Srivatsa: Yes, modern sport is all about staying physically fit and avoiding injuries. Though there is greater awareness about performance-enhancing drugs, the sportspersons are taking short-cuts to fame and here, too, science has played a role, in some cases a negative one.

A sports medicine expert, a dietician and a trainer have become part of the back-up team of individual sportsmen and sportswomen as well as professional team.

I remember, some of Gavaskars contemporaries used to detest even calisthenics, leave alone rigorous work-out. Their concept of physical fitness was that they should be fit to bowl or bat and they need not needlessly punish their bodies with weight training at a gym. A decade or so before Gavaskar, players enjoyed a drink in the evening and some even smoked regularly. Then there are those who have taken to both drinking and smoking with vengeance once their playing days were over. But todays cricketers in India keep off these vices for fear of getting their careers shortened or ruined.

ComCom: Can you tell us how bio-science has helped cricket players to adapt themselves to the greater demands of stamina and stress management?

Srivatsa: Bio-science has helped not only a cricketer, but every modern sportsman and sportswoman in meeting the required levels of physical fitness for the sport he or she is pursuing. In cricket, to stay fit is a major concern of players as the volume of international cricket has increased manifold with One-day cricket making huge demands on them.

There was a time sportspersons used to hide their injuries, but today a trainer or a physio can find the injuries easily. The sportspersons themselves are very conscious about getting the injuries treated at the earliest to prevent them from turning chronic and jeopardize their careers.

There was a time when a bad back needed long rest, but todays medical theory is: Dont take a bad back lying!

For instance, an international tennis player consumes health drinks worth Rs 3,000 during a match. Come to think of it, fitness, training parameters and diet charts are different for different sports. Then there is the angle of doping and here the back-up medical team can help a sportsperson from taking banned substances unwittingly.

To stay stress-free, modern sportsman takes the help of a sports psychologist. The Indian cricket team had one during the last World Cup in South Africa and also on the recent tour to Australia. From time to time they also have the benefit of listening to spiritual discourses to build the strength of character.

ComCom: How the application of Mathematics and Physics have helped in better bowling and fielding?

Srivatsa: Today cricketers must have the knowledge of everything, from calculating run-rates in One-dayers and over-rates in tests to aerodynamics which go into things like reverse swing. Also, how the wind direction determines swing or which bowler should bowl into the wind which one against. Most important, how to control swing in windy conditions. All these involve calculations of mental mathematics.

ComCom: Do you think Video analysis of your opponents and of the matches played against your opponents will help in chalking out the winning strategy?

Srivatsa: Study of the video analysis of both the teams will certainly help to plan the strategy. These days a video analyst shoots every ball during the day and helps a batsman in going through his strengths and weaknesses and so also the bowlers of the opposing team. These will certainly help in ironing out flaws in technique. Its handy for a coach to discuss with players how they were going about. After the match most players go to the analyst to run through the footage of their performance.

ComCom: What about the role of science in studying environment conditions like visibility and forecast plus the velocity of wind? What about those stories of stadium gates being kept open when the home bowlers bowled to make use of the sea breeze wafting in and shut them when the visitors were bowling so as to block it?

Srivatsa: As you know weather can be a spoilsport and in the ultimate analysis, it plays a decisive role in a match. In most countries the weather forecasts are pretty accurate and today all international umpires use light metres to determine whether the light is fit for play or not. Forecast of weather conditions like heat, humidity and rain are now part of the preview of every game. In fact, these reports have found their way into the hands of bookies who freely offer bets on weather too.

ComCom: Have these minute scientific predictions indeed provide vital information for gamblers in offering and accepting a wager?

Srivatsa: Gambling parameters have no barriers. Anything you name, they are ready with a bet. Naturally, science has helped the bookies to come up with absolutely outlandish offers for the gamblers. Bookies start from the texture of the pitch and dry patches in the outfield to clouds and stars in the sky during a day-night game!

