MRF Pace Foundation is a coaching clinic for training fast bowlers

Fast bowling

Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...

 from all over the world. This was created with the help of former Australian

Australian cricket team

The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...

 pace spearhead Dennis Lillee

Dennis Lillee

Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...

. Through this program, young aspiring fast bowlers are trained under Dennis Lillee in a facility located at the campus of Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School, Chetpet, Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

. Fast bowlers who trained with the MRF

Madras Rubber Factory

Madras Rubber Factory, popularly known as MRF, is a major tyre manufacturing company located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.The name was later changed as "Manorama Rubber Factory". MRF is mainly involved in making vehicle tyres. It is India's largest tyre manufacturing company, and among the dozen...

 Pace Foundation that went on to represent India include Javagal Srinath

Javagal Srinath

Javagal Srinath is a former Indian cricketer. He was a frontline fast bowler for the Indian cricket team until his retirement, being the second Indian pace bowler after Kapil Dev to take 200 Test wickets. One ball that he bowled during the 1996 tour of South Africa measured...

, Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan is an Indian cricketer who made his debut for India in late-2003 and was a core member of the national team until a decline in form set in during 2006, forcing him out of the team...

, Munaf Patel

Munaf Patel

Munaf Musa Patel Urdu:مناف موسی پٹیل is an Indian cricketer who has also played for the West Zone in the Duleep Trophy and Gujarat, Mumbai cricket team and Maharashtra cricket team....

, Venkatesh Prasad

Venkatesh Prasad

Bapu Krishnarao Venkatesh Prasad is a former Indian cricketer. He is the bowling coach for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, having formerly performed the same role for the Indian cricket team from 2007 to 2009. He made his debut in 1996...

, Rudra Pratap Singh

Rudra Pratap Singh

Rudra Pratap Singh Hindi:आर पी सिंह is a left arm fast-medium bowler who has represented India in one day cricket, T20 and Test cricket. He is playing for Kochi Tuskers Kerala for 2011 IPL.R.P...

, Zaheer Khan

Zaheer Khan

Zaheer Khan is an Indian cricketer who has been a member of the Indian cricket team since 2000. A left arm fast bowler considered as the best of the Indian fast bowling attack, Zaheer is known for his ability to swing the ball both ways, and as a batsman also holds the record for the highest Test...

 and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth

Sreesanth , is an Indian cricketer. He is a right-arm fast-medium-pace bowler and a right-handed tail-ender batsman. In first class cricket, he plays for Kerala and in the Indian Premier League, he plays for Kochi Tuskers Kerala...

. Besides Indian players, foreign players like Chaminda Vaas

Chaminda Vaas

Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas , usually known as Chaminda Vaas, is a Sri Lankan cricketer is regarded as the best fast bowler to have come out of the country - he has been described as the 'most penetrative and successful new-ball bowler Sri Lanka have had'...

, Henry Olonga, Heath Streak

Heath Streak

Heath Hilton Streak is a former Zimbabwean cricketer. He made his Test debut in Zimbabwe's tour of Pakistan 1993/1994 making his mark by taking 8 wickets in the 2nd Test at Rawalpindi...

 and Australian fast bowlers Glenn McGrath

Glenn McGrath

Glenn Donald McGrath AM , nicknamed "Pigeon", is a former Australian cricket player. He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century...

, Mitchell Johnson

Mitchell Johnson

Mitchell Johnson may refer to:*Mitchell Johnson , American painter*Mitchell Johnson , Australian cricketer*Mitchell Johnson , Australian association footballer*Mitchell Johnson , American juvenile mass murderer...

 and Brett Lee

Brett Lee

Brett Lee is an Australian cricketer.After breaking into the Australian Test team, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket...

 have also trained at the Foundation. Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an Indian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and one-day international cricket. He is the only male player to score a double century in the history of ODI cricket...

 in his School days trained in the MRF Pace Foundation to become a fast bowler.

As well as this, they sponsored a blimp

Blimp

A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is a floating airship without an internal supporting framework or keel. A non-rigid airship differs from a semi-rigid airship and a rigid airship in that it does not have any rigid structure, neither a complete framework nor a partial keel, to help the airbag...

 which was flown over every match of the 2010 Indian Premier League

2010 Indian Premier League

The 2010 Indian Premier League season, abbreviated as IPL 3 or the 2010 IPL, was the third season of the Indian Premier League, established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in 2007. The tournament was hosted by India and had an estimated television audience of more than 200 million...

.

External links

• Official Website of MRF Pace Foundation