Save the fast bowlers

At present there’s a Dale Steyn, a Morne Morkel, a James Anderson or Steve Finn, but there isn’t any Wasim, Waqar or Ambrose. In the modern era those adventurous fast bowlers are missing. There isn’t any teasing, bouncing or bewildering the batsmen on a frequent basis. The modern day fast bowlers are more mechanic, more methodical. The all-guns-blazing characters are missing.

One of the major reasons of this drought of the adventurous fast bowlers have been the overdose of cricket being played throughout the year which scripts injuries to the fast bowlers and make them quite robotic in their approach. Jam packed international fixtures are quite good for the batsmen as one failure can be erased with another innings around the corner, but they put a heavy work load on the modern day fast men and traps them with the tendency to bowl smart enough – reduction of pace, shortened run up and not experimenting enough.  

Fast bowling is a physically demanding job. According to Jeff Lawson, “At the moment of impact on the popping crease up to twenty times the bowlers body weight is transferred through the leading foot, through ankle, shin, knee, hip and via lower back rotation up through the shoulder and eventually into the arm and wrist.” All the fast bowlers of proven class have managed to go through an hour of this complex mechanism let alone a Test match. Fast bowlers suffer the consequences of working at their limits of physical tolerance.

Fast bowlers are never 100% fit. There will always be a niggle which is needed to be forgotten totally and locked in the mental compartment until a day’s play is over. And when more work load is added upon these speed stars then the body fails to meet the demands – injuries follow. And to avoid such injuries a fast bowler is advised to bowl more on ‘the corridor,’ ‘the channel’ and ‘getting it on the  right areas’. There are no ambitious but stereotyped speed merchants at present. And the emergence of the Twenty20 has taken  a massive toll on the fast men as the rhetoric of fast bowling is accented to negate and nagging rather than beating or bewildering – prime target is to avoid the injuries.

The sufferer is cricket which has become more and more batsmen vs batsmen rather than batsmen vs bowler game. The lack of adventure amongst the modern day fast bowlers is killing the exciting part of cricket. The massive sixes of Chris Gayle are great to watch but the contest certainly reaches its peak when a raring fast bowler bewilders Gayle with his following delivery with fearsome pace and guile. But they don’t happen as the modern fast men don’t give enough effort or experiment only to avoid injuries.

But this one dimensional cricket must not continue and the contest must be a simmering one between the bat and ball. And to make the contest simmering preservation of the fast bowlers are very important. In South Africa and Australia some young fast men are cropping up. They have the mojo and the ingredients of the likes of Lillee, Imran, Akram and Ambrose, but they must not let their natural fast bowling abilities sacrifice to ‘bowling smart’ only to cope with this hectic international fixture of modern times.

Yes, to save the fast bowlers it’s very important to make a right balance in the international fixtures. I agree with Ian Chappell’s suggestion, “The administrators need to formulate a cooperative approach to devise a workable schedule, one that is acceptable to the players and that satisfies the financial needs of the game. Any discussion on a grand plan for cricket's future should include the option of playing only two forms of the game, or of retaining three versions but scheduling T20 cricket as a club-only franchise model.”

But will the administrators going to follow such suggestions? I am not sure. But to set-free cricket from the one dimensional joke this suggestion is instrumental. The injection of fast bowlers is needed to make the modern day cricket more adventurous. 

Thank You

Faisal Caesar