In pace we trust

[rkt.india]

 

Quote

 

Years ago I was at the suburban home of Lawrie Sawle in Perth. Sawle was a legend of Australian cricket in the '80s and 90s; there are few cricket selectors in the history of the game with a better reputation than him. They call him the Colonel, but they might as well have called him the Architect, as that was the job he had in what became cricket's best winning machine.

I was there to interview him, and he was predictably excellent, and when we were packing up, he came over.

 

"What do you think of Nathan Coulter-Nile?" he asked. "I like him, he's quick and he swings it," I answered.

 

Then Sawle went into a long description of how good he thought Coulter-Nile was - very good - before finishing with, "I think he could make an incredible swing bowler, but I think they will get him to concentrate on pace."

 

There was, for the longest time, a complete and utter fascination with the outswinger in Australian cricket. During Sawle's selection era, it seemed to reach this peak frenzy of, "Sure he's quick, but does he swing it?" The thought that you didn't have an outswinger was enough to make it nearly impossible for you to play a Test for your country.

When Glenn McGrath started his career he was repeatedly questioned about his lack of the outswinger. Today McGrath would be defending himself against accusations about lack of pace.

 

Ian Healy kept for Australia in 287 matches. He played more than 150 other matches at the first-class and List A level. His career spanned 14 years. When he started Jeff Thomson was still with Queensland; Healy finished the year before Shane Watson started. When asked, Healy always says the quickest spell of bowling he kept to was Jason Gillespie at Old Trafford in 1997.

 

Gillespie was a quick bowler, a very quick bowler at that point, but the fact that he was the quickest that Healy ever kept to does suggest that through that period of Australian cricket history, there weren't many tearaways.

 

From the time Craig McDermott disappeared in 1989, until Gillespie made his debut at the end of 1996, Australia had no regular quick bowlers. They barely had any quick bowlers at all. McDermott would return after a few years away to take a lot of wickets, but not at pace. In that almost eight-year period Australia had some quality bowlers.

 

JARROD KIMBER | NOVEMBER 23, 2017

Years ago I was at the suburban home of Lawrie Sawle in Perth. Sawle was a legend of Australian cricket in the '80s and 90s; there are few cricket selectors in the history of the game with a better reputation than him. They call him the Colonel, but they might as well have called him the Architect, as that was the job he had in what became cricket's best winning machine.

I was there to interview him, and he was predictably excellent, and when we were packing up, he came over.

"What do you think of Nathan Coulter-Nile?" he asked. "I like him, he's quick and he swings it," I answered.

Then Sawle went into a long description of how good he thought Coulter-Nile was - very good - before finishing with, "I think he could make an incredible swing bowler, but I think they will get him to concentrate on pace."

There was, for the longest time, a complete and utter fascination with the outswinger in Australian cricket. During Sawle's selection era, it seemed to reach this peak frenzy of, "Sure he's quick, but does he swing it?" The thought that you didn't have an outswinger was enough to make it nearly impossible for you to play a Test for your country.

When Glenn McGrath started his career he was repeatedly questioned about his lack of the outswinger. Today McGrath would be defending himself against accusations about lack of pace.

Ian Healy kept for Australia in 287 matches. He played more than 150 other matches at the first-class and List A level. His career spanned 14 years. When he started Jeff Thomson was still with Queensland; Healy finished the year before Shane Watson started. When asked, Healy always says the quickest spell of bowling he kept to was Jason Gillespie at Old Trafford in 1997.

Gillespie was a quick bowler, a very quick bowler at that point, but the fact that he was the quickest that Healy ever kept to does suggest that through that period of Australian cricket history, there weren't many tearaways.

From the time Craig McDermott disappeared in 1989, until Gillespie made his debut at the end of 1996, Australia had no regular quick bowlers. They barely had any quick bowlers at all. McDermott would return after a few years away to take a lot of wickets, but not at pace. In that almost eight-year period Australia had some quality bowlers.

For quite some time Australia went looking for their new McGrath. If you were tall, thin, bowled slower than express pace and had the same haircut you had at eight, you could be the new McGrath

Merv Hughes is now remembered as a bloated buffoon - actually he was known as a bloated buffoon at the time - but he also took 212 wickets at 28. He was one of many skilful bowlers from Victoria. When Paul Reiffel made his debut in ODIs, he smashed a stump, briefly giving the pace-obsessed some hope, but he was clearly a line-and-length bowler. Damien Fleming had a pornographic outswinger that committed obscene acts, but he was not a quick. Tony Dodemaide was another line-and-length Victorian who dot-balled his way to some Tests.

But it wasn't just the Victorians; Terry Alderman, Geoff Lawson, Mike Whitney and Bruce Reid all took wickets in this period, and almost all of them were bowlers of skill, but even Whitney, who had pace, was by this point in his career not proper fast. By the time McGrath was a regular in the team, the Australian seam bowling line-up was more like a New Zealand or English attack than Australian.

 

There were no dead-set tearways. There was Jo Angel, who was quick when he was first picked, but he didn't play much. And Carl Rackemann, who had progressed from a quick to a canny older bowler. And it wasn't as if there was a whole host of quality pace bowling in the Sheffield Shield being ignored. There was much talk about the pace of Denis Hickey, who played for Victoria and South Australia, but his bowling average was 40. There have probably been more lovingly crafted articles about Duncan Spencer's bowling pace than there have been first-class victims of his bowling; his average was 39. Mark Harrity was the prototype for the two Mitches,Johnson and Starc: left-arm and very quick, but again, a bowling average of 39. Then there was Wayne Holdsworth, who made some tours, and took his wickets at 32.

 

 

http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1126665/in-pace-we-trust

 

Long but a very good article.

[sandeep]

I usually really enjoy Jarrod's write-ups, and this one was decent too.  As expected from him, excellent research and eye for detail.  But somewhere along the line, I think he got his hypothesis muddled.  What was his actual point?   That Aussies are over-valuing pace over skill?   

[Vijy]

5 hours ago, sandeep said:

I usually really enjoy Jarrod's write-ups, and this one was decent too.  As expected from him, excellent research and eye for detail.  But somewhere along the line, I think he got his hypothesis muddled.  What was his actual point?   That Aussies are over-valuing pace over skill?   

It seemed to be ultimately lead up to cribbing about Sayers not being a regular selection.

[sandeep]

2 hours ago, Vijy said:

It seemed to be ultimately lead up to cribbing about Sayers not being a regular selection.

But then he sortof backs off a bit.  Usually he doesn't pull his punches, rather hammers in his argument with well constructed arguments.  This one was a bit soft-pedaled on that front.