After a long break, I started watching cricket matches again. I always used to watch them in bits and pieces, but now that I have move time to spare, I watch them in larger patches. In doing so one thing struck me hard, I don't know if it was only for me or if even others experienced the same feeling. One thing is for sure, I haven't read about it either in the papers or on the net. Where have all the bowlers gone?

I enjoy playing more than watching others play. But when I watch them play, I always want to learn from it in order to improve my game. Being a bowler myself I enjoy watching good bowlers in their full flow. Try to figure out how they think, how they control the batsmen etc. Looking at the bowlers now, there is no way one can learn anything from them. Wait… there is something one can learn, which even I can't deny- we get to learn what not to do.

What made me come to this conclusion? Do I actually need to answer this? It is so simple. Look at the current bunch of batsmen. How many of them have a sound technique? Almost everyone has a bat pad gap during defense – a flaw in the very basics of batting. There is also something wrong with the footwear they use, it seems to get stuck with the pitch. Guess it's high time they changed their footwear. There is more to this and I think I'll keep this for another ranting session of mine. Allowing batsmen like these to score hundreds, why even fifties is a big disgrace to the race of bowlers.

As a kid I was amazed by the big bullies of cricket, the mean fast bowlers. It was looking at the way they controlled the batsmen was what made me want to learn to bowl. And also with the help of Sports Star, I read about the great bowlers of the 80s and how they got the batsmen out (actually thinking them out). Even in the 90s I remember the way Steve Waugh got Lara out in the 1998 World cup semi-finals. He kept bowling those leg cutters of his (off cutter to the batsman) and then got one to keep straight (and he was not a fulltime bowler). In a match during the final days of his career, Walsh setup Vaughan beautifully with a set of short pitched deliveries, and then caught him unguarded on the back foot with a beautiful slower ball. Speaking of Walsh, I was always amazed by the way he could control the ball in both directions.

All I see in the current generation is to just bowl and wait for the batsmen to make a mistake. If they have to force the batsmen to make mistakes, they should at least maintain a nagging line and length like McGrath. But looking at many of the bowlers, it looks like even they do not know how the ball is going to go. This is the current state - pathetic.

I know it is one thing to write and another to implement, but if one is at the international level, then he has to be that good, else I don't see why he should be there. If the quality of bowlers continue to decrease (even if it is in the same state as now), then I am sure even a Gilli Danda player will be made a great batsmen (even as I write I see the media hyping a few such players).

:-)
Never knew you were such a BIG fan of cricket..i'm not such a follower, but I also agree that I don't see good quality bowlers these days.. and part of it has to be blamed on the the pitch as well. most of the One day pitches are prepared for batsmen I believe
Posted by  venu on Sunday 04th of June 2006 11:53:04 AM

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