superb piece.yes,there is no better sight on a cricket field than watching a fast bowler(& i don't mean the military medium trundlers who we see in abundance these days) steam in & hurl one down the batsman's jaws..

You are very true.Fast bowling is very natural.It just comes from the sheer hunger to hit the batsman.Bowlers,many of them these days,are timid.They look at things not theirs,the best being the slower deliveries.I just stop shoprt of cursing the great Wasim Akram for reminding the modern day trundlers to master the slow bowling.The swing,conventional and reverse,along with variations,if slower one is good enough to surprise the batsman and get him out,it is fine,but it should never be made a habbit.Thanks for reminding us why Freddie is great,for all those who argued with his statistics.The game will get exciting when the bats and ball compete.

Amazing read!!!
I would like more of these coming from you!
your #1 fan..always

Excellent article indeed! There isn't any world-class fast bowler except Dale Steyn or Mitchel Johnson and the reasons are too much cricket, flat wickets (even in Australia and England now) and a containment or defensive approach by captains. That is how mediocre and technically inept batsmen like Sehwag, Gambhir, Graeme Smith boast of averages in 50s. They have hardly ever have to face the likes of McGrath, Ambrose, Donald, Wasim, Waqar.
In the 80 & 90s almost every team had a great fast bowler to spearhead their attack. Now they have to do with the likes of S.Broad, Chris Martin, Thushara. The abundance of run feasts that we witness today is thus hardly surprising. Also laws have been changed both in Test cricket and limited overs to make the game more batsman friendly and thus more entertaining. Isn't a great bat vs ball contest like Donald v Atherton a more entertaining spectacle than batsmen in the sub-continent maiming hapless bowlers?

Nice Article Apoorv, I was thrill to "Read Short Pitch Bouncer" from "Macko" to Geoff ,

Exceedingly well-written piece. Sums up the predicament of the fast men in modern cricket, where everything seems loaded against them - pitches, conditions, schedules, boundary lengths and even the rules! It's a shame because that makes cricket less of a sport and more of a stage-managed entertainment a la WWE!

Hi Apoorv,

A well written piece! However I wish to dispute the "most memorable tournament [sic series] this decade" going to the Ashes 2005 Series. Certainly memorable no doubt - but "the most memorable"? Don't you think the 2001 Ind-Aus series in India where the Aussie juggernaut was finally halted deserves that tag?

I am pretty sure the England brains trust would certainly have pepped up their men with something in the line of "India stopped the Aussies at home by playing to their strengths - impeccable batting and high quality spin bowling; so can we with our swing and reverse swing".

Thanks and Regards,

D.Pramod

Wat an article 'maan'? Miss'em.

I strongly reciprocate your views ! Personally I enjoyed cricket more when the deliveries went past the bat just missing an inch and what followed was gasps all around. It made interesting to see how would the batsman respond to next delivery ! If he would decide to attack and put the next one away from the extra cover, it would be a treat to watch, even otherwise, I would enjoy the enthusiasm of the bowlers, chants of the short leg and slip fielders while the keeper shouts out loud the encouraging words !
Congratulations on having put those days so well in words.

Brilliant. Couldn't agree more.

True, that! Even as the tall, raw-boned Caribbean masters were fading away -leaving only Walsh, Ambrose ( and for the few matches he played - Bishop) to drive that fear .. already those masters of swing from Pakistan were taking the pitch completely out of equation with late in-out or reverse swing. Somewhere around the late 90s the speed guns inflated the ego of Shoaib and Lee, but did little else as Dilhara Fernandos, Ishant Sharmas and Jermaine Lawsons clocked over 90 mph. Donald barely needed to go over 88 during his spell to Atherton. Heck Shoaib's 90 mph thunderbolt to Fleming in the WC99 didn't invite half as much disdain as his 100mph one which was tucked away by Knight. Yes there is Malinga (who needed mystique healers), Bond (who just had to give up), Tait (whos scars are in mind as well), Johnson (whose once in a generation promise is not quite there). Steyn, Morkel, Nannes, Edwards and Aamer still offer some hope - until they can keep pounding in on anesthetized surfaces.

Great article... where are the hungry bowlers?

I totally agree with this. I miss the days when an Akhtar or a Tait would come steaming in with the full intention of killing you or the wicket.

Admittedly I'm too young to remember the days of such luminaries such as Walsh and Akram, but I have seen the footage and bowling was far better back then.

I totally agree with your idea about fast bowlers no longer being able to go 100% all the time, just look what happened to Bond!

I also think cutting back would be a good think. I found myself distinctly unimpressed by the IPL and having no enthusiasm for the WT20. I think once a year is far too often. Scrap ODI World Cup and put the WT20 in. Champions Trophy is far better than the ODI World Cup anyway.

Btw my favourite bowler is Tait, from my hometown!

Bring back the fast bowler!

Good one, i like it.

Terrific article. There's nothing better than REALLY fast bowling in a test match.

Batsmen have too many advantages nowadays - restricting bat sizes would be an easy start to reducing the discrepancy, as would removing restrictions on bouncers.

