WI Quicks Need Specialised Training
Sat, Dec 17, '05
People like to believe that the English-speaking Caribbean islands and Guyana, which make up the West Indies have - until recent years - always produced great fast bowlers.
It's actually not true. In the 1920s the likes of Learie Constantine, George Francis, George John, Herman Griffith and in the 1930s, Manny Martindale were outstanding bowlers.
Had it been possible for them to have had extended runs in Test cricket, a couple of those perhaps would have achieved greatness.
But by 1928 when the West Indies earned Test status Francis, John and Griffith were past their best. Also, the West Indies only had Australia (once) and England as opponents in the pre-War years.
Then, of course, the Second World War (1939-45) wreaked havoc with cricketing careers. Who knows how much more a George Headley would have achieved, for example, but for that awful episode? No doubt the same can be said for a few fast bowlers around the region.
But the fact is that after the resumption of Test cricket in the late 1940s, the West Indies had to wait until the late 1950s with the emergence of Roy Gilchrist, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith in the early 1960s for pace bowlers of high quality over a reasonably sustained period.
Indeed in the '50s it was the spin of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine that held most sway.
Hall and Griffith played leading roles as Frank Worrell's team inherited by Garfield Sobers got to the very pinnacle of Test cricket in the 1960s. The rapid decline of Hall and Griffith in the late '60s meant another long drought which only ended with the maturing of Andy Roberts, followed by Michael Holding in the mid-70s.
That those two were followed by an extraordinarily long list of outstanding match-winning speed merchants is now the stuff of legend. Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Malcolm Marshall, Wayne Daniel, Sylvester Clarke, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson, Ian Bishop and Curtly Ambrose terrorised the world's batting and led us to believe our riches would never end.
Now we know different. Franklyn Rose, Mervyn Dillon, Nixon McLean, Reon King, etc only flattered to deceive.
The major weakness as cricket watchers have grown weary of pointing out is the inability of most of our current bowlers to maintain a consistent line and length. Much of it, I suspect, is the fault of their early training. The clear impression is that at an early age in schools and clubs not enough attention is paid to getting fast bowlers to bowl consistently on a length on or around offstump. Too many of our young bowlers strain for pace without having requisite control. They become in the words of cricket watchers "fast and foolish".
People need to understand that what made Roberts, Holding, Marshall, Garner, Croft, Ambrose and others great was not just their pace but their ability to consistently bowl one side of the stumps just short of a driving length.
That more than anything else is what has made Glenn McGrath great - a lot of the time at little more than medium pace.
I am knocking wood as I write, but I got the clear impression from watching (on TV) the recent series in Australia that the likes of Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Bravo are getting the message. To be fair to him, Corey Collymore has long been a convert.
But there must be a concerted effort at the highest level to get our young fast bowlers to understand and to work at building control long before they get into the West Indies team. It can't be done during the regional tournament, in Test matches or on tour.
There must be specialised training for extended periods of time. Fast bowling clinics if you will. And over the longer term, a fast bowling academy for our promising youngsters.
The idea is not novel. That's exactly the route India took in building up its fast bowling resources after decades of seeking to compete at the highest level with spinners as their only match-winning bowlers.
Now we all know about the money constraints and that even the regional cricket academy set up four years ago in Grenada is no more. But if we are going to turn around our cricket we are going to have to find the money for specialised training.
Business magnate Allan Stanford plans to spend all those millions on 20-20 cricket. If he is approached with a proper business plan maybe he'll consider helping to finance a fast bowling academy.
* In partnership with the Jamaica Observer.