ComCom: Should science of cricket be introduced as a subject at Graduate/ Post graduate level? May be, appropriate certification from universities as a discipline as in the case of Film industry - acting, directing etc.?

Srivatsa: There are already institutes like Australian Institute of Cricket which offer diplomas and certificates for Level I and Level II and advanced courses for cricket coaches. Then there are universities which have courses in physical education with specialization in different sports like our own Netaji National Institute of Sport. I am afraid if the players themselves can take up these courses during their active playing days, but Science of Cricket can be a subject as part of the coaching manual. Who knows when astrology can be taught as a science why not cricket?

ComCom: As family rule has become the order of the day in politics, can cricket also become the sole preserve of elite families of cricket players?

Srivatsa: Not very easy, though there are examples of cricket running in blood. Like in Pakistan the famous Zaman Park clan of Khans from Lahore. Javed Burki, Majid Khan and Imran Khan and his father Jehangir Khan are all from an elite family. Likewise in Karachi, the Mohammad brothers, Hanif, Wazir, Mushtaq and Sadiq and Hanifs son Shoaib though they didnt posses the aura of the Khans of Punjab. In India there are fathers and their sons playing international cricket, like the Pataudis, Amarnaths, Gavaskars and Mankads. You have the Chappell brothers, two of them have captained Australia like their maternal grandfather Victor Rciardson in Australia. In South Africa, the Pollocks, Peter, Graeme and Peters son Shaun and in England, the Stewarts, Micky and Alec, and the Hadlees in New Zealand, Richard and Dayle, readily come to mind. It is only natural for children of sportspersons take to their parents sport.

ComCom: Do you think in near future Cricket players would be selected after testing for their physical fitness, for their suitability and then going through intense training for both the game and athletics - using advance simulators, like we do in Aircraft Pilots' training?

Srivatsa: Such experiments have been made over the years and the Russians seems to have succeeded to some extent. Some two decades ago the Russian sports medicine experts tried it out in India too. They said the raw material is essential to train sports persons. They wanted 6-foot-plus youth in the age-group of 14-17 for moulding them into volleyballers and basketballers. They chose Jodhput as the lab for the experiment as the Rajasthanis were considered best for height sports. Over 300 young men had turned up and some 70-odd boys were short-listed after they had fulfilled the fitness parameters laid down medically. These were the boys from the farming Jat community. The next morning their enraged parents objected to their sturdy children taking to sport because they needed them as farmhands! Today sport has moved to rural areas and cricket has a lot of international players from smaller towns, it is no longer a preserve of urban middle-class or the elite.

ComCom: Dont you think too much cosmetic frills have been introduced to convert cricket from a skill game to showbiz?

Srivatsa: Absolutely right. Every sport has been moulded to suit the requirements of television, even changing the format of the game. Too much of technology has come into sport to avoid errors of judgment and some sports have changed their basics like scoring pattern and format itself. Some of them have become fast-food counters for viewers.

In table tennis yellow balls have been introduced and the games have been shortened whereas in volleyball the scoring has been changed to remove the side-over concept wherein only serving side could score points. Snooker became a telly-savy sport with all the coloured balls and billiards had to undergo vast changes to attract viewers. All sorts of contraptions have been introduced to make sport more viewer-friendly like getting quick sound bites from coaches and players immediately after action in the middle of a game. That leaves nothing for imagination. Television has made every sport simple as well as complicated with its clinical analysis, introducing some kind of super specialization.

ComCom: Your advice to young cricketers and fans?

Srivatsa: Why only cricket, anyone taking to sport seriously today must be aware of the inputs that go into the game they are playing. Sport has ceased to be simple entertainment, it is professional and only the fittest will survive if he or she wants to excel. Its a full time avocation. It should also be realized that only a miniscule number have room at the top, but that should not deter them from pursuing the sport. Scores of cricketers can make a living out of the game at various levels even if they dont get to the top.

Thank you Sir, Good talking to you