Running fitness and bowling fitness both important for pacemen –Ashantha de Mel

by Sajeewa JAYAKODY

CRICKET: The current injury-prone situation of Sri Lankan fast bowlers, has caused difficulties when team selections, especially in Test matches. Most of the talented Lankan seamers are unable to keep up performances due to frequent injuries. Somehow, Sri Lanka are fortunate to have valuable fast bowling all-rounders, like Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera in the team, who have recovered from injuries and are fit for battle.

The new bowling sensation, Shaminda Eranga, who deceived Ponting, to take his first ODI wicket by a return catch at Hambantota when Australia toured Sri Lanka in August last year, had to be sidelined due to his injuries. He had Brad Haddin bowled’ out to take two wickets in that match. Many cricket lovers expected more from Eranga and most of the cricket commentators praised his impressive start. Right-arm medium fast Eranga played three ODIs for Sri Lanka in his only series and grabbed four wickets with an average of 24.75. He took four wickets in his solitary Test match against Australia in the same series, with a decent average of 25.40. Apart from Eranga, Sri Lanka have several injury-prone fast bowlers in their store, such as, Chanaka Welagedera, Suranga Lakmal, Dhammika Prasad and Dilhara Fernando. Lasith Malinga too, who was on the injury list, was fortunate to play again with the help of the country’s President’s private physician, Dr Eliyantha White. But Malinga is now available only for shorter formats due to the fitness factor. Sri Lanka are unfortunate not to have a wicket-taking fast bowler like Lasith Malinga in the Test arena, which needs quality bowlers to take wickets to win a Test match. The 28-year-old slinging right arm fast bowler captured 101 wickets in his 30-match, short Test career becoming the third Sri Lankan bowler to take more than hundred scalps. (Recently Rangana Herath and Dilhara Fernando became the fourth and the fifth respectively).

Bowlers must fit

Ashantha de Mel, who spearheaded Sri Lanka’s bowling attack at the inception of the Test status in 1981, and the most important character in the modern day administration of Sri Lanka Cricket as the Selection Committee Chairman, said that too many international matches, are main reasons for frequent injuries. He said, a fast bowler must sharpen his bowling prowess as well as his running strength.

”At club level, one needs to bowl longer spells to improve the fitness level. As a fast bowler, one needs two types of fitness levels. One is running fitness and the other is bowling fitness. In our era, we had a lot of spells at club matches. Those days we used to bowl 20-25 overs per day. But, today, it is different. And the coaches should guide them properly,” said de Mel. Another important factor is fitness. The blowers have to be fit. They must be prepared for hard work. “I used to do a lot of running because as a fast bowler you had to be fit,” the selection boss said.

Flexibility and economical action important

De Mel, who did a lot of bowling during his playing days says that a fast bowler should concentrate on his flexibility, strengthening of his legs, and stretching his body, which are useful for bowling. “The most important factor is the economical action and also the perfect rhythm. You have to maintain a perfect technique continuously. Bowlers like Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Kulasekera can bowl longer spells because of their economical action,” was what De Mel thought of our pacemen. Sri Lanka’s pacemen Dilhara Fernando and Nuwan Pradeep concentrate more on pace but Chaminda Vaas, the former paceman says that consistency is the most important rule for pacemen.

Vaas holds the ODI world record of 8 for 19 against Bangladesh in 2003 World Cup with a hat-trick in the first three deliveries in the innings and has played in five World Cups. He has captured 355 wickets in 111 Test matches and 400 wickets in 322 ODIs.