Pace bowlers first requirement.... :

Consider whether able to bowl really fast

by A C De Silva

FLASHBACK.... Want to be a fast bowler? Before a budding fast bowler can even think about mastering technique and developing skills, he’s got to consider one vital question: Can he bowl fast? There is a question mark. There are many who think they are quick when in fact they are not much more than medium pace.

The question that comes up is whether the youngster has got the smooth integrated finished product for the time being, what is important is whether the youngster has got the physique and ability for the task? Fast bowler’s physiques, of course, vary: There are he smallish men (for example Lindwall, Larwood, Trueman) and tall ones (Holding Hall, Willis) and the ones in between (like Snow, Thomson or Roberts). The speed comes from different areas for different bowlers – a man like Lillee or Bob Willis will get it from a long, fast run-up, while a muscular fellow like Thomson gets it from the chest and shoulders.

But irrespective of physique, the potential fast bowler should be well coordinated and athletic. He must be able to move smoothly, it does not matter, if for the moment, his action is awkward, but if he can run or turn easily and swiftly, he has the basics right.

The place to judge him is out in the middle, not in the nets, where you can’t get a true picture of him. Normally there isn’t room for a proper fast bowler’s run-up there, and if they are indoors he would be silly to go flat-out because the concrete floor puts a great strain on ankles and legs. When someone with potential is bowling in the middle, some expert should wander round the ground and view him from all angles.

From behind his arm one will be able to see if the bowler can use the crease to vary the angle, and from side-on an experienced coach will be able to see whether the bowler can use the crease to vary the angle, and from side-on, a coach will be able to tell if his arm movement is swift enough, if that final existing explosiveness is there. From side-on you can also tell if he’s following through properly or just stopping at the crease when letting the ball go.

Stamina the key

The promising young quickie must also be lucky - lucky with injuries, lucky with his school or club and lucky with the coach who tries to shape him. Bob Willis says the he was noticed because he didn’t have a complications was confident and bowled fast. His head wasn’t crammed with theories, he was able to make the ball fizz thought the air.

A fast bowler is an athlete, he has got to be trained almost like a racehorse, and his coach must nearly be a physiotherapist as well s a psychologist. He must try to assess whether the boy fast bowler will grow any more.

Willis says his own case sums up the dilemma - he says that he shot up from 5’ 6” at fourteen years to 6’ 4” at sixteen. He was very thin as a matchstick, but actually nobody stopped him from trying to bowl fast.

According to Willis, most coaches don’t realise how much stamina is needed to manage the huge leap from school or club cricket to country second eleven standard.

A club cricketer playing just weekends has to change from bowling two hours on Saturday or Sunday to perhaps four hours a day with a county – and it’s even more demanding for a 16-year-old lad still at school. Most of the coaches just aren’t up to dealing with fast bowlers – one good reason being that the majority of them were all-rounders and batsmen in their time, not fast men.

There are some small children that make it difficult for a coach trying to guide them on something as specialised as fast bowling. Small children in of around 15 years didn’t have the dedication for a start – this was at school.

Too many of them are generally not fit enough for a start – quite a contract when Willis was coaching in South Africa where he found the boys very well-disciplined and eager to listen. But a good coach earns respect by being approachable yet still authoritative. How many times have you heard a coach tell a young quickie, “Slow down, you’re bowling far too fast,” the coach should give him a short lecture on the value of line and length and then discourage him from trying to build up his pace again?

Old is Gold

Fast bowling is such a delicately poised art that you can’t loos something vital from it at any time.

That’s when you must rely on your own memory of watching others and also seek advice from people you respect. Now in the case of fitness matters Bob Willis says that he has received many good tips from non-players, but when it comes to the art of fast bowling the only people you should listen to are those with first hand experience of top-class cricket.

A coach, mentor or guide must always be approachable, and one man with the quality in the good old days was Alec Bedser, for so long the Chairman of England’s selectors. You might only want five minutes with Alex, but he’d always give you 25, and then it was up to you to sort out what he’d said and then apply it to your own game.

Bedser is a stickler for the old – fashioned ideals and techniques – hard work at practices, chopping down trees to build up the back muscles, bowling at one for hour after hour, running around fields with heavy army boots on to build up fitness. Willis said that Bedser had given him good advice on all things to do with fast bowling - from the action to training to the right food and drink. Ken Barrington, is another England official who advised him too.