adharcric
International Coach
Can you say Shantakumaran?You've heard, surely, of the famous insane Indian seamer S Sreesanth?
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Munaf Patel Update
- Thread starter Manee
- Start date
Perm
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Fleming is decent TBH, but Fernando is pretty horrible.
Pup Clarke
Cricketer Of The Year
It's actually Sree Santh tbhYou've heard, surely, of the famous insane Indian seamer S Sreesanth?
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Nope, though I've tried many times.Can you say Shantakumaran?
Actually think S sounds more impressive too, TBH. Love names that are just 1 letter.
Perm
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yes.Can you say Shantakumaran?
Perm
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
No, it's actually Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. TBH
Munaf Patel had an extrodinary debut vs England a couple of years ago bowling at 90-94 mph, and then seems to have had a concussion or something because he woke up wanting to bowl like someone who has no pace and is at times slower than the part time trundlers in the team. I think if there was an award for laziest cricketer, laziest allround sportsman, he would get it handsdown, not claiming the guy has no talent, its just he is the most lazy bugger, I have ever seen or read about.
Matt79
Global Moderator
Munaf is feeling the lack of respect.
Bags full of money are one thing, but where's the love for Patel? Will he be a prospect for any of the matches in the current ODI series vs. Australia or for the tour to Aus in the New Year?
Bags full of money are one thing, but where's the love for Patel? Will he be a prospect for any of the matches in the current ODI series vs. Australia or for the tour to Aus in the New Year?
Manee
Cricketer Of The Year
He needs to work hard on his game and regain his pace and rhythm that he came onto the scene with lest he never play international cricket again.
Woodster
International Captain
He should be happy that people are still taking time to talk about him, pondering when he will be back to full fitness, trying to ascertain the reasons he is always injured, cos it means people genuinely believe he is worth all the time and effort. He obviously has the talent, deeper issues need to be investigated.
pup11
International Coach
Somebody once said Jason Gillespie is a 30 year old (his age was 30 at the time of this quote) trapped inside the body of a 40 year old, but in Munaf's case i would say he is a 24 or a 25 year old trapped inside the body of an 80 year old.
Munaf's fitness is really dire and at times i have even seen him struggling to bend down and field a ball (after bowling a spell) with fitness level like this he doesn't even deserve to play FC cricket leave alone international cricket.
Munaf's fitness is really dire and at times i have even seen him struggling to bend down and field a ball (after bowling a spell) with fitness level like this he doesn't even deserve to play FC cricket leave alone international cricket.
Manee
Cricketer Of The Year
Yes, that is why he must be put on a strict fitness regime.
SJS
Hall of Fame Member
SENSATIONAL
INSIDE MUNAF'S MIND
Ajay S Shankar
Indian Express
30th September 2007
Ajay S Shankar
Indian Express
30th September 2007
He’s not fit, not intense enough, needs to show more commitment— that’s the official version. but Munaf Patel
STRETCHED out on the white, crumpled bed in a dark hotel room near the railway station in Pune, curtains drawn, sheets pulled up to his chin, the left hand limp, clutching the muted TV remote, the Twenty20 fireworks exploding in a blur before him, the life of one India’s most promising fast bowlers today hangs on one word: Izzat.
Out of Team India barely a year after the great Brian Lara had patted him on the back, hurt by headlines that he’s unfit, not committed, not intense enough, unable to understand why the world can’t understand him, Munaf Patel, the missing face on that open-top bus in Mumbai after the Twenty20 World Cup, says, “Why do you want to ask others about me? Ask me, I will tell you my story.”
So here it is, then. Everybody else have delivered their lines in this cricket mystery: chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar wants him to prove his fitness, bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad says he needs to show more intensity, some of his teammates say he needs to communicate better, MRF pace academy director T A Sekar wants to know why his student has taken his eyes away from the speedometer.
Now, says Munaf, it’s his turn. Because, he says, he has had enough. Because, he says, “it’s a question of my izzat”. Because? “Dekho, paisa aur position bahut badi cheez hai, life mein. My family, my parents, two sisters, we used to survive on Rs 1000 a month. And for people like me, there are only two ways to reach there — Bollywood or cricket.”
