 |
| Raw power and brutality |
Not all the dragons are devils; I wish you’d have heard of Yinglong. The responding dragon, Yinglong is one of the most powerful dragons in Chinese mythology and is said to be the god of rain. Or may be Ryujin also known as Owatatsumi, the tutelary deity of the Oceans in Japanese mythology as the dragon symbolizes the power of ocean. Whatever it is, white or grey, dragons symbolize power and heroism, the macho which is unmatched. The worriers who take up opponents fist on fist, bouts on faces, cuts and punches and yes, blood.
Royal conquerors; fearful, effective, brutal yet poetic and beautiful. Yes, only at times.
Playing 120 something with no assistance on cattle yards, going bonkers over the cow corner and hitting sixes in small ground is the new era cricket, T-20s. With ropes reducing in perimeter, with bats getting wider and better, with guards getting comfortable, with bowling getting meeker, and with the invent of white balls the balance has now subdued. Taking nothing away from the batters, the increase in averages over these years has to do with the degradation of pace bowling.
Compare this:
A Praveen Kumar coming in from the far end with 124 KMPH with a white leather and you are having thigh pads and helmets on, and smack, four!
 |
| Holding: No one wants to face him |
A Michael Holding running in with 150+ on a lush green with seam upright, the red cherry bruises your unprotected jaws and lo and behold, you mouth is all blooded.
What situation would you want to be in? Uh, dare I ask? Have sometime to watch the body-line series clips on Youtube and you will feel the shakiness and numbness in your limbs.
Fast bowling has always been one of the most sought after and special skill in the arena of cricket, India been an exception, as we have always been deprived of good fast bowlers. Batting is what we cherish and regard and the vicious circle goes on.
Remembering a thing read few days before; it wasn't just Australians in the Bodyline series who weren't terribly keen on facing Harold Larwood at his fastest. During a county match at Grace Road in 1928, the Leicestershire fast bowler Haydon Smith sent down a few bouncers, before his batsmen reminded him who was lurking in the opposition ranks. When Smith came out to bat later, Nottinghamshire's fielders were quick to inform Larwood who the new arrival was. Duncan Hamilton's superb 2009 biography of Larwood takes up the story: "Larwood's opening ball reared past Smith's face. He didn't see it, but felt the cold air as it rushed past him. The second took the edge as Smith backed off towards square leg. The ball shot towards gully, where Sam Staples caught it on the bounce. Smith began to pull off his gloves and walk off. 'Wait a minute,' Staples shouted. 'It was a bump ball. I didn't catch it.' 'Yes, you certainly did,' said Smith, not daring to look back." Such was the fear, who would want to go back on stretchers?
West Indies of old, Australia, Pakistan and to an extent England and South Africa always had a rich tradition of pace bowling.
Starting of it, the first name that strikes my mind is Frederick Trueman, one of the all time greatest. The fearsome English pacer of 1950s had taken so many wickets that it was thought that the record will never be broken. Thanks to the increasing number of games and increasing career span and some great bowlers, the records look paltry at best now.
Nonetheless, the nickname Fiery Fred given to this hairy, speedy Englishman cannot be denied. He had the rare talent to swing the ball both ways and with the speed he had, it turned out to be a nightmare for the batters around.
Roberts, Holding, Croft and Garner; Nothing gets bigger. The 70’s and 80’s terror from the Caribbean was so difficult to face that half of the world just meekly surrendered in front of them. And the mastery over the art was such that they never need to be a Shantakumar, spitting. The red leather did all the talking. Such was the effect that they didn’t lose a test series for as long as 15 years.
Whispering Death was the name given to Holding, by the umpires! You heard it right; death can be so calm and quiet! He made no fuss as he didn’t needed arrogance to bring out aggression in his doings. His deeds were enough as he has all the arrows in his quiver; from toe crushing Yorkers to nipping away out swingers. He was a 400 meter running athlete and effectively used that in to his cricket, possessed one of the longest run-ups and smoothest action.
 |
| Marshall: Accurate and fierce |
Owing to his humongous height (6’8”) Joel Garner was named Big Bird, and you would never ever witness a Yorker better than his. He could hit a pin in your toe. Don’t mistake that a Malinga with rubbish action only can do it. It has already been done and that too in a much graceful way.
Talk of fast bowlers and you would first think of bouncers. Ah! Not the ones our Indian blokes through to be hung up over fine leg by Ricky Ponting. Here I am talking about the WI pace battery, Andy Roberts, who had a special ability of dual bouncers that looked same but were of entirely different speed and acted as trap to the batsmen.
8 wickets for 29 runs! Ah! That’s Colin Craft for you. This tall aggressive bowler completed the quartet of West Indian mighty attack and was an expert in angling the ball inwards.
It takes special skills to be Malcolm Marshall, for he was small (5’11”) by the standard of pace men at that time. Yes, he is regarded one of the fastest and finest pacers of all time. He broke so many noses; including Mike Getting’s that people around requested to ban his bouncers. Such was the fear.
The tradition was kept high by fellow countrymen Walsh and Ambrose with that we saw the golden age of West Indian cricket coming to an end.
Opinions divided and taken in good spirit, ODI and T-20s are cricket too, but a closer look will tell that this ain’t basic cricket. As someone said, you either win or you lose, containing someone for less does not mean your win. If you cannot take opposition wickets all, you do not deserve to be the winner. This is the essence of cricket and only test cricket still cherishes that.
Batters can save you matches, scores run, but for winning the games you need to take 20 wickets and that too cheaply. Look at any good team and you would have to agree to the facts. The mighty WI of the 70s and 80s, the Aussies of 90s and 00s, having a perfect dart man in McGrath and likes of Gillespie supporting him, the Pakistan of 90s with Imran, Akram and Waqar, the South Africa in Donald and Pollack.
Even when you look around today the best teams around are South Africa and England and they have an excellent pace attack.
 |
| Steyn: Class apart |
There can be nothing better than watching complete batsman like Sangakara, Dravid, Mahela, Cook batting in front of a pace attack comprising of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Merchant De Langes.
Or on the other side, some Ponting, AB, Kallis or Sachin batting in front of Anderson, Broad, Tremlett, and Finn. Wow!!
 |
| Anderson: Institute of Swing bowling |
Ironically, these mythical gods are so rare these days. I feel an urge to keep James Anderson and Dale Steyn cotton wrapped, for we are witnessing pace bowling death in Pravin Kumars and Shahadat Hussains.
Otherwise, time will only have stories of leg cutters and swings. Bowling machines will replace pacers and cricket will no more be the game I cinched for.
Being a purist from heart, I cannot see the steadfast death of cricket, but alas I don’t have a choice, do I?
I would still, in my all capacity pray to the gods, the dragon gods, the warriors to return back, to enrich the game once again, for this art of fast bowling goes beyond the normal human capability and only fire breathing, yet calm, clinch fished dungeons, the gods of rain and the sea have the capacity of keep it alive.
The prayers hope they reach beyond the skys. And someday, even during this age of swat hitting we will witness the fight of concentration and furious moving leather. There are fewer better sites that this.
May this wish come true, the dragons may return by the monsoon, amen!
********
Before I take leave, this is the time for last 15 day’s star. This time it is Mahela Jayawardene, for his superlative batting display in both the tests, add to it, his excellent captaincy. Keep it up MJ!
