the more hands on role this time around. Ramji Srinivasan has come back as the chief strength and conditioning coach. So there is a lot happening and there are really exciting times ahead.
