Do engineers make better cricketers?

BANGALORE: At Monday's launch of the revamped Karnataka State Cricket Association Academy that is sponsored by Royal Challengers, some time was taken up by this long connection that Karnataka cricket has had with engineers. If EAS Prasanna was one of the frontrunners, the baton has passed on with the current set of KSCA office bearers, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath, two of India's bowling legends, keeping the torch burning."Perhaps we as engineers bring in more analytical skills,"said Srinath when asked about their engineering background and how it helped.Kumble, sitting alongside during a media interaction, nodded inagreement.Pointedly this engineering connection to cricket is notconfined to Karnataka but the South as such dominates the rest of the country.The current national selection committee chairman Krish Srikkanth is an engineeras is another former Indian captain from Tamil Nadu, S Venkatraghavan. Thelatest addition to the list is current India offie R Ashwin.Whethernon-engineers agree with the extra analytical bit or not, the fact that allthese worthies have found time to do both, play with distinction for the countryas well as complete their engineering degrees, sure says a lot of their abilityto multitask.The question remains though, does an engineering degreemake for a better cricketer?