Ranji player Arlen Konwar at the cricket coaching camp in Tinsukia on Friday. Telegraph picture

Guwahati, June 12: State ace spinner Arlen Konwar was under the scanner for his action two years ago, which robbed him of the opportunity to make it to the zonal squad and perhaps catch the attention of national selectors because he was at his peak form that time in the 2008-09 season.

To ensure that the next generation of cricketers in the state do not meet with a similar fate, the Ranji team mainstay worked on the action of the spinners in a coaching camp organised by the Tinsukia Railway Divisional Sports Club at the Tinsukia District Sports Association ground.

About 25 junior state players participated in the 20-day camp that ended today. Apart from Konwar, most of the senior players of NF Railways, based in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia, like Sunny Ahmed, Bimal Goswami, Biswajit Sarkar, Saurav Bhagawati, Samarjit Nath and Dipankar Banerjee are into the grooming inititative in the camp.

“We emphasised the fitness schedule on the lines of our summer camps organised by the Assam Cricket Association. We worked on the technical aspects like batting, fielding and bowling techniques. I concentrated on the spin bowling aspects like arm alignment, leg alignment, releasing technique, etc. These basics are very essential to be a successful bowler,” Konwar told The Telegraph from Tinsukia. The camp included fitness drills from 8am to 11am and skill training from 3pm to 6pm everyday. “This kind of camps not only benefits the trainees but also ourselves because we get the opportunity to work on our fitness during the so-called off-season when we don’t have matches to play. We can also work on our own technical aspects,” he added.

The players based in Upper Assam take up similar camps every year ahead of the ACA summer camps. Like Konwar, Ranji player Saurav Bhagawati worked on the batting techniques of the trainees. “The camp was of a very short duration where we could not deal with temperament building. But it was enough to work on the footwork, batlift and running between wickets,” he said over phone.

The Dibrugarh Cricket Coaching Centre will organise a similar camp at Dibrugarh next month.