There is always a tinge of self-satisfaction in his movements and talking and you cannot blame him for that. He is Andy Roberts – a six feet one inch pace demon and he knows his worth. Being one of the most fearsome bowlers in the history of the game to engender genuine quick deliveries, Andy enjoyed the golden era of West Indies with his equally famous compatriots.

This correspondent caught Andy during his bowling training session with the Under-19 boys in BKSP Indoor. It was a sultry morning and the heat was unendurable. As the outfield was wet due to overnight rain, Andy decided on Indoor practice with his students.

The robust fast bowler was sweating to every pore while he was giving directions to the kid pace bowlers. Among his disciples Talha and Shafaq was pitching the ball very fast. Roberts seemed to be very optimistic about both and also about Kowshik, who had to take a lay-off due to injury.

" Two of the players from Under-19 should be given a chance in the Bangladesh-A team. At least two of them I can tell you for sure right now. I hope they are good enough to prove their worth. You are going to get a couple of real quickies within a few years who would bowl 90 miles per hour." said the formidable Antiguan.

" My general assessment is Bangladesh has few talented players, but I still think more can be done. I would be very surprised if we don't have talented players hanging around somewhere around Bangladesh. They should be searched for," he disclosed while he was asked what he thought about the future of Bangladesh cricket.

He was the kind of a bowler who rocked all the batsmen in his time with lethal short-pitchers. The name "Andy Roberts" was a terror to a batsman in those pre-helmet days. Helmet was brought on for the first time in 1979; before that even the classy batsmen had to strive for survival against this giant's hostility for six years.

" Bouncers are very important when they come with different variations. You have to control the ball, detect the weaknesses of the batsman and work accordingly – and remember fast bouncers often shudder the confidence of the batsman no matter how good he is in dealing with that."

He thinks a genuine fast bowler hits the highest point of his form between the ages of 25 to 28. It is the time when he gains stronger legs and bowling maturity supported by sheer pace and diversity.

" There are two points – if you want to bowl fast then concentrate on releasing the ball fast with control along with it as we are doing here. I am not asking them to bowl on accurate line and length. First I am telling them to bowl as fast as they can. A better line and length will come later instinctively."

Roberts took a pause, shared out some tips among the youths who were firing in the net. He bowled several deliveries to demonstrate how to get on with situations when a batsman looked set with the wicket.

The pitches of Bangladesh appear as drawbacks for pace bowlers. Andy took an opposite stand at this popular belief saying,

" Bowling fast has nothing to do with the pitch. Once the ball hits the surface it does not gather pace – it slows down. The ball never increases its pace once it hits the track, no matter how fast the pitch is. If you have pace, you will get wickets no matter how slow is the surface. You can look at Pakistan where the pitches are almost similar to those of Bangladesh, but they are yielding a lot of quick bowlers. You have to build up a belief that you will have to bowl real fast – and that is doable."

This is Andy Roberts, a mirror image of his crushing predecessors like Hall or Roy Gilchrist or Charlie Griffith, the wild bowlers that made even the viewers tremble when they started running from their end. In 1976, an electronic device read Roberts firing at 97.8 miles per hour.

The session started packing up. The brawny West Indian dispatched one final remark before leaving the hallway,

" You have to be patient being the youngest Test nation because success does not come easily. Only try to do your best – and often that works."

© CricInfo