Spinning memories

Napier: It was a semi-embarrassing moment for India's bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad.

A man dressed in Auckland state team's training gear walked upto him and asked: ''Remember me Venkatesh''. The bowling coach was stumped for a bit, but then the man introduced himself as the Indian team finished its training at the Outer Oval of the Eden Park on Tuesday.

It was former Zimbabwe leggie Paul Strang.

Now the acting coach of the Auckland state, Strang is settled here. He has been involved with coaching with Auckland state cricket.

And then it all came back as a flash for Prasad for Strang had troubled the Indian team of the late 1990s. Strang wanted to meet Sachin Tendulkar and got a brief opportunity.

He went upto Robin Singh and the two met like long lost buddies. Strang asked Robin what he does with the team and coach Gary Kirsten said: ''He does everything, one of our key guys.''

Strang and Kirsten have also played a lot of cricket with and against each other, so it was a good time to catch up for them. Strang even went and bowled a few deliveries at the nets.

It was an interesting sight to see old leggies in Strang and India's selector Narendra Hirwani try their hand at bamboozling the batsmen.

Strang had a story for everyone in the Indian team. ''I think Sachin was my last Test wicket. Rahul and I played together for Kent. I remember during the 1996 World Cup, Zimbabwe was based in Hyderabad and we played a practice game there. A batsman scored a crisp hundred against us. Guess who? VVS Laxman.'' To add to this Strang has played with India’s mental and physical conditioning coach Paddy Upton at university.

Since his international career ended, Strang moved to playing club cricket in England for a long time. He then even tried his hand playing club cricket here in Auckland . And then finally moved out of Zimbabwe two years ago for good.

''I was looking for an alternative to spend my summer in the southern hemisphere at a place other than Zimbabwe. I looked at Australia and even New Zealand. I ended up with a good club here in Auckland and did well for them. I was asked to come back and ended up spending five years with them. Once I was in the system here, it became easy after that.’’

By then rot set in Zimbabwe cricket and the country as a whole. Strang is hurt by the events in Zimbabwe cricket which went all downhill after the 2003 World Cup. ''I was part of a good era of Zimbabwe cricket in the 1990s and early 2000s. It is disappointing. I am not distant from all that. You still have the internet and everything to keep myself updated. I still have my parents and brother Bryan (also former cricketer) are there. I still have my ear to the ground there. The pigeons came home to roost. Some bad management and bad practices ensured that we ended up with this. As far as I am concerned they are getting what they deserve. Let’s hope they see the errors and start re-building.’’

Strang says Zimbabwe’s condition is more economic and says its tough only for those involved politically. ''If you do not get involved politically, it is just another third world country very tough to live in. And the real danger came from petty crime.’’

So who’s responsible for the mess in Zimbabwe? ''I don’t know . The waters got muddied, there was political issues, personal issues, personal agenda. Lot of money started pouring into Zimbabwean cricket and not necessarily as much going to players. Waters got muddied. Probably in the cold light of day it is very difficult to point a finger at one person or one thing. I think it was a lot of factors at the wrong time.’’