“But after earning a lot of money, you feel a bit numb about it, inside. That’s when you realise that what’s really important is your izzat, the respect. You don’t get that with money, any amount of money. Cricket has given me the money, and the respect. But now, with all this talk of lack of fitness and intensity, it’s a question of my izzat. And that’s really hurting.”
So is Munaf Patel fit to play? Isn’t he intense enough? Why can’t he communicate? Why can’t he bowl faster?
The mystery begins to unravel, in a gush of words, angry Hindi, some English for effect, the right thumb pressing down hard on the mobile ever so often, cutting a rush of incoming calls, one by one, until you fear he’s going to throw that thing at the wall.
Yes, he was injured twice — during the South Africa tour last November, and in Bangladesh this May. But he was hundred per cent fit in England, just struggling to strike the right rhythm — “I still took three wickets in a match”. No, he did not deliberately hide his ankle bone injury in South Africa just to stick on and “play for money” — he had requested the team management after the one-day series to send him back home, the pain was too much. “It’s all over, I am ready to play, give me a chance,” he says.
“And what is this intensity? Talk to me, try to understand me,” he says. “I am not upset that I was dropped, because another player has got a chance. That’s fine. I am just so angry with people who are saying the wrong things about me. Let somebody tell me on my face that my attitude is not right. Koi saamne kyon nahin bolta hai?”
“I had a back strain during the Bangladesh tour (in May), that was the lowest moment of my career because I was beginning to strike a rhythm. Now, I am fit. I played a domestic tournament in Bangalore, I played in England, I took wickets there. I am playing matches, and they are saying I am injured. I spoke to John Gloster, the team’s physio, he told me that he had given a fitness report to the manager, saying that I am fully fit. Then I asked the manager, he said ‘I know you are fit’. So how am I injured?”
“The problem with me is that I speak very less. I speak only when I want to, and when I feel the need to. But what I say is straight from the heart. That’s how I grew up in my village. That’s my nature, what can I do about it? If a person speaks less by nature, he speaks less, what can anyone do about it?”
And communication, especially during the time of Greg Chappell as coach? “Cricket is about, bat ball, stump, wicket, fielding, what else is there? You use the same words in Hindi and English. I can understand that. I am from a village, I am just 24, I have played international cricket only for a year, but I am not an idiot.”
But yes, he agrees it may have to do with the fact that he is just not able to get through; that, coming from a village, not knowing the “Good morning, sir-Good evening, sir” routine, he is just not able to fit in. Or more importantly, for Indian cricket, very few have tried to understand what he is all about, where he is from, and why he is what he is.
SO WHY is Munaf the way he is? For that, you will have to hit rewind button back all those to years to Ikhar, 70 km away from Baroda, where the Mariamben Memorial School student “played cricket for fun with a tennis ball”, barefeet, no money to buy a pair of shoes, staying in a “small house” with his father, “a farmer”, mother and two younger sisters.
Tennis ball to leather, district-level matches, a godfather-businessman Ismail Matadar, former India wicket-keeper and selector Kiran More’s academy in Baroda, Dennis Lillee’s MRF academy in Chennai, some work on his action, the shoulder fracture while playing for India A in 2003, the comeback, Sachin Tendulkar spotting him during a Team India pre-season training camp, the move to Mumbai, then Maharashtra and finally the first Test against England in Mohali last March, when his family bought its first TV.
“At that time, the whole world was at my door. But today all I have is my loneliness, and my mental strength. Do you know that after all the talk about my commitment and fitness, I have not gone home? I came straight to Pune after the England one-day series to train in Maharashtra’s domestic camp here. I am so upset that I can’t face my parents. But I know this is the time you need to be at your strongest. I want to survive.”
