Cricket: Sharp learning curve for Jeetan Patel

Jeetan Patel celebrates a wicket against South Africa in Johannesburg. Picture / Reuters

Jeetan Patel must be one of the few young men in the country who'd be happy to wear "L" plates for the rest of his life.

New Zealand's latest slow bowling hope, the 25-year-old Wellington off-spinner raised eyebrows earlier this month when he turned in a man-of-the-match performance against Sri Lanka, in his first international outing on home soil.

Not only did he beat the Sri Lankans at their own game, he also managed to prevail through the most dangerous part of Sri Lanka's run-chase, plying his trade right up until the 46th over, ending with 2-23.

The performance supported coach John Bracewell's theory that Patel had the tools to be an unlikely asset for New Zealand as a death bowler, and almost certainly provided a timely boost for his World Cup chances.

Bracewell had initially justified Patel's selection for the winter tours to Zimbabwe and South Africa on the basis of his parsimony late in the innings, an asset first noticed during a match-winning spell in a State Shield contest against Auckland.

The right-armer played three games as a super sub during the visits, recording his best performance in the opening one-dayer at Bloemfontein when he finished with 2-48.

But it was his show-stopping effort at Wellington this month that had cricket fans wondering whether the long-time search for an understudy to Daniel Vettori was finally over.

Patel was in his element at the Cake Tin, producing the sort of loop and drift that had former convener of selectors Ross Dykes waxing lyrical about a teenage Vettori in 1996.

Patel said it had taken him some time, but he now finally appreciated the need to keep learning as an elite player - not only about his game, but also about opponents.

For all that, he said he couldn't think of a more difficult learning curve than the one confronted by young spin bowlers, and believed the trick was to understand that there were always lessons to be learnt, regardless of age and experience.

"It is tough for young spinners," he said. "You get carted for 20 runs off an over and have to front up again, but that's the apprenticeship that you have to go through.

"Everyone's going to have a crack at the slow bowler. They may not feel the same way about a straight-up fast-bowler, but the spinner is seen as fair game for No 1 to No 11.

"You have to deal with that as a young player, and most importantly, you have to be a good learner. Things happen for a reason. If you get hit for six, there's always something you can take out of it.

"If you don't learn, you keep getting hit for six."

The son of Indian parents but born and raised in the eastern suburbs of Wellington, Patel said it was normal for young players to think of learning in terms of their age, as if there was some cut-off point when it wasn't any longer relevant.

From personal experience, he now understood the need to keep learning throughout his career; that learning was the catalyst for improvement at all ages, and that he needed to improve to increase his value as a player.

Patel said the requirement applied just as much to the way he went about his bowling as it did to the way he thought about his bowling. "For a young spinner, especially, it's difficult to keep a sense of perspective about your bowling and to avoid getting too worked up," he said.

"You have to learn to forget the previous ball or over or whatever, and give your full attention to the next one. You need to learn to look forward to the next ball, next over or next game, rather than worrying about the past.

"That's something that I needed to work on a lot - just learning that 'what's happened has happened' and that it can't be changed; to concentrate on my next job rather than my last one."

Patel showed promise as a young spinner and found doors opening for him as he progressed through age-group teams and high school, until he was selected to attend the national academy, and then to make his first-class debut as a 19-year-old.

At that stage, he conceded, the game seemed almost too easy for him, and particularly after he enjoyed a relatively successful first season for Wellington, taking 16 wickets in five outings, including a five-wicket bag.

"When you're 18 or 19 years old it's difficult to appreciate the work ethic required and the sacrifices that need to be made," he said. "You feel bullet-proof, especially if you've done okay at school, been taken into the national academy, and performed reasonably well in your first provincial season.

"But the following season was a reality check, and threw up a few challenges for me. All of a sudden things weren't going the way I wanted, the confidence was rocked a bit, and I knew I had to work out a way to get better.

"I realised that if was ever going to go any further in the game I needed to step up my work ethic."

Patel said it helped that he was playing alongside the likes of Chris Nevin and Stephen Fleming at that stage, an experience that made him realise that he wasn't necessarily far away from the next level up.

He said he distinctly remembers thinking, 'I could get there too, if only I copied the amount of work they did, and added a bit more on top'.

"Finger spinners in New Zealand are never going to go very far until they've learnt their trade properly, although that's something I could never get my head around when I was younger."

Although proud of his Indian heritage, Patel said all his cricket influences had been Kiwi and that he'd been extremely fortunate to be associated with Wellington when they had experienced players such as the Flemings and Nevins, and a committed coach in Vaughn Johnson.

Cricket is a confidence game, he said, and the need to be surrounded by people who assisted in that regard was paramount if a player was to carry an adequate sense of self-belief.

"It's vital to be able to call on people you know you can trust," he said. "Confidence can take you to another level. Batting, bowling or fielding - if you're feeling confident about your game then you're more likely to perform well. Having people around that help you feel good about yourself is crucial."


Jeetan Shashi Patel

* Wellington and New Zealand
* Age: 25
* ODIs: 4
* ODI debut: Zimbabwe v New Zealand, Harare, 2005
* Last ODI: New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Wellington, 2006
* Best: 2-23 v Sri Lanka, 2005-06
* First-class: 92 wickets at 40.50
* One-dayers: 35 wickets at 39.34