Chucking should be treated as an injury, reveals Pragyan Ojha

Ojha announced his retirement from international and First Class cricket last week. He represented India in 24 Tests taking 113 wickets. On Tuesday, however, the 33-year-old turned out for BPCL in a league game of the 16th DY Patil T20 Cup in Nerul. Ojha is looking to continue playing at club level for a few more years and is keen to seek permission from the BCCI to allow him to play in a few leagues outside India as well.

In an exclusive chat with Times of India, the veteran offered advice to upcoming left-arm spinners, noting that there are plenty of opportunities to showcase their skills in the current scenario. 

“I believe there are so many opportunities. You tell me how many spinners are there in the country who are ready to go out there and play. I think there are four or five. So there's a lot of gap. So I feel if you can consistently perform in domestic cricket and go through the grind, you will be rewarded. Look at Nadeem (Shahbaz). He has done so well over the years for his state and whenever he has got a chance. At the end of the day, he did get an opportunity to play a Test for India. So you have to be mentally strong,” Ojha told TOI.

Ojha’s career, which was on the rise, was put on hold when he was accused of chucking and asked to work on his bowling action during the 2013/14 season. The Odisha man reckons it will be best to refrain from insult and treat such instances as injuries. The 33-year-old himself returned to bowling for his state side Hyderabad 22 days after being banned for his bowling action. He believes that 'chucking' should be treated and handled very carefully owing to the sensitivity attached to it. 

“When I started playing, I developed a few things which were not good for my career. Chucking is something that should be treated like an injury but not as an insult. Because when I heard about it, I was shaken. But imagine that something like that happened to a 14-15 year old player. So it should be treated very carefully and handled very sensitively. With me, the problem was that I was going diagonal and I started running straight. I was back in just 22 days and began playing for Hyderabad again. I played for India ‘A' as well. So that's how it went,” Ojha added.