From that Mohali debut, Munaf went with the team to West Indies, where skipper Rahul Dravid realised that India had finally got a new, exciting pace pair in Munaf and Sreesanth, almost 10 years after Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad. Chappell saw a great combination of two right-arm pacers in a side packed with left-arm seamers. And soon enough, Munaf was flying, taking 14 wickets in four Tests, bowling fast, unveiling the one weapon that Team India had been missing badly since Srinath — the inswinger.
The hype built up, the village story made great copy, worked great on camera, Dravid was happy. And Munaf? He was worried.
For, that incredibly street-smart cricket brain had figured out then — and rightly so, says Chappell — that he didn’t have the body, the control or the fitness history needed for a 145-kmph career.
“I had understood, especially after my first five one-dayers last year (just two wickets in 41 overs), that when I go all out, I am really not able to succeed. It was looking good on TV, but it was not helping my career at all. Soon, I started talking to lot of fast bowlers, especially Glenn McGrath during the one-day series in Malaysia and the Champions Trophy. And that was when I decided to bowl around the 135 kmph-mark, focusing on line and length, and I started getting wickets (27 in the next 19 one-dayers). So you tell me, won’t you adopt an approach that has worked for you? What are these numbers anyway, 140, 135? You want me to bowl 140 kmph or you want me to bowl consistently well, in the right areas, take wickets?”
The answer, he says, lies in his bowling during the Malaysia series in September (7 wickets in three games) and that magic spell of 8-2-18-3 in Jaipur against England in early November that set up India’s only win in the Champions Trophy. But then, for Munaf, Glenn McGrath became almost an obsession, and without realising it, he began to copy the Aussie ace’s action, too. It all added up, began to affect his natural rhythm, and finally ended in that ankle injury in South Africa — he played just one ODI there in November, hung around with the team for two months, and was pushed in for the last Test by a team desperate to win the series, when he was still evidently still limping.
Here’s where the Munaf story loses the plot in a haze of speculation: was he hiding his injury, or was he fit but scared to play?
Munaf says he was unfit. Period. “See, the injury was on the bone, and obviously, not visible. Who will understand that? The physio knows it, ask him. He has the X-rays, the MRI scans. I can’t go around showing my X-rays to everybody who asks me. That’s between the physio and me, only the both of us know. Now, I am looking into your eyes, but do you have any idea of the anger that’s boiling inside me? I know what that injury was all about, when I should play, when I shouldn’t. Only me, nobody else. I never lie. Enough. You can write what you want to.”
Back for the home series against Sri Lanka, he took seven wickets in three games, took four more in three matches at the World Cup, and then stuttered to a stop in Bangladesh — this time, thanks to a strained back muscle.Was he lying? Was he hiding injuries? He was not picked for the Test series against England this year, was called in for the one-dayers after a stint at Chennai’s MRF academy to get his action back on track, struggled to find rhythm but still managed three wickets in two matches, and was then dropped again for the first three matches of the home series against Australia. And all this while, he could hear the whispers swirling around in the background. Was he lying?
“I keep hearing that all around me, I don’t know what to do? How can anybody dare accuse me of lying?”
By now, his eyes are blazing, he’s begun to swear, he’s almost lost it.
Quickly, you ask: 17 months since debut, goals? “Shall I say 500 wickets? It will be good for your headline. I am just trying to work hard, leave me alone.”
Seven Tests, 25 wickets, but only one Test this year, comeback? “Dekho, if you perform, take wickets, nobody can stop you.”
Fourteen ODIs in the first six months, just 11 games in the last 10 months, McGrath action? “Woh sab mera problem hai. This is not your problem.”
Sreesanth, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan? Slowly, a smile begins to light up the room, for the first time in 60 minutes. “Oh, we are very close. We are all from MRF and we have come up together, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, often staying together for five months at a stretch. We have become so close we can shout and scream at each other, fight for getting the right end to bowl from in a match, and still end up hugging, laughing and joking in the evening.”
But what about fighting with them for a place in the team? “This field is one where there’s a replacement for everybody. Except for Sachin Tendulkar, the king. Otherwise, it’s like a lottery, you get your chance, you do well; if you don’t, somebody takes your place. All of us know that.”
