Re: Anurag. When he's bowling balls to the wall, full tilt, he's quick - 145kmh - but I don't see him able to do that regularly. The exciting thing about him is that he's always going to be a guy who bowls late 130s and if his batting continues to improve, can offer you a 5-6-7-8 batsman.
Re: Mathieson. Absolutely glad he's getting a chance at first class, hope he charges in, forgets about being nice/respectful and just goes at it. There is a guy who just bowls quick regardless, he bowls 144-145kmh in his natural delivery stride, not his effort ball. He's been working on fitness and leg strength in the off season to develop more consistency, bowl longer spells and stem injuries but he's a tall guy with a tall action and will only improve.
Re: Developing pace as a bowler, I say it's possible, I just think it comes down to training, getting the right technique, having the right mentality for it and above all else, being prepared to bowl and bowl and bowl.
Iain O'Brien, Shane Bond, Dion Nash, Shane Watson, Shane Lee and a fair few others showed improvements in their pace, even after their early twenties. Bond went from a 130-135kmh bowler prior to his police training to a 150-156kmh bowler.
O'Brien went from an average 125kmh bowler to a 140kmh bowler through persistence, hard work, resistance bowling (into the wind) and desire.
I think if you want to add pace, you train for it - you do hill sprints, you do endurance running, you do plyometrics, you do kettle bell exercises but most importantly, you bowl! You bowl at least 6 overs a day and up to 15 on heavy training days and you bowl at near full effort the entire time, you bowl with the intent of being quicker, you get your technique right to help you with that (Ian Pont's drop step, using javelin mechanics, etc) and you'll start developing pace.
I think the problem is most coaches try and train you out of that mentality and train you into a line and length mentality, the two shouldn't be at the expense of one another.
Injured?