Fast bowlers should stop playing Tests and concentrate on T20s so that they have a longer playing career. I mean, seriously, other than the Ashes, who cares about Tests nowadays? Sure, players (Gayle being an honorable exception) say that Tests are the pinnacle of cricket and all, but they're just saying that so they don't get in trouble with the selectors.

Apoorv-You hit the proverbial nail on the head. We must clarify a few things first....the speedguns and speeds of the current so called fast bowlers is utterly misleading. Listen to Thommo and we learn how the speeds are calculated earlier than now. We can easily make out from the batsmen reaction than the speedgun about the real speed....and going by what I've seen of Macko in 83-84 series in India he's a million times faster/frightening! Can you ever imagine anyone hitting across, clearing the left leg...Macko would have literally decapitated all the T20 batsmen with 300 strike rate. Dilshan/Yousuf would perhaps last 2 balls and Mccullum with his better technique can expect to land in hospital. Second thing in addition to pancake pitches batsmen are really armed as though they are walking into War Zone. The fear of real injury gone, batsmen are really flailing around nothing because they are more courageous. Can we ever see something like Kalli htting Lillee with just pads/gloves??

This one is engraved with truth. A true cricket fan will be kept deprived of such greatness until and unless the so-called administrators of the game wake up. The way you described the Edgbaston test scenario actually took me back to that very moment. Exceptional article, Good work! =)

We need some fast bouncy wickets and some Indians for target practice :)

good article,there is no fierce bowling nowadays,i saw donlad bowling some fiery spells in his career,the latest best fast bowling spell was by johnson in Perth and Johannesburg(where he hit right at the jaws of kallis),where he bowled an exceptional spell of fast bowling throughout that series and he is one of the few bowlers at present who bowls those bouncers at the jaw of the batsman!!!!!

This is such a brilliant piece on fast bowling. One more battle that I remember vividly was the one between Shoaib Akhtar and Ricky Ponting at the WACA. It was an intense spell of fast bowling and Shoaib nearly took out Ponting's head on more than one occasion

these days its a rare pleasure to watch fast bowlers in full steam on surfaces which help them... administrators have dried the games just like the barren pitches they make for test matche

Yes the ICC needs to adress this cricket is not cricket without fast bowlers and despit Kemar Roach who's brilliant RAW pace on debut in Australia had the world best batsman Ponting in trouble there is no young paceman from any countries coming through at the moment apart from maybe Amir of Pakistan.

This is also the reason India have becoem the best side in the world and how there batsman have it easy getting high avergaes hiding behind protection and big bats playing half there cricket on the flattest pitches in the world, without possesing one fast bowler who can bowl above 85 mph.

these days its rare to see fast bolwers bowl the 'perfume ball',the recent best fast bowling was by johnson in Perth and Johannesburg,where he broke the jaws of kallis and setup boucher with two bouncers follwed up by a beautiful yorker,those where the few best fast bowling in 2 or 3 years and johnson is one of the few present fast bolwers who bawl bouncers quick and perfectly at the batsman's jaws!!!!!!!

readng the last part reminds me of the morning season of the perth test where ishant sharma troubled pointing wid his out and in swings

Firstly, Patrick A - you need to have a serious word with yourself pal. 'Fast bowlers should stop playing Tests and concentrate on T20s so that they have a longer playing career.' What a load of utter nonsense. I don't remember Ambrose and Walsh playing T20 and they played for years.

The problem, as accurrately pointed out in this article, is there is too much cricket so fast bowlers can't give 100% anymore, they have to preserve themselves.

Another problem I think is the 2 bouncer rule. I honestly think this should be done away with as protective gear is so good now that it is difficult for bowling to be intimadatory. We'll never have a situation like Bodyline again, the game has moved on. Let quick bowlers have their day again, before they die out as a breed altogether.

Australia used to have 6 test grounds each with a wicket that was different to all the others; slow, quick, spin, all the ingredients. Why does Australia is always there or thereabouts? Pitches! Batsmen and bowlers learned to cope with the variety of conditions that they faced. Thommo & Lillee, Lindwell and Miller, Gregory & McDonald, these were great fast! bowling combinations. O'Reilly, Fleetwood-Smith, Mailey, Warne - great spinners. All could bowl anywhere in the world because they could cope with the different conditions offered. Batting the same, no need to name the plethora of great batsmane who could score anywhere. Now, frustraingly, homogenous pitches are producing the 'hitch the trousers' mediums and 'accurate' spinners. Boring!!

Now I know that the current game favours batsmen inordinately, but the truth is that in those days, the fast bowlers ruled the roost. Physical intimidation and fear of death was a major factor in the bowler's success. I am slightly glad that those mean quickies are having the fear of god put in them by batsmen who hit them out of the park.

The only outcomes for Marshall when he bowled a short one were a wicket or a defensive shot. Marshall or Thompson or Lilee or anyone else for that matter wouldn't have been half as cocky if they ever had to worry about a Virender Sehwag who would send the ball hurtling faster than they hurled it.

I like bowlers making the batsman smell leather. But there should be a flip-side to that style of bowling. Reinforced helmets, which make sure that the hook shot is viable, make the game fairer, and probably save a few lives now and then.