'Sachin A LBW Candidate'

For bowlers the world over the singular mission hasbeen to find a chink in Sachin Tendulkar's armour. And now after a rare stringof three consecutive failures of the maestro, comes West Indian bowling legendAndy Roberts' statement that there are a few flaws in his technique.

"One of the things I have noticed is that he getsbehind the ball so much all the time that he is a leg before candidate,"Roberts said in an exlusive interview in St John's, Antigua, while helping outthe West Indies fast bowlers at the nets.

"He also doesn't push out (his legs) much. Thistour is the most I have seen of Sachin. I have never watched him that closebefore. He is a good player but like most players, he has his weaknesses,"said the affable Roberts.

"I have noticed a couple of things which I thinkwould be useful if I was bowling at Sachin," said Roberts with a twinkle inhis eyes.

Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman ofmodern era, was dismissed for 0, 0 and 8 in his last three knocks after scoringa century in the first innings of the second Test.

In four of his five Test innings on this tour, he hasbeen out leg before wicket.

Roberts, widely regarded as the father of modern WestIndies fast bowling, also rated Gundappa Viswanath a better batsman than SunilGavaskar on bouncy wickets.

"Sunny was a great player, probably one of thegreatest of all time. But on a bouncy wicket, he had his problems," Robertssaid about Gavaskar who has 13 Test hundreds from 27 Tests against West Indiesfor an aggregate of 2,749 runs at 65 plus average.

"Vishy in my estimation was a better player on abouncy wicket than Sunil. This was also because Vishy was a wristy player,"said Roberts.

Inevitably, Roberts was drawn to comment on Viswanath'sunbeaten 97 on a bouncy Madras pitch in the 1974-75 series, a Test which Indiawon handsomely.

"It was a great innings on a bouncy wicket. Alovely innings and he played very, very well. May be if the match was played twoyears later, India wouldn't have won the game.

"I was a lot more quicker two years lateron," said Roberts. "I was much quicker in Pakistan which we touredafter India." Roberts, like a true thoroughbred, also didn't find muchgreatness in the present batting line-up of World Champions Australia.

"When I look at them, I find a lot of deficiencyin today's Australian team. I think a lot of them are suspect against good,sustained short-pitched bowling. They always play on bouncy tracks but they arenever good players of true, short-pitched bowling.

"Adam Gilchrist is the most prolific scorer todayand is seen as a good player of short-pitched stuff but it depends on how youare bowling and where you are bowling," said Roberts, who in his heydaystook the English county cricket by storm.

"One of the things I have always preached is ifyou are a fast bowler, you are not just going to run in and bowl short. I likedbowling bouncers more than anyone else. But for my bouncers to be effective, thebatsman have to be playing on the front foot. Otherwise the bouncers are noteffective.

"If you are bowling the bouncer three quarters ofthe way, he is on his backfoot all the time. Also, if you are a fast bowler, youhave got to learn to swing the ball. Whether it is inswing or outswing.Everytime, you can't depend on the ball cutting in off the pitch. You have gotto swing it, especially if you are a new ball bowler. But the fast bowlers oftoday are not prepared to pitch it up," said Roberts.

However, Roberts had quite a few good words to sayabout the two Indian left-arm pacemen Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra.

"I think you have two good youngsters. By today'sstandards, if you are bowling 85 kmph, you are considered fairly quick." Healso defended the current West Indian fast bowlers and differed with skipperCarl Hooper, who said his bowlers had difficulty in pitching it on the off-stumpor outside it.

"I think they are bowling on the pads because amajority of our fast bowlers are delivering from outside the crease. In order toget the ball on to the stumps, they have to angle it in, push it in, so youcontinue going in with the angle and it appear as if they are bowling onpads," said Roberts.

PTI