But let me tell you one last thing, he says, turning back to the Twenty20 frenzy on TV. “Over the last year, I have learnt a lot. (At the World Cup in West Indies) I saw one placard in the stands that said ‘007, Munaf is the Bond’. The hype surrounding this game, that’s what pushes you up, and then drags you down. You are a hero one day, then you are a zero. That’s part of the tamasha. All I think of these days is about whom I am, where I have come from, and where I need to go. That’s all.”
STRETCHED out on the white, crumpled bed in a dark hotel room near the railway station in Pune, curtains drawn, sheets pulled up to his chin, the left hand limp, clutching the muted TV remote, the Twenty20 fireworks exploding in a blur before him, the life of one India’s most promising fast bowlers today hangs on one word: Izzat.
Out of Team India barely a year after the great Brian Lara had patted him on the back, hurt by headlines that he’s unfit, not committed, not intense enough, unable to understand why the world can’t understand him, Munaf Patel, the missing face on that open-top bus in Mumbai after the Twenty20 World Cup, says, “Why do you want to ask others about me? Ask me, I will tell you my story.”
So here it is, then. Everybody else have delivered their lines in this cricket mystery: chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar wants him to prove his fitness, bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad says he needs to show more intensity, some of his teammates say he needs to communicate better, MRF pace academy director T A Sekar wants to know why his student has taken his eyes away from the speedometer.
Now, says Munaf, it’s his turn. Because, he says, he has had enough. Because, he says, “it’s a question of my izzat”. Because? “Dekho, paisa aur position bahut badi cheez hai, life mein. My family, my parents, two sisters, we used to survive on Rs 1000 a month. And for people like me, there are only two ways to reach there — Bollywood or cricket.”
“But after earning a lot of money, you feel a bit numb about it, inside. That’s when you realise that what’s really important is your izzat, the respect. You don’t get that with money, any amount of money. Cricket has given me the money, and the respect. But now, with all this talk of lack of fitness and intensity, it’s a question of my izzat. And that’s really hurting.”
So is Munaf Patel fit to play? Isn’t he intense enough? Why can’t he communicate? Why can’t he bowl faster?
The mystery begins to unravel, in a gush of words, angry Hindi, some English for effect, the right thumb pressing down hard on the mobile ever so often, cutting a rush of incoming calls, one by one, until you fear he’s going to throw that thing at the wall.
Yes, he was injured twice — during the South Africa tour last November, and in Bangladesh this May. But he was hundred per cent fit in England, just struggling to strike the right rhythm — “I still took three wickets in a match”. No, he did not deliberately hide his ankle bone injury in South Africa just to stick on and “play for money” — he had requested the team management after the one-day series to send him back home, the pain was too much. “It’s all over, I am ready to play, give me a chance,” he says.
“And what is this intensity? Talk to me, try to understand me,” he says. “I am not upset that I was dropped, because another player has got a chance. That’s fine. I am just so angry with people who are saying the wrong things about me. Let somebody tell me on my face that my attitude is not right. Koi saamne kyon nahin bolta hai?”
“I had a back strain during the Bangladesh tour (in May), that was the lowest moment of my career because I was beginning to strike a rhythm. Now, I am fit. I played a domestic tournament in Bangalore, I played in England, I took wickets there. I am playing matches, and they are saying I am injured. I spoke to John Gloster, the team’s physio, he told me that he had given a fitness report to the manager, saying that I am fully fit. Then I asked the manager, he said ‘I know you are fit’. So how am I injured?”
“The problem with me is that I speak very less. I speak only when I want to, and when I feel the need to. But what I say is straight from the heart. That’s how I grew up in my village. That’s my nature, what can I do about it? If a person speaks less by nature, he speaks less, what can anyone do about it?”
And communication, especially during the time of Greg Chappell as coach? “Cricket is about, bat ball, stump, wicket, fielding, what else is there? You use the same words in Hindi and English. I can understand that. I am from a village, I am just 24, I have played international cricket only for a year, but I am not an idiot.”
