With proper guidance fast bowlers can reduce the amount of injuries they suffer © Cricinfo Ltd

Fast bowlers and injuries go hand in hand. They break down much more often than other players, and it has sometimes to do with lack of guidance at younger levels. For a youngster, a Shoaib Akhtar or a Brett Lee running in and bowling at close to 150kmph is an appealing sight. He wants to emulate what he sees; all he wants to do is run fast and scare a batsman.

When I was a youngster, I used to watch the India-Pakistan Tests and I only wanted to bowl like Kapil Dev and Imran Khan. At such a stage in one's career, there is a lot of enthusiasm and passion, but the skill isn't developed. This is where a good coach can help and eliminate injuries that are the bane of a fast bowler's life. At a young age, it is easy to get into bad habits, which may result in injuries at a later stage. For example if someone has a mixed action, when the lower body is side-on and the upper body is open-chested, he is only inviting the stress fracture of the back. Many careers have ended before they start because of lack of guidance at the foundation levels.

Once a player gets injured, a proper rehabilitation process plays a big part in rescuing his career. When I used to play, there were no physios or trainers with the team: the masseur would do every job. The only advice an injured player would get is, "Take rest." Then he would take rest, stay away for a couple of months, and come back feeling he is okay. But because he hadn't gone through proper rehabilitation, he would break down again and get frustrated and leave the game.

When a player is injured, he is desperate to get back to playing cricket at the highest level; he doesn't want to miss a single game. But if there is a physio, he can let him know what extent he can push himself to. The player is usually ready to take the plunge, but he needs a guide to tell him what lengths he go to.

I went through a shoulder injury in 1993 and was off cricket for four months. The only person I could go to then was my family physio, Sandhya Waingankar. I would travel all the way to see her by train. It would take me 45 minutes to one hour and sometimes I would do that twice a day. At that time that was all I could do, I didn't have access to anybody else.

Things have changed now; we have become much more professional and aware. Nowadays the traveling physio can minimise the impact of the injury in the first few hours, which are crucial. Still, there is a lack of quality trainers and physios who specialise in sport. If a player gets into improper rehabilitation, the amount of stress he goes through affects his performance, and often he gets injured again. If the injury occurs during the season, it's likely he stays out for that season and sets himself up for another.

SS Paul is an example of how a player should go about with his rehabilitation. He had a knee injury last season, had to undergo a surgery, and missed the entire season. But I made sure that he travelled with the team. He would go the grounds and dressing rooms, even if he was not playing. That kept him in touch with the physio and the trainer, and also his team-mates. This season he has come back well and looks fit.

Once a player has recovered he should make sure he plays some club cricket before he starts playing first-class cricket. There is cricket throughout the year in Mumbai, while that is not possible with many other associations. These club matches give the players a chance to test themselves, and players need to think in those terms as well.

It is surely frustrating when a player sees his friends and competitors playing and knows he can't play. But this is something he has to accept and get on with. It has happened many times that a player knows he is just about 80 per cent recovered, but still goes ahead and plays the first game of the season. By doing that, he risks another injury and lets the team down as well. It is a long journey back from an injury, which involves a lot of hard work, patience, medical expertise, and at times frustration. But once you have got injured, there are few alternatives or short-cuts.

	A coach has to be a good communicator © Cricinfo Ltd

In modern-day cricket, a team without a coach is like a rudderless ship. Some purists may ridicule the concept, but the game has progressed in such a manner that the captain would be better off with some off-field help. Strategising has always been an important part of cricket, but in this cutting-edge era, its importance can hardly be overstated.

If you see a coach working with a player - laptop for company - and wearing a hassled look, it’s because he is trying to work around a problem. Tackling it head-on is impossible because the players have developed set patterns in their younger days. If not taught the right things at a young age, players get into bad habits. A lot of time and opportunities are lost if the coach at the higher level has to undo all that and teach them anew. That’s what makes the role of a player’s first coach critical.

A coach at the junior level has to play other roles too. It's not just about batting, bowling and fielding - it's about understanding the player. India is a vast country; players come from different regions and backgrounds. Different players have different sensitivities and the coach has to be flexible. A coach needs to understand what really influences the player's motivation. Some players come from a poor background and can't even buy their kit. It's the duty of the coach to make sure they don't feel out of place.

When we started playing cricket, we used to work with Achrekar sir [Ramakant Achrekar]. He used to treat the players as his own children. His principle was simple: the more cricket we played, the more we would learn. And he would go out of his way to help players achieve that motive. I remember that for [junior level] matches, he would take me with him on his scooter and drive me all the way from Shivaji Park to Cross Maidan [more than 10 km] and back.

The common bond was the enjoyment. We enjoyed playing cricket under him and he enjoyed coaching us. That factor is sometimes missing nowadays - because coaching has become more about high elbow, proper technique and biomechanics, etc. We need to retain the enjoyment factor at the young age because the real pressures are yet to follow at that time.

The role of a coach at the Ranji Trophy level is different although a thorough knowledge of the game is essential here too. The player who has made it to a Ranji side does not need that much work on the technical side. Here the coach has to be a good man-manager and a tactician. The Ranji sides are a mix of players with different interests. There are youngsters making first-class debuts, there are veterans and there are players on the verge of national selection. So apart from managing the technical side, a coach has to get the diverse players to play as one unit.

A Ranji coach has to be a good communicator. I have worked with Frank Tyson for a long time, and having worked with him has helped me realise the importance of communicating well with the players.

A Ranji team's coach is also a master tactician. The Ranji season is a long one, during which a team goes through many ups and downs; some teams completely transform during a season. So there is a major role that a coach plays. There has to be an overall pre-season plan, and plans for every match, which have to be very flexible. The coach in that capacity plays a bigger role than at the international level, because it is easy in domestic matches to send a message across if the things are not going well on the field. During international matches, you can see the coach intervene maximum once or twice because once on the field, it's a captain's game.

With the advent of the video analysis and other technological advancements, coaching has changed a lot. The laptop is not just one fashionable accessory, but something that can be of great help if used properly. The idea is to find out the shortcoming with a player, sit with him and show him what is going wrong, and then find a solution. That is where technology can help because, for example, if you have the backing data, it is easy to convince a bowler he has been bowling too much on the short side.

There was a time when the coach at the Ranji Trophy level would just oversee a training session and give a pep talk before the start of the match. But the role of the coach has undergone a massive change over the years. A good coach, nowadays, especially at the Ranji level, can be the difference between a winning and a losing side.