Action in Speech / Words

I blog very few posts on Cricket. I believed what is performed cannot be spoken / written in words. And if one is truly good in spoken / writing he is a poet or a writer and not a cricketer.

Thanks to Shankar Sharma for recommending a  2015 interview of Michael Holding (legendary fast bowler from West Indies) and Wasim Akram ( legendary fast bowler from Pakistan) by Siddharth Monga.

The subject for discussion was Fast Bowling.

Holding especially is very articulate and accurate in expressing his thoughts. They are worth a thousand kilos of gold.

The interview is a must read. I believe you do not have to read any book on fast bowling, this interview is more than sufficient for any young aspiring fast bowler.

But will they i.e. young aspiring fast bowler understand what they say i don't know.

Leaving aside every thing i suggest this a must read for any cricket lover especially those who have watched the legendary West Indian fast bowling side of 1980's.

This interview should be printed, bounded and passed on as guide on fast bowling to every new comer to the game of cricket.

Few hilarious and knowledgeable golden nuggets from the interview is reproduced below:

On secret of being a fast bowler

Monga: What made you become a fast bowler?

Holding: When I was a kid, we used to play this informal game in Jamaica called Catchy Shubby. You turned up in a park, all kids, you had no umpires, you had no gloves, no pads. Just a matter of who was batting. The only chance you had to bat was by getting that person out. And not by getting him caught, because the person who took the catch would get to bat. You had to hit the stumps. Because there were no umpires they could place their legs in front of the stumps. So we decided if we could hit them on their legs - and that hurts - they wouldn't put their legs in front. That's how I began to bowl fast. I was an offspinner initially.

On intimidation

Holding: Exactly. They say intimidation is not a part of the game. It is. But what people don't understand is, you don't have to bowl bouncers to intimidate. Having the potential is intimidation already. People are aware of it. They are intimidated without you even bowling the bouncer. Obviously you are going to bowl the odd bouncer, but even before you bowl the bouncer the intimidation is there because the potential is there.

On Jeff Thomson

Holding: Dangerous man. He was quick, and you couldn't see the ball with his action. It was out of rhythm. That made things more difficult. Thommo never used to abuse the opposition batsmen. Thommo would bowl a bad ball and he would stand up in the middle of the pitch and kick the ground and call himself names, "Thommo, you such and such, Jeff, you so and so. Thommo, you are a… " I never saw Thommo look at a batsman and abuse the batsman.

On Human body and fast bowling

Holding: Bowling is not natural. Whether you bowl fast or slow. If you give a kid a ball or anything and ask him to get it over to that building, he is not going to bowl it. He is going to throw it. To bowl is unnatural. That's why you need to train your body. That's why you need to be fit and strong. You have to train your body to do something it was not made to do. That's why you have so many bowlers with back problems.Bowling is unnatural but you don't need to be an angry person to bowl fast. You have to have some aggression.

On Run up

Holding: And person to person. Each person is comfortable with a length of the run-up. It's not about the length, it's what you do with the length. What you do when you are running in. No point running in from 100 yards if you flipping trot in. What you have do is: make sure when you get closer to the crease, you are comfortable at your delivery.

Holding: You don't want to be tired by the time you get there. And you also don't want to think, "Oh shit, I am already there."

On Gym training

Holding: One without the other doesn't make sense. You can be strong but you can be unfit even if you are strong, because you need to be running. You can't just stand up at the crease and bowl fast. You have to be able to run to the crease to bowl fast. In the gym, lifting weights is not going to help you do that.

The option

Akram: Imagine a youngster from India or Pakistan, or even the West Indies. He has arrived in the team. The trainer is saying, "You have an option. It's 40 degrees outside. You go for a run. Or you go to the air-conditioned gym." (Holding laughs)What will I pick? Tell me, what will I pick? What will a youngster pick? The fricking air-conditioned gym. That's where they have gone wrong.

Holding: They have become like Atlas. They can lift anything, and tear up a telephone book, but can't bowl properly.

Learning process and damage by computers

Holding: We learned from these guys. Just like today you have these computers telling you where this guy scores his runs, in our day we learned that from experience. We would remember that. It's all memory.

Holding: To be honest, I don't think it helps anybody. All this technology that has come in prevents certain cricketers from thinking for themselves.

Holding: Let me tell you something. The first time they had what we called the spin cam back in the Caribbean, with close-ups and a super slow-mo camera, Australia were there. They filmed Shane Warne. Every delivery. Slowed them down. And they took him to the control room and said to him, "Have a look at this. Do you think this is going to help the batsmen?" Shane Warne said, "No, they still have to play it." You can tell them what is coming, but they still have to play it.

On Test cricket bowling

Holding: That is happening, but you know why? Because of limited-overs cricket. T20 and 50-over cricket. Every ball is so important in the shorter form of the game. You can lose the game in one over. You are not going to lose a Test match in one over. Because you are playing so much limited-overs cricket, they then go into the Test matches thinking something has to happen every ball. You have guys bowling an over with six different deliveries. Absolute rubbish.

Akram: Yes, you have to set batsmen up in Test cricket. That's where you have to be consistent with your line and length. You can't try everything every delivery. Even Anderson in this series, he is one of the top bowlers in the world, but I reckon he tries too many things with the new ball. If he bowls just one kind of swing for two-three overs - say outswing - and then one ball is an inswinger, he will get more wickets. Two outswingers, one inswinger, two outswingers, then another inswinger. You are messing up your line.

On Reverse swing

Holding: Because of the weight. It has all to do with the bias. You are shining one side of the ball, you are putting perspiration, you are putting all sorts of things to maintain the shine, and eventually so much of it soaks into the ball that that side of the ball gets heavy. So the ball is going to drop towards the heavy side. I have said to so many people that it is not a matter of just shine and rough. If I give somebody a brand new ball, and use sandpaper-

On importance of senior member in team

Holding: Important people are the senior people in your team. They know you more than anyone. They will know what is best for you. You stick with the senior people in the team. I wrote an article about Bangladesh years ago. Every time they came to England they would be the youngest ever team. Who do you learn from?