Batting may be cricket’s heartbeat but fast bowling is its pulse. The pulse though is witnessing a rapid descent of sorts with the tearaways somewhat losing their way. Never a constant feature in any bowling lineup, apart from possibly the West Indies till the nineties, the speed merchant is now, due to unresponsive pitches, unkinder rules and cruel schedules, almost approaching extinction. Rabada !!! … say the optimists but that is exactly the point… and who else…. say the naysayers.
The search for the genuine fast bowler – the sort capable of putting the fear of god into the batsman – Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, Allan Donald from a recent generation and Jeff Thompson, Andy Roberts , Michael Holding from another era is always on .
In recent memory one can remember Mitchell Johnson sending the batsmen scurrying for cover during the Ashes series in 2013-2014 and putting a ignominious and hasty end to the career of a traumatized Jonathan Trott. A spell of 7-40 at the Adelaide Oval on a flat deck at the Adelaide Oval reminded old timers of similar experiences of batsmen across the globe against the West Indian pace quartet.
The fear of physical hurt (despite the layers of protection now available) adds a different dimension to the contest.
The decision to play a ball in a particular way (if one is actually allowed that opportunity) is almost instinctive and Greg Chappell, rated as one of the best players of fast bowling, had this to say about the West Indian bowlers. “At that speed you are at the limit of your decision-making”. Jacques Kallis, one of the gutsiest and the most technically proficient, said it best when he opined ““You can prepare for the storm by latching the windows and sandbagging the doors, but when the rain comes, it’s still a surprise. And at his pace it can be deadly.” This was of course about Mitch Johnson but others have been similarly terrifying, but admittedly the occasions are becoming a regular exception. While dead tracks and ‘graveyards of bowlers’ have played their part the rut set in after the ‘one bouncer per over’ to discourage intimidation and ostensibly protect the batsmen.
Though subsequently corrected after justified protests, the increasing popularity of the shorter batsmen friendly versions sounded the death knell of the fast bowler as speed was sacrificed at the altar of accuracy.
In India strangely enough, the tribe of the fast bowler has seen an enhancement in the number of recruits as well as knot speeds in recent times. While Bumrah, Shami and Umesh have been impressive the cubs of the U18 world cup namely Kamlesh Nagarkotti and Shivam Mavi impressed with their pace though both have tailed off in recent times, thus bringing the necessity of nurturing these rare talents into focus. The sight of an edgy batsmen trying to take on a bowler with raw speed on a lightning fast deck (Wanderers or WACA of yore) presents a thrilling prospect and display of batting skills of the highest order. But with the pitches themselves being `treated’ to make them less threatening the incentive to become a fast bowler is greatly reduced. Also the techniques of the current batsmen against good pace/swing is extremely suspect and they are not expected to last 5 days on helpful pitches, which does not encourage the curators to prepare challenging surfaces.
A fast bowler has to put in a humongous amount of effort and the back breaking frequency of matches being played nowadays makes it very difficult for a genuine fast bowler to remain fit for an entire season.
This of course makes the cricketing world a lot poorer as the magnificence of a fast bowler in his prime bounding in to deliver the red cherry at electrifying pace is a sight with few parallels. But until the general cricketing atmosphere changes the spectator is destined to be deprived from witnessing the fury of a fast bowler – greased lightning at its destructive best.
Article By : Shantanu Sharma
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