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What's to blame for lack of Indian wicket taking bowlers?

The post colonial carve up of British India.

Sounds a complicated question. Maybe dated tactics which seek to reduce the RR rather than take wickets at all?

from_the_stands wrote:The post colonial carve up of British India.

Maybe it would have been worse without that!

#dunno

365notout wrote:What's to blame for lack of Indian wicket taking bowlers?

Jonathan Trott

The bowlers are themselves to be blamed.

It is certainaly not the pitches, can't be the IPL considering it only started 8 years ago.
Voted for The lure of batting in youth cricket.
Remember Greyblazer saying this all the time that kids don't actually want to bowl in nets.

Think we can add fast bowlers to this list too....really struck me today how the bowlers that the Indians are calling fast just start their run ups a yard further back.

A section of a post for my blog inspired by this question:

The fact is inescapable. India are no longer producing fast bowlers.

A casual observer of the ODIs against Australia can seen that. The T20i results have turned fortunes around for the Indian team, but T20 games are not the natural home of the fast bowler. In the ODIs India planted their flag in lofty summits, only for it to be ripped out again by Australian batsmen.

I have chalked this down to a new phenomenon but it would appear I am wrong. Since 2000, India has scored more than 300 batting first on 58 occasions, losing ten times and conceding one draw. So what is it that is up with the Indian bowlers?

One perennial favourite reason is the financial allure of the IPL. Whether you like it or not the IPL has had a seismic effect on cricketing culture in India. The IPL has encouraged the world's best fast bowlers to extend their repertoire of deliveries. To be just a good fast bowler now is not enough to get you the big contract and be picked up by a franchise. This has caused young Indian bowlers to spread their time in other disciplines, thus affecting their prowess as a fast bowler.

Knowledge of the IPL franchises proves that if you are a fast bowler who bats a bit your place in the team is assured. This sees these bowlers spend half their time working on their pace bowling, the other time trying to fit the round peg of batting into the square hole. I personally believe that the fact that the poster boy of Indian cricket for the last twenty years has been Sachin Tendulkar, a consummate batsman, has sub-consciously skewed the national dreams of a generation of young Indian cricketers. Even if you are not distracted by the lure of batting, you will, at very least, be encouraged to work on yorkers and slower ones, which will therefore distract you from your trade as a fast bowler.

Children who have grown up in India playing cricket on the streets and on spare patches of ground must look askance at the criticism of Indian tracks; however, as can be seen by the recent South African series, pitches are not being maintained for fast bowling. This is a cricketing equivalent of the chicken or the egg. Are pitches being made to suit spin because Indian fast bowlers are so poor or is Indian fast bowling so poor because pitches are suited to spin?

Another fact that is inescapable – in matches outside the sub-continent the quick bowlers are the chief weapon in the armoury of a team. At this rate India will be substandard without them.

reckon the ranji trophy final pretty much kills the pitch is the reason why india not producing bowlers.

A green top for the final and it isn't even the exception reckon 60-70% of the pitches have been helpful for the pace men.

In my opinion these days Indian domestic pitches are one of the best in the world, something for the spinners, pace men and batman but most importantly only the best pace men, spinners and batsman get rewarded.
The issues is mostly the standard in group C and the lower end teams of group B are not that great.

the issue is mostly down to india not really producing bowlers and making the most out of the pitches and conditions now in domestic level.

The situation seems to be slowly changing in youth cricket. Those coming through ranks want to bowl quick as well. It wasn't the case in the 1990s. Hence, you perhaps see the likes of Umesh, Shami and Co. at the top now. Shardul Thakur, Nathu and a few others aren't bad either.

Of course, the perception I still get when I visit various cities is youngsters in India even now look at cricket as a batting game. SRT has been replaced by Kohli as the role model. Just that it feels as if there is a bit more interest with regard to bowling quick. If you don't have that initiation to take up fast bowling, pitches or whatever won't help.