One of the most horrific of all cricket photographs shows England’s Mike Gatting after his nose was broken by a delivery from the West Indies great Malcolm Marshall in a One-Day International. Preparing to bowl the next delivery, Marshall found a bit of bone embedded in the ball.
Three days later another fast bowler, Patrick Patterson claimed four wickets on his first day in Test cricket and England lost by ten wickets. It was the first time in history a team went 5-0 down after one Test, wrote Rob Smyth.
Generations of West Indies fast bowlers left a trail of broken arms and toes, smashed ribs, fractured fingers, snapped jaws, crunched elbows as some of the world’s finest batters struggled.
So even if it was said in jest, you cannot escape the irony of West Indies’ century-maker at Trent Bridge Kavem Hodge telling England’s fast bowler Mark Wood, “Hey I have a wife and kids at home.” Wood was bowling consistently over 150 kmph.
Since ball-tracking data became available in 2006, an over Wood bowled to Hodge was the quickest recorded in England. But the track was good and the bounce wasn’t disconcerting.
Fiercest and finest over
It wasn’t always so when the West Indies fast men of yore were bowling. One over bowled by Michael Holding to England’s Geoff Boycott in Barbados 1981 has been anointed the fiercest and finest in Test cricket. Boycott was beaten the first five balls. The sixth prised his off stump out of the ground. It was said that Boycott was good enough to make zero.
Frank Keating wrote, “The hateful half-dozen had been orchestrated into one gigantic crescendo. Boycott looked round, then as the din assailed his ears, his mouth gaped and he tottered as if he’d seen the Devil himself. Then slowly he walked away, erect and brave and beaten.”
In the days when such things were allowed, I loved to stand behind the nets so I could appreciate sheer pace. It was a treat to watch the great West Indies bowlers from Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall to Joel Garner from close up. Aware the ball could tear through the net, I stood at an angle (and at a safe distance) so I could take in both the pace and the batter’s reaction.
Scary Patterson
By far the fastest bowler I saw was Patterson, a few months after he had torn the England batting apart in a 5-0 Test series win. It was frightening, and my respect for batters like Sunil Gavaskar and Graham Gooch went up manifold.
“I knew if I got hit by any of his deliveries, I could die on the spot,” Krishnamahcari Srikkanth said of Patterson whom he faced bravely in Sharjah and in home series, “I survived only because of my reflexes.”
“Patrick has muscles in places where other man simply do not have places,” wrote Frances Edmonds in her book on the tour.
There are few more thrilling sights on a cricket field than a fast bowler in flow. It appeals to something primal in us, affording us a glimpse of something refined for modern sensibilities. None of us likes fast bowling said an English batter, but some of us don’t let on. Opening batters are natural fits on psychiatrist’s couches; to be unaffected requires the kind of mind and skill not available to all.
Former England opener Steve James once said, “I was scared of fast bowling. Or to be precise, I was scared of being hurt by fast bowling. I am pretty sure many other batters had similar feelings, but how many admit it?”
The death of Australian Phil Hughes from a bouncer in a first class game has made the reaction to fast bowling more rooted in common sense and openness.
In general, as studies have shown, a batter has 0.6 seconds to work out the line of the ball, figure out its likely course, decide on the stroke, and then for the limbs to receive that information from the brain before a stroke is played. Speed often defeats reactions, as fast bowler John Snow said.
However you look at it, a West Indies batter reminding an English fast bowler of those waiting at home is simply delightful!
