On Harbhajan Singh's Advice, PCA Conducts Open Trials To Tap Village Talent

Most of them were raw, some even hadn't even held a leather ball in their hands before, forget about knowing the variations of grip. The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA), with an aim to create 'pace bowling bank', tried out more than 1000 bowlers in open trials between June 10-21 to tap into village talent. PCA short-listed 93 bowlers -- most of them not have not even ventured out of their respective villages. It was an idea of former India spinner Harbhajan Singh that PCA should visit the remote hamlets in the state to unearth cricketing talent.

Harbhajan, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, has been advising PCA on regaining its lost glory. He also wants the state unit to make proper utilisation of the funds it receives from the BCCI.

"I don't think many states have done this before -- Conduct open trials instead of restricting it to age-group. I wanted PCA to find raw pace bowling talents," Harbhajan, who is currently on a break with his family told PTI.

"In Punjab, we have some of the toughest lads and I refuse to believe that we won't have boys who can't be as quick as an Umran Malik or a Kuldeep Sen. The idea is to find them and help them grow into good bowlers. We have already identified 90-odd boys between age-group of 16 to 24," he added.

The Punjab state side, over the years, has had medium pacers like Sidarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma, Baltej Dhanda. Their bowling speed is in range of 125 kmph to 135 kmph.

Since VRV Singh's exit, Punjab has not seen a fast bowling talent who could consistently hit the 140 to 145 kmph on speed gun. The PCA, headed by secretary Dilsher Khanna then created a road-map and appointed former national selector Harvinder Singh along with former India pacers Manpreet Singh Gony and Gagandeep Singh to