chicane
State Captain
80 mph is nothing...evn douglas hondo and tapash baisya bowl at 80 mph. If you're talking real pace it's around 87 mph and above. You are right about bowlers who have lost their bite after losing pace, but swing and bounce can compensate for it ala Wasim and Waqar. A top bowler should have two of either pace, swing or bounce. Nothing compensates for accuracy, a top bowler has to be on target.tooextracool said:it varies from bowler to bowler. some bowlers need pace while others dont. generally taller bowlers(mcgrath,walsh,caddick etc) dont need pace and tend to last longer in world cricket because they get more out of a wicket than a shorter bowler would. whereas bowlers like gough,donald and waqar were never really the same once they had lost that extra pace that they had. a combination of pace and accuracy can be deadly and those are the bowlers that tend to be amongst the elite.
coming back to klusener, klusener went from bowling at around 90 mph to bowling at 75 mph. thats a major drop of pace and unless you are playing in english conditions, i dont care how accurate you are, you wont be a successful pacer. look at martin bicknell, ealham etc they are accurate but without the pace they are nothing. generally to be a successful pacer you at least need to bowl at 80mph and then be accurate.