Fast Bowling’s Buzz
Devon Malcolm runs in for London County
There is no better sight in Cricket than witnessing high quality fast bowling.
Experiencing the hush which surrounds the ground in anticipation of the gladiatorial contest between bat and ball, as the fast bowler approaches the wicket, is like no other experience in the game.
On Saturday at Lord’s, Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait broke the 100 mph speed barrier and, I imagine, sent some shudders through the home dressing room in the process.
I was in the crowd at Newlands, in Cape Town at the 2003 World Cup game between Pakistan and England which recorded the first-ever 100 mph delivery. Shoaib Akhtar bowled with consistently high pace for a few years and on this occasion, England’s Nick Knight made history by facing up to the quickest delivery ever recorded by the speed gun technology of modern cricket. The disbelief in the crowd was appparent, and left eveyone awestruck that they had witnessed such a spectacle. However, I imagine that similar experiences have occured down the years, when the fast men have got down to serious business. For example, Mikey Holding’s opening over to Geoff Boycott in the Barbados Test of 1980 continues to generate excitement in conversation about the quality of Holding’s bowling that evening.
There is much conjecture around who the fastest-ever bowler was. What I do know is that Sir Vivian Richards told me that Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee were a serious proposition to face, even if a batsman was in the form of his life! In each era, respected players will argue that Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth, or Harold Larwood, or Wes Hall, or Fred Trueman, or Frank Tyson, or AndyRoberts, or Mikey Holding, or Malcolm Marshall or Dennis Lillee, or Jeff Thomson, or Devon Malcolm, or Wasim Akram, or Allan Donald, was the quickest. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that this special art in cricket is alive and well, and making the game a better spectacle.
Ever since I listened to the radio commentary from Australia in 1974-5 and learnt of Colin Cowdrey’s courage against Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, and then saw Mikey Holding take 16 wickets at The Oval in 1976, the subject of fast bowling has always held a fascination for me. For every young cricketer, they will know what I am talking about because as you progress in the game from a beginner to a novice and then hopefully to a higher level, there is always the fear and experience of facing bowling that is quicker than you may have faced before. The dressing-room conversation of ”how quick is he?” to the most recently departed batsmen, is one all cricketers will recognise!
From the village green to the the Test arena, the influence of the fast bowler on the opposition team’s psyche is huge.
I regard myself as fortunate to have played county cricket in an era when many of the world’s best players were a regular feature of our domestic game. It gave me the chance to be ‘up close and personal’ to some of the greatest players, not just of the era, but in the history of the game. Sir Vivian Richards, Javed Miandad,Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Imran Khan, Garth Le Roux, Sir Richard Hadlee, Michael Holding, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharran, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid, Malcolm Marshall, Courtney Walsh, Shaun Pollock, Allan Donald, and Curtly Ambrose, were all opponents while Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Martin Crowe, Jimmy Cook, Mushtaq Ahmed, Michael Bevan, Shahid Afridi, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath were all team-mates as overseas players during my career.
Without doubt, the biggest education was the opportunity to face the best fast bowlers, and observe the best players, display their class in such circumstances, whether it be from the non-striker’s end (where the great Sir Len Hutton once said is the best place to play fast bowling!) or from behind the stumps (as a wicket-keeper), where you can ‘smell’ the fear in a batsman.
I am sometimes asked who was the best, or who was the most difficult opponent to face.
Sylvester Clarke at Surrey was a fearsome proposition, especially on the quick and bouncy pitch at The Oval. I will never forget the awesome century Steve Waugh scored against him at The Oval in 1987 – it was an exhibition of great courage and sensational counter-attacking. Ian Bishop (pre-back operation in 1988) was a nasty bowler to face but a delightfully gentle giant off the pitch, while Malcolm Marshall was a superbly gifted and clever fast bowler who gave his all for Hampshire for over a decade, as Courtney Walsh did for Gloucestershire. But despite there being little to choose between all the greats, I think Wasim Akram was the best I faced. The late swing (both ways) at high pace and from a variety of angles on the crease (including around the wicket) made him the toughest to handle, let alone tame! Even Jimmy Cook struggled against him. On one occasion, especially in one B&H Cup semi-final at Old Trafford where the Pakistan left arm bowler was almost unplayable under heavy skies, and on a fast, bouncy pitch, we (Somerset) all experienced serious discomfort at the hands of one of the game’s greatest fast bowlers.
