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ICC
prophet at pace bowlers' expense
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- Stephen Brown
The injury toll to fast bowlers to international quicks is fastly becoming an epidemic and now the epidemic seems to be taking its toll on batsmen and spinners too.
The injury plague has hit Australia the hardest whilst other nations too have suffered badly. For Australia,
McGrath has now missed the whole season, Brett Lee looks likely to be sidelined till the next Australian domestic season having just had ankle surgery, whilst Gillespie and Bracken have spent time on the sidelines.
Sri Lanka is missing Fernando and Nissanka, India has had injuries to Zaheer Khan, Nehra, Agarkar, Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, South African and Pakistan bowlers have also had their niggles, and New Zealand has been without Shane Bond for a whole year. In the West Indies Jermaine Lawson has struggled with injury and now Fidel Edwards is injured, Andy Blignaut has been on and off the field frequently, Mortaza from Bangladesh spends more time off the field than on, and the English speedsters struggle to play back to back tests and series ,a good signal though is Simon Jones's recovery.
Unfortunately Jones's recovery is not a sign as one bowler recovers and another four bowlers break down, the prognosis is not good. With cricketers playing up to 9/10 months a year and playing more International games, the likelihood is injuries are going to increase and recoveries are likely to be longer. What is the problem? It is the amount of games played annually, Its the state of the pitches and outfields which is injurious to bowlers and fielders alike, and Its the production of flat pitches round the world forcing bowlers to bowl longer spells.
Bowlers now need to not only be rotated in one day games but in tests also, key bowlers need to be rested from meaningless one day tournaments, and the ICC seriously needs to look at limiting the amount of cricket played.
The conclusion is this the ICC needs to address this problem quickly, or teams will have to look to training up to 6 or 8 quality fast bowlers instead of 3 or 4 of them. The odds are batting will get easier as the injury cricket toll continues to rise, and it will force rookie bowlers into the role of strike bowler.
Whatever the solution is the prognosis of the fast bowling fraternity is not looking good for the future.
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