But yes, he agrees it may have to do with the fact that he is just not able to get through; that, coming from a village, not knowing the “Good morning, sir-Good evening, sir” routine, he is just not able to fit in. Or more importantly, for Indian cricket, very few have tried to understand what he is all about, where he is from, and why he is what he is.
SO WHY is Munaf the way he is? For that, you will have to hit rewind button back all those to years to Ikhar, 70 km away from Baroda, where the Mariamben Memorial School student “played cricket for fun with a tennis ball”, barefeet, no money to buy a pair of shoes, staying in a “small house” with his father, “a farmer”, mother and two younger sisters.
Tennis ball to leather, district-level matches, a godfather-businessman Ismail Matadar, former India wicket-keeper and selector Kiran More’s academy in Baroda, Dennis Lillee’s MRF academy in Chennai, some work on his action, the shoulder fracture while playing for India A in 2003, the comeback, Sachin Tendulkar spotting him during a Team India pre-season training camp, the move to Mumbai, then Maharashtra and finally the first Test against England in Mohali last March, when his family bought its first TV.
“At that time, the whole world was at my door. But today all I have is my loneliness, and my mental strength. Do you know that after all the talk about my commitment and fitness, I have not gone home? I came straight to Pune after the England one-day series to train in Maharashtra’s domestic camp here. I am so upset that I can’t face my parents. But I know this is the time you need to be at your strongest. I want to survive.”
From that Mohali debut, Munaf went with the team to West Indies, where skipper Rahul Dravid realised that India had finally got a new, exciting pace pair in Munaf and Sreesanth, almost 10 years after Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad. Chappell saw a great combination of two right-arm pacers in a side packed with left-arm seamers. And soon enough, Munaf was flying, taking 14 wickets in four Tests, bowling fast, unveiling the one weapon that Team India had been missing badly since Srinath — the inswinger.
The hype built up, the village story made great copy, worked great on camera, Dravid was happy. And Munaf? He was worried.
For, that incredibly street-smart cricket brain had figured out then — and rightly so, says Chappell — that he didn’t have the body, the control or the fitness history needed for a 145-kmph career.
“I had understood, especially after my first five one-dayers last year (just two wickets in 41 overs), that when I go all out, I am really not able to succeed. It was looking good on TV, but it was not helping my career at all. Soon, I started talking to lot of fast bowlers, especially Glenn McGrath during the one-day series in Malaysia and the Champions Trophy. And that was when I decided to bowl around the 135 kmph-mark, focusing on line and length, and I started getting wickets (27 in the next 19 one-dayers). So you tell me, won’t you adopt an approach that has worked for you? What are these numbers anyway, 140, 135? You want me to bowl 140 kmph or you want me to bowl consistently well, in the right areas, take wickets?”
The answer, he says, lies in his bowling during the Malaysia series in September (7 wickets in three games) and that magic spell of 8-2-18-3 in Jaipur against England in early November that set up India’s only win in the Champions Trophy. But then, for Munaf, Glenn McGrath became almost an obsession, and without realising it, he began to copy the Aussie ace’s action, too. It all added up, began to affect his natural rhythm, and finally ended in that ankle injury in South Africa — he played just one ODI there in November, hung around with the team for two months, and was pushed in for the last Test by a team desperate to win the series, when he was still evidently still limping.
Here’s where the Munaf story loses the plot in a haze of speculation: was he hiding his injury, or was he fit but scared to play?
Munaf says he was unfit. Period. “See, the injury was on the bone, and obviously, not visible. Who will understand that? The physio knows it, ask him. He has the X-rays, the MRI scans. I can’t go around showing my X-rays to everybody who asks me. That’s between the physio and me, only the both of us know. Now, I am looking into your eyes, but do you have any idea of the anger that’s boiling inside me? I know what that injury was all about, when I should play, when I shouldn’t. Only me, nobody else. I never lie. Enough. You can write what you want to.”
