Slow Love™ said:
Bit of a straw man there, SJS, 'cause I never said that. I just don't agree that it's necessarily the case that he NEEDS to shorten his runup.
He needs to do anything that he can to prevent his breaking down and on the field it is his bowling which means his run up and his bowling action. This is just what I said in my first post here today.
Incidentaly, All those I have quoted and can quote more if anyone thinks it helps are fast bowlers over time. Tyson, Lillee, Imran, snow, Trueman, Bailey etc.
Bowling greats over five and a half decades. Surely their word carries enough weight not to be dismissed by a bowler who , you agree I see, has a problem. All I am saying is, he needs to try it out, in the nets, under the supervision of his coach sincerely and with full dedication and see if it works for him. For other than this he doesnt seem to have an idea as to what he is going to do. Just talking of "I nned to work on my fitness" or "which fast bowler does not have a fitness problem" is not going to help.
You know something. There is a terrific book by Rajan Bala called, The Covers Are Off'. It is a fantastic insight into the politics of Indian cricket.
In one place Nawab Pataudi Jr talks of Durrani and says something similar to (my words), "He is a very fine cricketer, a great all rounder. Bu he is not Garfield Sobers. He needs to realise that. He is very disappointed that he is not fulfilling his potential, I can understand that since his potential is enormous. But the way to do that is not to play up his tempramental nature and hide himself ehind his temprament. He needs to put in that extra effort that even genius needs to put in. He isnt willing to do that and puts on show his temprament as some kind of a positive"
I immediately thought of Shoaib.
Shoaib has a serious problem and if it is not sorted out , he may not last very long and that will be a massive tragedy and he will have himself to blame.
