Youthful purveyors of a venerable art

Spin bowling is a dying art in India say the doomsday prophets. It was time to pay a visit to the MAC Spin Foundation in Madras to test this prognosis. The Foundation's home is at a humble corner of the AC Tech ground inside the Anna University campus. Five nets is about the extent of space occupied. But of course spin bowling is after all more of an intellectual exercise than a physical one. The amount of space in the inner recesses of one's mind is the key.

VV Kumar is the Foundation's coach and at 65 the former India leg spinner is still a bundle of energy. Watching him turn his arm over, one could just about picture the havoc he must have created in enemy ranks in his youthful days. An easy action involving marvellous economy of effort. No complicated crossing and uncrossing of arms in the delivery stride. He just trots forward, lifts his arm from waist length and tosses up with a roll of the wrists and a rotation of the shoulder blade. And from the corner of his eye he surveys the activities of the youngsters at the other nets, ready to holler out words of admonition on spotting any errant behaviour.

Open ten months of a year from May to March, the Foundation comprises 25 lads, 15 from within the city and the rest from outside. A few of the boys, including Orissa off spinner Sanjay Satpathy, were away playing first division cricket in the TNCA league. Of those on view, Kumar speaks encouragingly of 17-year-old Abdul Malik. A 12th class student of Santhome High School, Malik is an off spinner who currently plays in the second division of the local league. A retiring sort of chap, his keenness for the trade is quite endearing when one is introduced to him. There is just a hint of Muralitharan in his arm action but Malik is a self-professed admirer of Saqlain whom he watches closely on television. The admiration extends to attempting the fabled `doosra' in the nets!

The nets are more like a war zone with balls speeding at you from all directions with the precision of guided missiles and you are quickly persuaded to duck and weave out of the firing line at mortal peril. The boys get a withering glance from Kumar if they flinch from stopping a ferocious drive off their own bowling. Kumar himself bustles away to chase balls with verve. It was a signal experience to be immersed in such an atmosphere of learning. You come away with a feeling that the cupboard is not at all bare.

Set up in August 1996 with the benevolence of business honchos in the SPIC group like MA Chidambaram and AC Muthiah, it was intended to mirror the success of the thriving MRF Pace Foundation. There is a gymnasium at its disposal outside the campus where the trainees adjourn twice a week. A sports doctor also visits the camp for a half hour every day to evaluate their fitness. You get the impression though that Kumar is ploughing a lone furrow. His technical skills are non pareil, but it would be invaluable if with the help of its corporate backing, the foundation can engage professional assistance. The intention would be to develop an integrated approach where the tools of fitness planning and psychology are used to fine tune the natural talent of the trainees.