Few cricketers have polarised opinion like he did in recent times, but S. Sreesanth is still adored by young cricketers in Kerala.
The former India speedster, whose ban for involvement in the IPL spot-fixing scandal ends in September, is still the ‘Big Brother’ to this generation of Kerala cricketers.
Not surprising when Ranji stars Sachin Baby, M.D. Nidheesh, Basil Thampi and others train with him at his S36 Cricket Academy.
Gearing up
The lockdown has kept Sreesanth occupied as he gears up for what he says will be a second debut. While his obsession with body-building is well documented, Sreesanth has added meditation and yoga to his daily routine. And these days he spends a lot of time reading and is halfway through writing a book.
In a candid web interaction with trainees of SAI Regional Coaching Centre, Sreesanth said he welcomed the ban on saliva. He said the pandemic was “a blessing in disguise” to get rid of the old custom.
Use sweat
“As a bowler, I don't think you need saliva to maintain the ball. You can use sweat. But the key is not to make the ball too wet and it is important to limit the number of players maintaining the condition of the ball,'' he said.
Sreesanth stressed the need for youngsters to do prehab workouts to prevent injuries and also talked about the importance of tennis-ball cricket.
Prehab training
“Prehab training is a good concept. A lot of people will differ with me on tennis-ball cricket, but it stood me in good stead,” he said. He added that tennis-ball cricket had taught him to handle pressure and helped increase his pace.
The 37-year-old said he was willing to teach and learn from youngsters. For example, he said, he had learnt to bowl a few different deliveries from Nidheesh and Thampi. Sreesanth said he still longed to win back a place in the Indian team and added his goal was to see Kerala win the Ranji and Irani trophies.