Gloucestershire spinner Vikram Banerjee has been training Maninder Singh

For the past few days, the Karnail Singh Stadium has seen a reunion of sorts for the left arm orthodox spinning community. One is a former international, the second is trying hard to make another comeback, and the third is hopeful of simply making that cut.

For five days, Gloucestershire Cricket Club’s young left-arm spinner Vikram Banerjee has been sweating it out at the Railways’ practice pitches under the watchful eyes of Maninder Singh. Murali Kartik brought the duo in touch after Banerjee approached him to help plan for the future. “I know Kartik because we play against his county (Middlesex) three-four times a year. He recommended Mr Singh to me,” Banerjee says.

Luckily for him, Maninder was in England at that time and so they met and decided on a two-week training programme to help make him a better bowler.

“We decided it was better for him to come here and train for two weeks, because a day or two would have been of no help,” Singh says. Singh adds that one of the reason for asking Banerjee to come and train here is to see Kartik bowl in these conditions. Here, he is bowling at the nets daily to try out a new programme. In five days, Maninder has already begun work to change his ‘front-on’ action. “I have asked him to bowl with a side-on action, which will help him turn the ball more. If he continues following this programme for six months, he will go places,” Singh adds.

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