For 20 years, the MRF Pace Academy has been shaping uncut stones into fast bowling gems. But the future looks uncertain after the BCCI cut off all links with the home of fast bowling in India. Sandeep Dwivedi travels to Chennai to find out how they’re dealing with the snub

GANESH is a humble, unassuming man. But for someone who doesn’t know what he does for a living, he might come across as a man in the habit of name-dropping. In the living room of his home, he speaks about Sachin Tendulkar’s love for dahi vada. While showing off his book collection, he talks about Javagal Srinath’s tendency to borrow cricket literature and forget about it. Steve Waugh isn’t a mere writer on his bookshelf, but someone who he has accompanied on the philanthropic cricketer’s trip to the home of spastic children. He proudly displays a mini autograph bat with signatures of Denis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Brett Lee and Michael Holding. For effect, he adds, “there aren’t many bats around the world with so many Test wickets on them.”

But Ganesh isn’t being pompous. When you have lived at R-45, 15th Street, Annanagad in Chennai for the last 13 years, brushing shoulders with stars is an everyday affair. The above location has been in the address books of several past and present cricket stars as this happens to be the home for MRF Pace Foundation trainees. As for Ganesh, he is the long-standing warden here.

As one looks at the present occupants of this house of pacers noisily enjoying the lunch in the dinning room lined with pictures of the legends of the game, not one face looks familiar. They are promising juniors or Ranji players, who dream of emulating several internationals who have sat at the same table in this 20-year-old institution. Fourteen MRF products have played for India and international stars such as Chaminda Vaas, Mohammad Asif, Mitchell Johnson and Simon Jones have fond memories of their trips here.

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