THE DELIVERY THAT CRICKET DIDNT SEE COMING: The BOUNCER is the most lethal delivery up a fast bowlers repertoire. Its bowled by having the bowler pitch the ball in his own half, with great pace and effort, and it just shoots off the pitch targeting the batsmans body, anywhere up from the rib cage, to the head and sometimes above it. Its used as a delivery of deception. It can also be the fastest, nastiest, a delivery to surprise the batsman and a delivery to intimidate them. Now if he does get hurt in the process, so be it. I have seen batsmen often bleeding, flattened on the pitch, stretchered away, concussed, with fractured ribs, broken jaws, missing teeth, broken eye sockets etc... Just another day at the crease. Heres a video montage of what I mean. As its aptly worded, its Cricket at its best, because there is no better sight in world cricket than to see a fast bowler charging in with his tail up bowling those thunderbolts and having the batsman hop, in doubt, scared. You will have the crowds jeering him on, fans glued to the TV sets, all in anticipation. Many outside the top 8 cricketing countries wonder how do we watch a game that goes on for 6 hours a day (8 if you include the breaks) and for 5 days at a stretch. Well, its all because of actions like this. The game now is heavily favored towards the batsman, the blades have become bigger, the grounds have become smaller with the ropes pulled in, there is also restrictions on how many bouncers a bowler can bowl in limited overs cricket. The only thing the bowlers have in their favor, is their ability to bounce batsman out if needed. This a video of cricket from the last decade. Youll see a lot of Brett Lee and Shoaib Akthar, both men who broke the 100 mile an hour mark, and certainly have the best batsman in their era, the Laras, the Tendulkars, the Pontings... all floored. Make no mistake, these batsman have plenty of success with their bats. So imagine what a cricket ball, which consists of cork covered by leather, with a 230 mm circumference, weighing around 163 gms, having a pronounced seam and being bowled at close to 100 mph (161 Kmph), can do. To say it can hurt you is a gross understatement. Ill quote Colin Croft from the documentary Fire in Babylon Its a bullet, it can get you killed. Of course Colin Croft was one part of the famous West Indian Pace Battery of the 70s to the 90s, when those West Indian teams led by Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and Richie Richardson packed their sides with a quartet of fast bowlers, all capable of bowling short pitched balls aimed at a batsmans body, at well over 90 mph. Unlike in baseball, its perfectly legal to hit the batsmans body and causing him injuries. In the video below, every single delivery was legal and in some cases they resulted in wickets. The champion West Indies sides used this tactic to perfection. Back in the day you had every team at the world level having a bowler who could bowl this lethal delivery at that pace. Only the leg theory proposed by the former England captain Douglas Jardine, where he had fielders on the leg side and had his bowlers bowl these short pitch deliveries from the batsmans blind side, more popularly known as Bodyline, has been banned by cricket. During the Bodyline days there were no helmets to protect your head, so it made sense. Helmets started appearing only in the 60s These days you have just one bowler at the International level bowling close to 100 mph and a handful bowling at over 90 mph. The protective equipment for batsman has improved considerably. Youll have a batsman wearing leg pads, thigh pads, abdomen guard, body pad, a pair of gloves, elbow pad and then a helmet with grills. Its way more than what even a NFL player has to wear. End of the day, batting still needs you to have good vision for hand - eye coordination, and freedom to swing and swirl. Theres always a question of comfort over safety. Mind you, youre reaction time to play the ball bowled at that pace is next to nothing. Its instinctive and to be successful you better have all the strokes that you can play. You wouldnt make it to the international level otherwise. International cricket is the highest level of cricket in the world, you have the top 8 countries with test status, and they also play the other two forms of limited overs international cricket. You have a couple of other countries also given these status, although theyre no match to the former eight. Then there are a handful of sides who only play limited overs cricket internationally. The game has been played internationally for over 130 years, with these dangers lurking, but you never had a single player die in an international match. Even Phil Hughes died while he was playing a first class match, which is a level below international cricket. Phil was trying to make his comeback in to the Australian test side when this tragedy occurred. This certainly has struck a chord with the cricketing fraternity world wide. How did we not address this lurking danger. Cricket of course is known as The Gentlemens Game, but this is certainly not a gentle thing. Whether you are a cricketer or a cricket fan, you would hate to see further restrictions on the bouncer. The game is so heavily favored towards the batsman, that people would lose interest if the bowlers dont match up. Besides the excitement would be missing. Have a look at cricket in the West Indies and these days, theres hardly a spectator around. Its already becoming boring. Now the only avenue left, is to make the protective equipment better. You may have to compromise on the style and comfort, but you have little choice. I only hope something good comes out of all this.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 23:49:55 +0000