Life in the fast lane

I read an article recently that bemoaned the lack of genuine fast bowlers in the world game today.

It was obviously not written by a batsman.

While Dale Steyn and Shaun Tait are up there as perhaps the quickest on the circuit, the modern game is really not conducive to someone bowling at the speed of light. No matter how fit they are, no one can bowl 90 miles an hour for twelve months a year, which essentially is what they nearly all play now. Added to that, your fast bowler is expected to throw himself around in the field and contribute with the bat. It is a thankless task and an unenviable one. Long gone are the days when an England tourist could look forward to a few weeks of rest and relaxation on board a ship, en route to the Caribbean or Australia. The convenience of modern travel comes at cost for jaded quick bowlers.

It is interesting to read about pacemen through the ages. The Australian "Tibby" Cotter was apparently "frighteningly" quick, while Derbyshire's Arnold Warren was one of the fastest in the years between 1900 and 1914, when, according to Sir Neville Cardus, almost every county had at least one fast bowler.

It is all relative of course. In days when the best fast bowlers came up from the mines of the North and Midlands, when diets were not especially nutritious and when bowlers often refreshed themselves with a pint or two in the lunch interval, was it feasible for them to be faster than today? I'm not so sure and would use an athletics comparator. I recently read that the time recorded by the winner of the first Olympics 100metre final wouldn't have seen them qualify for the semi finals today. Is it possible that, at a time when people couldn't run especially fast, that they could bowl much quicker?

I am not saying that the quick bowlers of the different eras were medium pacers by any means, and all anyone can aspire to be is the quickest of the generation. Anyone who faced Harold Larwood in the late 1920's and early 1930's acknowledged that he was seriously fast, but equipment, certainly protective equipment, was very basic at that time. I remember years ago batting for my school (in the 1970's) wearing a pair of school kit batting gloves, with a wraparound thumb protector and the back of the hand protected by some not especially impressive looking rubber spikes. It struck me that a pair of sheepskin mittens might have afforded similar protection. Even at that level, a hit on the hand was sore, so I wouldn't like to imagine facing Larwood in something similar. Thigh pads were often improvised pre-war - a towel or sometimes even newspaper shoved down the leading thigh, with something similar as a chest guard for those who valued their rib cage against the quicks. The latter was OK if you could afford two towels; otherwise your torso was black from the newsprint if you opted for the newspaper. Better that than black and blue...

To compare pace from different eras is a spurious exercise. McDonald and Gregory were too fast for their opponents in the 1920's, Larwood similarly in the 1930's and Lindwall and Miller in the 1940's. I am now at an age where I look back and say that there is nothing around to compare to the 1970's and 1980's, an era when REAL fast bowlers stalked the earth. Except, perhaps, in England, where we had John Snow and Bob Willis, followed by a wide range of fast medium men. At the same time, Australia had Lillee and Thomson, Pakistan had Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and the West Indians had a never ending supply. Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, Wayne Daniel, Sylvester Clarke - the list went on and on.

There was no respite from the West Indies fast bowling, apart from a handful of overs when Viv Richards turned his arm over before the second new ball. Anybody who scored runs in that era earned them, especially on the county circuit, when South Africans banned from international cricket added to the "fun". Mike Procter and Garth Le Roux were both very quick and opening batsmen must have endured sleepless nights before facing them. Most county sides had a quick bowler, with Mark Nicholas of Hampshire recording that opposition batsmen often offered to carry Malcolm Marshall's kit bag for him, in the hope that he would go easy on them.

In Derbyshire, of course, we have had few genuinely quick bowlers. Even allowing for Warren being lively for a few overs, most of the others have been somewhere between medium and fast medium. Bill Bestwick, Bill Copson and Les Jackson were all hostile and with whippy or slinging actions got extravagant bounce and movement from a helpful track. Harold Rhodes was awkward and fairly quick in his pomp, while Alan Ward, in 1968 and 1969 was perhaps the fastest bowler in the country and certainly in our history at that time. Sadly, it didn't last, but when Ward was fully fit and firing, there were a few recorded instances of batsmen "giving themselves room" against him.

Later, of course, came Michael Holding and Ian Bishop from the Caribbean, while Devon Malcolm appeared from the Yorkshire Leagues. With Ole Mortensen another awkward customer, Derbyshire at Derby was a fixture that few visiting teams looked forward to, especially when there was often little difference between the wicket and the rest of the square in colour.

Such a bowler would make a huge difference to any county's fortunes today, but any bowler who can tip the speed gun to 85-90mph will be cocooned in a central contract by his national selectors faster than any yorker homed in on a set of toes!