First class, first person

In modern-day cricket, a team without a coach is like a rudderless ship. Some purists may ridicule the concept, but the game has progressed in such a manner that the captain would be better off with some off-field help. Strategising has always been an important part of cricket, but in this cutting-edge era, its importance can hardly be overstated.

If you see a coach working with a player - laptop for company - and wearing a hassled look, it’s because he is trying to work around a problem. Tackling it head-on is impossible because the players have developed set patterns in their younger days. If not taught the right things at a young age, players get into bad habits. A lot of time and opportunities are lost if the coach at the higher level has to undo all that and teach them anew. That’s what makes the role of a player’s first coach critical.

Being a Railwayman people often ask me several questions about train travel. How much time have you spent travelling in trains? Which is the longest journey? And so on.

I've travelled an estimated 200,000 km by train in 15 years of first-class cricket. Nowadays, because of the BCCI's tie-up with airlines companies, most teams travel by air. It takes away the charm of the journey because in a flight everyone is only keen to get to the destination. The whole pleasure of a journey is lost. Railways is probably the only team to still use trains throughout the season.

I had a mathematics exam to write today. It's tough to juggle studies and cricket - if there is a practice session in the morning I go to the nets and completely forget my studies. Towards the end of the session it pricks me a little - the time spent - and I start getting the feeling that I need to get back to my books. Once I'm home, I'm tired and I have to write down things so that I don't get sleepy or bored.

I keep writing till I fall asleep. I don't believe in staying up late. By 10.30 or 11 pm I'm out like a light. But I'm up at 4am again to do my work.

One of the biggest changes in domestic cricket from the time I played has been the attitude towards fast bowling. The wickets we played on were tailor-made for spinners, so the quality in fast bowling wasn't good. Most teams, barring perhaps Mumbai or Karnataka, struggled for a good pace attack. It could also have been the reason that they dominated too. Nowadays, though, almost every team has a three-seamer-one-spinner combination.

Every state has a couple of young fast bowlers, who somewhere down the line represent the state side and the India Under-19 side. There are talented fast bowlers in states like Assam, not traditionally cricket nurseries, and there are people coming from lesser known places and are representing their states. I see a lot of fast bowling talent overall.

The first game of the Ranji Trophy is always big for any team, but for us at Tamil Nadu, the season has already been under way for a while. We've played in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup and the KSCA Diamond Jubilee Tournament. I'm not sure how it is for teams playing in Central Zone or North Zone, but for us here in the South, especially Tamil Nadu, we've already been playing together for a while.

In the last season this wasn't the case, as we had some seniors in the side and they didn't always play the warm-up tournaments. But this year we have a completely young side. The addition of Badri [S Badrinath] and Dinesh [Karthik] has been a boost for us: it's always good to get cricketers of that quality back in your side.

As another season gets underway, we need to acknowledge the importance of each domestic season. It is often presumed that the standard of first-class cricket in our country is poor but such loose talk emanates from those who have not gone through the grind of first-class cricket or who have no understanding of the game. They cannot appreciate the experience and the rigours involved in playing first-class cricket over a period of years.

With the selection process being the way it is, one outstanding season is enough to pitchfork a player into the big league. This, though, sometimes denies him the opportunity to polish his skills, which can help at international level. How the likes of Surendra Bhave, S Sharath, Amarjit Kaypee and S Sriram, who had fantastic first-class records but didn’t get to play a single Test, must be feeling.

The start of a season is full of hope and expectation for any player or team. For players progressing from the Under-19 and Under-22 levels to Ranji Trophy, the first aim is to get over the pressure of proving themselves, then settle in their team. Players who are already established at first-class level set themselves goals in terms of runs or wickets so that they can graduate to at least the India A teams.