25
DT
Sport
WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2016
Where are the fast bowlers? No Bangladeshi fast bowler, unfortunately, has been near worldclass level in Tests. Only Mashrafe bin Mortaza is still playing, since 2001, but he managed to play only 36 Test matches in which he has taken 78 wickets in a career marred by injuries
Taskin Ahmed is one of the emerging fast bowlers of Bangladesh even though he is yet to play a Test match
n Ali Shahriyar Bappa Cricket has changed significantly in the modern times, becoming more of a batsman’s game in the Twenty20 era. Pace bowling, by all measures, thus is fast becoming a dying art. But it was different in the 1990s. World cricket produced some fascinating fast bowlers like the West Indian pair Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, Pakistani trio Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar, South African triumvirate Shaun Pollock, Allan Donald and Makhaya Ntini and Australian duo Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee. These legends produced some magic during their heyday. It is hard to forget Ambrose’s destructive spell of 7/1 against Australia in 1993. His mighty tally of 405 Test wickets came at an average of just 20.99 and has led the top bowling rankings for the most part of his career. Walsh was equally handy in his 132 Tests and 205 one-day internationals for the West Indies, taking 519 and 227
wickets respectively. Akram and Younis dominated the scenario with their pace and swing for many years. Akram, leftarm quick with much swing, and Younis, blisteringly fast with a toe-crushing yorker, were really a treat to the eye. They took 555 and 581 wickets in the Tests and ODIs they played together. South Africa’s Jacques Kallis will go down in history as a rock-solid batsman but his bowling was also seriously dependable and, when the mood took him, he was seriously fast. He ended up with 292 Test wickets, to set alongside the 13,289 runs and the little matter of 200 catches. The battle of pace between Akhtar and Lee had people glued to the TV screens. But the flow of genuine fast bowlers has reduced in the last decade. These days, South Africa’s Dale Steyn and England’s James Anderson have been continuing the fast bowling legacy in Tests. But both Anderson and Stuart Broad play Tests mostly. They have not been considered in the ODIs or T20Is.
Apart from Steyn, no other fast bowler has the ability or fitness to perform like a world-class bowler consistently. Australia’s Mitchell Johnson played some crucial roles for Australia after the retirement of McGrath, Lee and Jason Gillespie. West Indies’ golden days have long gone. They are struggling to produce quality fast bowlers since the early 2000s. New Zealand’s Shane Bond produce some magical spells during his short stint and had been described as the country’s best fast bowler since Sir Richard Hadlee but he only managed to appear in 18 Tests due to injuries. Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga can be described as a true fast bowler with his slinging action but he was ineffective in Tests compared to ODIs or T20Is. So why have fast bowlers of this generation not been of the same quality as before? There are a lot of facilities available now in professional cricket compared to even 20 years ago. Almost every team now has a specialist fast-bowling coach but still the pacers are struggling to make
their mark. The overall change in the game is a significant reason for the decline in fast bowling. It is said people simply love to see runs on the board. Pitches are favouring the batsmen in maximum cases while boundary length has also been reduced gradually. Cricketers are now also playing in more domestic T20 leagues around the world like the Indian Premier League, Caribbean Premier League, Bangladesh Premier League, Pakistan Super League, Big Bash League and the NatWest T20 Blast. So pacers are facing injuries very frequently these days. Someone like Steyn, who plays these T20 leagues regularly, has lost his form in the last two years in all formats of the game. No Bangladeshi fast bowler, unfortunately, has been near worldclass level in Tests. Only Mashrafe bin Mortaza is still playing, since 2001, but he managed to play only 36 Test matches in which he has taken 78 wickets in a career marred by injuries. Pacers in Bangladesh have little glamour compared to
MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK
batsmen or all-rounders. Often they struggle to find a club in the Dhaka Premier League. The pitches here are obviously not pacer-friendly as well, thus limiting their involvement. Things have been better for Bangladesh in ODIs, especially since 2014. Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman and Mashrafe were very impressive. Taskin and Rubel bowls fast while Mashrafe uses his experience. Mustafizur grabbed 26 wickets in just nine ODIs. He is now leading the pace attack but it is still too early to call him a world-class bowler as his Test credentials are yet to be proven. The world now considers Mustafizur as the best T20 bowler and that has become a major problem for fast bowlers. There are not too many young fast bowlers being talked about in Tests or ODIs, and in the coming days when big changes are being talked about in all the three formats, where will fast bowling be in the major scheme of things? l