Dennis Lillee's disciple makes it to the Indian team
Santhosh S - 29 November 2001

© CricInfo

Audio Interview

Tinu Yohannan is the complete athlete; faster, higher and stronger all put together. He is also the first player from the state of Kerala to be included in the Indian cricket squad. The 22-year-old tall fast bowler might very well play his first Test on Monday at Mohali against England. Yohannan had earlier impressed the selectors with his bowling in the Irani Trophy match against Baroda, where he charged in and bowled at good pace even at the fag end of the day, prompting one of the selectors to say that India needs players with such commitment.

Yohannan took to high-jump as a young boy and won gold at the state school level and also silver at the junior state level. The genes have been passed from his father TC Yohannan, gold-medal winner in long jump in the 1974 Asian Games and the first Asian to cross the eight-metre mark.

Yohannan is from the small hamlet of Edapally near Kochi, the queen of Arabian Sea, in Kerala. He represented his school - Bhavan's Vidya Mandir Elamakkara - in the state CBSE championships and won gold in high jump. It was during the summer vacation after his tenth-grade examinations that Yohannan went over to the MRF Pace Academy to learn fast bowling. Yohannan had earlier talked to the head coach at MRF, TA Sekhar, over the phone. The selection trials were all over and yet Sekhar called him in to the nets to have a bowl along with other trainees, a decision that makes Sekhar that much more proud today.

Talking over the phone with CricInfo, the usually shy lad couldn't hide his happiness. "I am really happy to be selected for the Indian team. I am really thankful to the Kerala Cricket Association and the MRF Pace Academy for helping me through to make it thus far. I will always be indebted to Dennis Lillee and TA Sekhar for their guidance and support. I am proud to be an Indian and I will give more than my best for the team."

In his eight Ranji Trophy appearances for Kerala, Yohannan has picked only 24 first-class wickets. Clearly, the selectors have gone in for talent and work ethic than the number of wickets. Yohannan played for the Board President's XI against England in Hyderabad and, soon after the match, he spoke about his career and ambitions in an exclusive interview to CricInfo. "If I know anything about fast bowling, it is all because of my guru Dennis Lillee. The four years that I spent with Sekhar at the MRF academy have taught me a lot about fast bowling."

Here is a player who believes in plain hard work. He has two five-wicket hauls in the Ranji Trophy so far and reckons that being selected for the Irani Trophy was a pivotal moment in his career. "I just wanted to give 100 percent and wait for the results," says Yohannan about his approach to the Irani Trophy match. When asked about his playing against an international side for the first time, which was incidentally against England at Hyderabad last week, Yohannan said, "I was very happy to hear about the selection, which I came to know about through the morning newspaper. I was nursing some hope of making it into the team."

Yohannan bowled 11 overs in four different spells in the first innings and struggled to find his rhythm. But the young man took it as an opportunity and a learning experience to be bowling at the foreign players. It was a determined Yohannan who charged in to bowl at the English batsmen in their second essay. Madan Lal, who was the team manager, had advised him to bowl stump-to-stump on a docile track. The advice from the former Indian opening bowler and the current national selector did the trick; Yohannan bowled with a lot of fire to surprise a few Englishmen.

The young fast bowler was very much impressed by Nasser Hussain's driving on the rise and the back-foot play of Michael Vaughan. The champagne moment of the three-day match was when Yohannan shattered the stumps of Vaughan, who was shaping to play at a really quick delivery that cut back in a shade. The off and middle stumps went flying in a spectacular manner. Perhaps that was the one ball that changed the life of this soft-spoken youngster.

Yohannan was looking forward to playing in the four Ranji Trophy matches for Kerala. Talking about the goals that he has set for the season, Yohannan said, "I want Kerala to qualify for the knock-out stage. I have to give my best, bowl aggressively and retain my fitness to achieve that." His mates would not mind missing him from the Ranji team; it is indeed an honour for the small state of Kerala that one of their boys could well be playing in a Test match on Monday.

© Cricinfo Ltd.