Back for the home series against Sri Lanka, he took seven wickets in three games, took four more in three matches at the World Cup, and then stuttered to a stop in Bangladesh — this time, thanks to a strained back muscle.Was he lying? Was he hiding injuries? He was not picked for the Test series against England this year, was called in for the one-dayers after a stint at Chennai’s MRF academy to get his action back on track, struggled to find rhythm but still managed three wickets in two matches, and was then dropped again for the first three matches of the home series against Australia. And all this while, he could hear the whispers swirling around in the background. Was he lying?
“I keep hearing that all around me, I don’t know what to do? How can anybody dare accuse me of lying?”
By now, his eyes are blazing, he’s begun to swear, he’s almost lost it.
Quickly, you ask: 17 months since debut, goals? “Shall I say 500 wickets? It will be good for your headline. I am just trying to work hard, leave me alone.”
Seven Tests, 25 wickets, but only one Test this year, comeback? “Dekho, if you perform, take wickets, nobody can stop you.”
Fourteen ODIs in the first six months, just 11 games in the last 10 months, McGrath action? “Woh sab mera problem hai. This is not your problem.”
Sreesanth, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan? Slowly, a smile begins to light up the room, for the first time in 60 minutes. “Oh, we are very close. We are all from MRF and we have come up together, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, often staying together for five months at a stretch. We have become so close we can shout and scream at each other, fight for getting the right end to bowl from in a match, and still end up hugging, laughing and joking in the evening.”
But what about fighting with them for a place in the team? “This field is one where there’s a replacement for everybody. Except for Sachin Tendulkar, the king. Otherwise, it’s like a lottery, you get your chance, you do well; if you don’t, somebody takes your place. All of us know that.”
But let me tell you one last thing, he says, turning back to the Twenty20 frenzy on TV. “Over the last year, I have learnt a lot. (At the World Cup in West Indies) I saw one placard in the stands that said ‘007, Munaf is the Bond’. The hype surrounding this game, that’s what pushes you up, and then drags you down. You are a hero one day, then you are a zero. That’s part of the tamasha. All I think of these days is about whom I am, where I have come from, and where I need to go. That’s all.”
Manee
Cricketer Of The Year
What a great article and it is very informative too. Finally, inside the mind of Munaf has been revealed - he won't be a fast bowler again simply because Chappell told him that he does not have the body, surely with fitness training (of which I am sure this man has done little to none) you can develop the body to have a 145kph career. I hope someone can talk this guy out of his McGrath obsession, does he not realise that in his prime Mcgrath was too 135-140kph not 125-130kph like Munaf is now and like Mcgrath was, days before his retirement where he relied on experience (of which Munaf has none) to get his wickets.
Either of the two will be fine, but you didn't seem to be doing either against England. I also do not understand why he simply cannot bowl quick bouncers and yorkers (which is what? two balls a spell) and keep the rest at 130-135kph, that would work brilliantly.Munaf Patel said:
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Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Bob Willis.
Wasn't Munaf supposed to head over to Worcestershire? Were a couple of blurbs in August or so - did it happen?
Venkatesh Prasad does not seem to be the sort to diss people lightly. (In fact I cant recall any significant comment from him other than on Munaf). One can hardly suspect him of carrying an agenda or not being thorough before he said what he said.
Venkatesh Prasad does not seem to be the sort to diss people lightly. (In fact I cant recall any significant comment from him other than on Munaf). One can hardly suspect him of carrying an agenda or not being thorough before he said what he said.
R_D
International Debutant
Interesting article there... good read.
Munaf didn't look right in England, you only have to see him bowl to realise his attitude is not right. Shows no intensity whatsoever and bowls as if someone is forcing him to bowl rather than that he wants to bowl.
Maybe he's too worried about getting would explain why he look so lackluster while bowling.
Munaf didn't look right in England, you only have to see him bowl to realise his attitude is not right. Shows no intensity whatsoever and bowls as if someone is forcing him to bowl rather than that he wants to bowl.
Maybe he's too worried about getting would explain why he look so lackluster while bowling.