Fast bowlers’ fitness matters

Fri, Jan 6, '23

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.

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