The anticipation of waiting to go into bat against such high quality bowlers, and the anxiety it creates is impossible to put into words. It’s the buzz of fast bowling – the game’s most challenging confrontation, as it tests technique, temperament, and talent as well as courage.
However, one of my best memories was the privilege of watching Mikey Holding (Jamaica, West Indies and Derbyshire) and top South African batsman Jimmy Cook, go head to head and toe-to-toe at Derby one day. It was compelling viewing. From the non-striker’s end, I was able to observe two great performers battling for supremacy. Jimmy made 85 and began a sequence of five successive centuries in First-Class Cricket after this innings. Mikey bowled with great skill at high pace and when it was over, he came into the dressing room to thank Jimmy for the contest! Two great cricketers and two fine men showing what champion players they both were…
My other cherished memories are from behind the stumps, and experiencing the thrill of ‘keeping to extreme pace bowling. Devon Malcolm was a fearsome fast bowler on the field and the friendliest cricketer off the field. Thankfully, we were team-mates, travelling partners, and room-mates at the end of my career, rather than being stuck down the striker’s end and having to handle his barrage of brutal fast bowling as an opponent. South Africa incurred his wrath at The Oval in 1994, where he took 9 for 57 after being hit on the head earlier in the match by Fanie De Villiers, and ‘Big Dev’ wrote his name into the record books with the best figures by an England seamer in Tests.
It was my privilege to share the field with him when he took his 1,oooth First-Class wicket – my only disappointment was that the dismissal was bowled rather than caught behind the wicket, as I would have loved to have been part of that dismissal with my great friend. ‘Big Dev’ was a great sight when in full flow, and on-song. Steve Waugh once told me that he, and the Australian team, breathed a sigh of relief every time he was left out of the England team in an Ashes Test, as they knew he was capable of inflicting serious damage. In fact Big Dev, ruined Waugh’s Kent debut in 2002, when he forced the great Australian to retire hurt in his first, and only innings of the match, as a result of the big man’s hostile bowling.
However, the fastest bowler I ever kept wicket to, is not a household name. Andre van Troost was a 6 foot 8′ teenage paceman from Rotterdam, who joined Somerset in 1989. He had never worn spiked boots before coming to play in England and made his debut at The Oval, soon after. Within a couple of years, ‘Rooster’ (as he became known by his team-mates) became the quickest bowler around for a short period of time, before back injuries curtailed a highly promising career. In conjunction with the steep-bouncing, lively and skilful Andy Caddick (one of the best England bowler of the period), ‘Rooster’ could have formed one half of an irresistible opening attack which would have enabled Somerset to win its first-ever County Championship title.
The great West Indian opening batsman Desmond Haynes, who had faced the best, and the fastest, over a long and distinguished career, said that ‘Rooster’ bowled the fastest he had faced during a County Championship match at Bath in 1992. Current ECB Managing Director Hugh Morris, a gutsy and successful opening batsman for Glamorgan, will also testify to ‘Rooster’s’ raw pace after negotiating a terrifying 40 minute spell before close of play at Taunton one night. I stood so far back that I felt almost dis-connected from the play. What made it impossible to keep to, was that the bounce was so steep, that the further back I went to deal with the pace meant that the ball went higher over my head as a consequence, which made my job ridiculously difficult.
Such experiences of participating in a fast-bowling process go beyond words. From a cricketing perspective, it highlights the special impact that the pacemen have on influencing the rhythm of a cricket match, and capturing the imagination of a future generation of cricketers and spectators. The fast bowler changes matches.
As a combination, Clive Lloyd’s West Indies pace quartet of the early 1980′s proved virtually unplayable. The mental fatigue which can set in after a number of losing battles through a Test Series against such tough and uncompromising opponents is an experience which some top players never recover from. Sir Vivian Richards maintained Lloyd’s fast-bowling strategy under his leadership, albeit with a different pack of fast bowlers, but with the same successful results.
Sadly for spectators, the docile nature of modern pitches, and the demanding schedule of non-stop international cricket, is ‘killing’ fast bowlers.
Thankfully for the sport, Shaun Tait has reminded people of how the fastest bowling creates a very special buzz.
