KOCHI: Very few had been able pull off a dream debut in international cricket like Tinu Yohannan. The athletic medium pacer was one of them, claiming a wicket in the very first over he bowled in the highest arena at the age of 22.
Bagging three more wickets in the India-England Test at Mohali in 2001, Tinu emerged as a promising bowler with decent pace and movement. He was expected to go places, but left the field quietly after a few outings, and quite a few matches warming the bench.
Though it comes back and hurts him, Tinu — the first ever homegrown cricketer from Kerala to play for India — is not tied down by the baggage of his premature exit from international cricket. For he is now a man with a new mission — to help create a team capable of winning the Ranji Trophy in the next three years.
Drafted in as the Kerala’s bowling coach, to assist chief coach Sairaj Bahutule, Tinu said all his focus now was on giving back what he learned while playing for the country. Of course, he learnt a lot while he was not within Team India.
“I had a knee injury during India A’s tour of New Zealand in 2003. Due to back-to-back matches, it got aggravated and started affecting my run-up. I am a bowler who depends a lot on the run-up and it started showing in my bowling. The next year, 2004, was supposed to be my come back year, but I could not make a mark,” recalls Tinu.
Had he debuted at a later stage in his career, he would have lasted longer in international cricket, he feels.
“I didn’t know how to cope with an injury-induced slump and come out of it. I was injured for a while and it took a pretty long-lasting toll on me, mentally. Looking at what the present bowlers do, I have realised what I should have done,” the son of legendary long jumper T C Yohannan says.
For Tinu, it was one of the biggest lessons he had learned from cricket — to be able to fight in the face of adversity. And this is one point he has been trying to impress upon his trainees over and over again.
“If we have to improve the quality of our cricket, we need to have players who are confident of their abilities. Cricket is an 80 percent mental game. If you are strong mentally, you will be in a position to use your skills more effectively,” notes the now 35-year-old paceman, who has been with the Kerala team for five camps since his appointment in June.
He said his association with former India leg-spinner Bahutule and Kerala cricket director, former India stumper Chandrakant Pandit, both of them having vast cricketing experience both on and off the field, has helped him evolve as a coach.
“Primarily, my job is that of a physical trainer. On top of that, I coach the pacers as well. Though we concentrate on three different aspects of coaching, we make sure that out efforts complement each other and work towards providing holistic development to the players,” he points out.
Tinu, whose first test as a coach comes during the South Zone Subbiah Pillai limited overs cricket tournament, says he is in the coach’s garb to stay.
The dream debut
Propelled by a 19-wicket haul in the 2000-01 Ranji Trophy season, Tinu made it to the national team for the opening test match of the England tour of India in Mohali in 2001. He took a wicket in the very first over he bowled, an achievement very few bowlers in the world can boast of. Mark Butcher failed to read his fourth delivery and was caught in the second slip by VVS Laxman