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HEADLINE: A Conversation with Michael Holding

 
CaribbeanCricket.com 2018-01-11 07:23:01 

"Those who got to be showing interest in Test cricket, don’t care": West Indies great Michael Holding

They say fast bowling is an inborn facet that once you find it, it is hard to let go. The setting is Newlands in Cape Town, where a gripping Test match is underway. The first few days of the India – South Africa series have already made heads turn. Even folks from Down Under, who have been treated to another one-sided Ashes series, have been paying attention. Their verdict is spot on. “Not even the Ashes has seen as riveting a session like what is going on in Cape Town.”

Since the 2016 Dharamsala Test, the world hasn’t seen a Test as exciting as this, where each session was an event in itself. On a pitch where there was something for everyone, fast bowlers were injecting new life into Test cricket. Holding, one of the faces of Windies’ fearsome foursome, is enjoying the setting. What Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada are doing in the second morning of the Test is transporting the yesteryear great back to when he was king.
“It is a rarity these days… to see such high-level fast bowling. I enjoyed it thoroughly. For a change there was a balance between bat and ball. And I was telling it to Sunil (Gavaskar). I don’t know how many of them would enjoy facing a spell like that, but that man (Gavaskar), all of five-foot five, did it against us. And without helmets. Now, that is character. You need them and you need matches like this to keep Test cricket healthy,” Holding says.


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robbo 2018-01-11 13:35:29 

Couldn’t agree more.

 
Khaga 2018-01-11 18:41:09 


Then you take him back to cricket, and ask what he makes of current batsmen, who seem to score runs at will. “Well, don’t compare,” he implores. “Jesse Owens was called a legend then. They used to say he was untouchable. And you wondered, ‘can anyone run faster than him’ but what has happened now? Usain Bolt came along. He is a legend now, but does any of that diminish Owens records? He was the best of his time and Bolt is best now. It’s the same with cricketers. Sunil, Greg (Chappell), Ian (Chappell)... they were the greats of my era. Virat, (Steve) Smith are now.. tomorrow someone else.

 
Priapus 2018-01-11 19:16:14 

In reply to Khaga

You may want to share this with your buddy Devin.

 
sgtdjones 2018-01-11 22:44:13 

As you prepare to leave, he asks: “Do you think I would have refused if somebody had come to me and said, ‘I will pay you millions if you bowl four overs a day?’ No.

I don’t fault the players for getting big pay cheques. The fault is with those who have made cricket a business.

There is T10 now, and trust me there will be T5 in three years. Test cricket won’t die, it will exist. But it won’t matter. It is like me (old man) just around you young blokes.” The copy, as a whole, answers the first question.