Fast bowlers’ fitness matters

On their recent tour to Australia last November/December, the West Indies bowlers suffered numerous injuries. That is not acceptable in any game of cricket, but especially in Test cricket where one’s bowlers are called upon to carry a heavy workload.

This is not light-hearted stuff whereupon a bowler may be called upon to bowl four overs only or ten overs, depending on the length of the game.

Test cricket tests the cricketer’s ability to bowl or bat for hours in addition to giving everything he can while fielding. And this could be over a period of five days, when bowling as many as 30 overs in a day is distinctly possible. The fast bowlers suffer the most from their actions because they put everything into their run-ups of more than 20 yards which would find them pounding their front feet into the turf at the bowling crease, coming down from a height after a powerful back-foot landing.

The fast bowlers who have been injured badly enough to miss a series here and a series there, have weakened WI bowling seriously enough to undermine penetration considerably. And it has been bad enough to make me wonder why, in this day and age, WI bowlers are struggling with fitness issues. Not that bowlers can’t get injured, however, it’s been happening far too often to WI bowlers as compared to others on the international cricket scene.

It seems that WI training camp which supposedly includes a team doctor, masseurs, strength and conditioning professionals, all fitness experts who should be building a fit team, ready to inflict critical damage on their opponents, are failing in their duty. The teams are the trainers’ responsibility to ensure that players portray a degree of fitness in order to be best at their game on match-day.

The Test side has suffered loss of players through Shannon Gabriel, Kemar Roach, Alzarri Joseph and Jayden Seales, who is the youngest and worst-affected. I have to agree with Tony Gray, the former WI fast bowler, coach and cricket critic. He calls for better management for Seales. He was pinpointing the young Trinidadian because of his age and inexperience, except, I know his words of wisdom are meant for all fast bowlers.

I quote Gray: “Jayden Seales needs to work on strengthening his body. He has to be managed in the right way. At this stage of his life he should be playing four-day regional cricket, Test cricket and county cricket. I would like to see him not play franchise T20 cricket because it destroys his potency as a fast bowler because he tries so many different things. If Seales can bowl 90 miles per hour consistently, he will be an asset to WI.”

He goes on to remark that Seales is only 21 years old and, at that age, the stress is greater when playing international cricket. It reminded me of the late great Sir Fred Trueman who once remarked that a fast bowler’s best and crucial years of development is between 22 and 26 years of age.

Gray makes so many salient points concerning fast bowlers. Having experienced bowling fast at international level, knowing precisely what is involved, plus, what is needed to develop, improve and protect one’s fragile nature being subjected to ball after ball, over after over, match after match, the management of the quick bowlers is of supreme importance, to have them knowing when to blast away and how to pace themselves in order to be most effective.

Nonetheless, there could be problems with too much rest and learning to conduct one’s training programme. It should not be left up to the coach or trainer only, although they both have to play their part. However, the player is the one carrying the load factor and must know himself and his stress levels and how he’s feeling on a given day. Players ought to look to their trainers for guidance only.

Many years ago, when I played county cricket, I recall talking to England’s excellent fast bowler at the time, John Snow. I asked him just how did he manage to bowl fast for an entire season playing 24 three-day games, 16 40-over games plus 60-over Gillette Cup games (this was a knockout-out competition so number of games was changeable), all played within four months. His reply stayed with me.

I pace myself. I would bowl according to the needs of my team.

I feel certain that Gray did the same at Surrey.