Interesting statistics

I watched Clint Mackay bowling the last over against India this morning and it must be one of the most difficult jobs in cricket. Boundaries are brought in on a lot of grounds, batsmen are wielding bats that are increasingly like clubs and most of the crowd want to see the ball disappearing into them with regularity. I'm reminded of the old WG Grace story, when he was given not out from an obvious edge. "They've come to see him bat, not you bowl" said the umpire, far removed from being impartial...

It got me thinking about the respective merits of quick bowlers in T20. Over the course of the winter I think most of us have come to realise that we could do with a genuine "go to" bowler for this year's competition, someone who could bowl two important overs in the opening Powerplay and two more at the death, when all hell is usually breaking loose. I looked at seamers whose names I have mentioned over recent months and who are hired hands around the globe for their ability to bowl a wide range of deliveries. They are widely regarded as the best of the best and demand is accordingly high for their services.

The results make interesting reading. For comparative purposes, I include Charl Langeveldt at the top. He is past his prime now, but has been widely regarded as one of the best in the business (and not just because he played for us, though it helps...) Apologies in advance for the lack of a table...

Name                                 Wickets       Average     Economy Rate
Charl Langeveldt                    118             19.66         7.40
Brett Lee                                  63             31.52         7.25
Shaun Tait                                97             21.58         7.85
Dirk Nannes                           169             20.89         7.14
Dale Steyn                                91             24.00         6.75
Morne Morkel                          62             23.58         7.09
Rusty Theron                            66             21.77         7.07
Fidel Edwards                          34             24.41         7.36
Umar Gul                                112              16.79        7.09
Rana Naved-Ul-Hasan            101              19.18        7.06
Chaminda Vaas                        57              20.12        6.84
Zaheer Khan                            75              28.64        7.72
Abdul Razzaq                          105              21.64        7.51

There are some surprises in there. I thought Brett Lee's average would be lower and that Vaas, Edwards and Khan would have taken more wickets. All of the figures are impressive though, given when these players generally do their bowling and they clearly highlight their talent. Most of them have negligible batting averages, nor the opportunity to bat; the two Pakistan players I mentioned yesterday, Rana and Razzaq, are the only ones with a batting average in excess of twenty, somewhat illustrating my point about their merits.

Sadly, the other thing about this list is that I don't see any of them being available. They are either signed up elsewhere, tied to a central contract or injured. Umar Gul isn't to my knowledge, but has only once been tempted to England, by Sussex last year. 12 wickets at 21 and a strike rate of 8.85 was far from bad, but not up to his overall standard, largely achieved in Pakistan. Theron was set for Northamptonshire at one point, but sustained a bad injury. While a good player, he's maybe not yet up to the standard and reputation of others here.

Who we end up with in 2012 is anyone's guess, but if one of these ever ended up at the County Ground we could consider ourselves extremely lucky.