Aussies will feel the strain if they don’t give their pacemen a rest

 
4 July 2012

There are few sights in cricket more exhilarating than a fast bowler tearing to the wicket and combining speed and skill to challenge the batsman.

The side injury that has ruled young Australian quick Pat Cummins out of the one-day series between England and Australia is a shame for supporters but also an indication of the need to protect those who practise the game’s most thrilling art.

Cummins is only 19 yet this problem is the third that the bowler has suffered since making his international debut against South Africa in a Twenty20 match last October. Before this setback, there was a stress fracture in his back and a foot injury.

Australia coach Mickey Arthur believes there is little to worry about and is convinced Cummins’s physical fragility will disappear when he is older and better accustomed to bowling long spells. We must hope that Arthur is correct. Striking a happy balance when managing fast bowlers is one of the most difficult and controversial tasks in cricket.

To bowl a cricket ball quickly requires unnatural movements. In what other walk of life are similar motions needed? This is where Arthur’s judgment is sound: the more often a fast bowler does his job, the more his joints and muscles will grow used to its stresses and strains.

The value of “bowling fitness” cannot be underestimated and this is why many former cricketers become frustrated when they see international players sent on specific conditioning courses rather than being allowed simply to bowl for their counties.

Those who share this opinion do not understand the policy followed by England coach Andy Flower, who has started to rotate his quick bowlers, but these are not novices who must learn the mechanics of fast bowling. Between them, Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan and Steve Finn have played 554 times for England.

Anderson was frustrated when he was left out of the team for the final Test against West Indies at Edgbaston last month but the injury records of pacemen around the world lend support to Flower’s philosophy.

Brett Lee remains one of the most proficient pace bowlers in the game but he has not played a Test for Australia since December 2008 and retired from the longest form of the game more than two years ago because of the physical toll it was exerting.

His compatriot Shaun Tait, one of the fastest men around, now plays only Twenty20 cricket. Fidel Edwards, of West Indies, is another who can reach high speeds and he would have played more than 54 Tests in nine years had it not been for injuries.

Kemar Roach was seriously impressive for the Windies during their tour of England and it was a great pity that he had to miss the Edgbaston Test with a shin injury.

Closer to home, Chris Tremlett is fighting his way back to fitness after serious back problems stopped him from playing in all but one of England’s last 10 Tests.

Graham Onions is now in the England Test picture once more but nearly lost his career at the top level, again because of a severe back condition.

Tremlett and Onions do not possess extreme pace but they are important cogs in the England machine. None of Flower’s main bowlers is as young as Cummins yet history suggests they remain just as susceptible to injury.

Coaches around the world have a duty to protect those who win matches and entertain. That is why Flower chooses to handle his stars with care — and we must hope Australia do the same with Cummins.

County game will feel so odd without Ramprakash

One of the most difficult tasks for a sportsman is to determine the timing of his retirement. The admission that you are no longer capable of reaching the standards you met for so many years is a tough one to make.

Tomorrow, Mark Ramprakash, one of the finest batsmen in English domestic cricket, will announce that he is to step down from the first-class game after a career spanning 25 years. It is the right decision. Ramprakash’s form had dipped this season following his recovery from a knee injury and, at 42, it was unrealistic to expect a dramatic improvement.

In his matches for Surrey in 2012, Ramprakash lacked the fluency that had been his trademark and the decline was sharp enough to persuade coach Chris Adams to drop him from the first team earlier in the summer. A proud man, Ramprakash was irked but 62 runs from eight innings were a strong argument in Adams’ favour.

County cricket will feel like an odd place without its marathon man. He has 114 first-class centuries to his name and has amassed 35,659 runs in 461 first-class matches since his debut for Middlesex in 1987.

For a player of such talent, Ramprakash’s international career was a disappointment. But he would point out — correctly — that he played in an era of devastating bowling attacks.

Ramprakash is also known for winning Strictly Come Dancing in 2006 but it is for the day job that he should be remembered. In an age where franchise cricket is becoming ever more influential, his dedication to the county game should be celebrated and we wish him a happy retirement.

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