Pace pays hospital bills, but are they worth it?

Imagine you’re a 12-year-old kid. The second you pick up the little thing and dream about hurling it down the other end at a ridiculous pace, you sign up for a journey filled with joy, elation, ecstasy, despair, disappointment and depression.

A journey that will make you endure more bad days than good, days of agony for a day of pure joy. Put you through paracetamols, painkillers, X-rays, surgeries, hospital beds and what not? 

Frank Ocean once said, “When you're happy, you enjoy the music, but when you're sad, you understand the lyrics.” That’s the life of an express fast bowler—someone who clocks over 145 kph and knows to enjoy suffering. 

When you are in the zone, free-flowing, bowling with no demons in the head and complete freedom, you fly through the crease, and it could feel like the best feeling on planet Earth. But when you are fighting it out for rhythm, when the day is dark, and when you don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel?

That’s when doubts creep in, emotions take over, and you sow seeds of uncertainty in the head. It can be a lonely, isolated and vulnerable place to be in. But if you ask a fast bowler if he’d like to be there for one day of bowling absolute thunderbolts, he’s giving you a thumbs up all year.

Well, Mark Andrew Wood is one of those blokes. One who would put speed over stretchers. Wood himself would be unsure how many overs he’d bowl for the Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL, but boy, he lived on the fast lane at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Saturday evening, April 01. 

David Warner and Prithvi Shaw were off to a destructive start. 40/0 in four overs. The conditions did not offer much, and the surface was slightly slower.

Mark Wood, right-arm fast, over the wicket, he uttered. 

Speed through the air? One good thing about it? It completely takes the pitch out of contention regardless of it being pacey or tacky. With his long and modified run-up, Wood came steaming in and bowled a quick back-of-length ball to kick off his LSG debut. 

He quickly called for sawdust and hoped he’d not pull a hammy in his spell. The air was clear, and we could sense some fear when Wood pushed one through Shaw that was signaled wide. Next up, he spiced things up when he fired one that thudded Shaw’s bat; it felt like a vehicle crashing into a divider. He set up the sparks, and the flames followed. 

When a fast bowler is thrilled and pumped up? That’s the danger zone, and you need to get away and get away quick. Unfortunately, Mitchell Marsh was on the other side of the runway, and the Woody-fighter jet took off like no tomorrow. 

What followed was an absolute fast-bowling masterclass as the theory, 'speed thrills, but kills' was proved right as the Durham demon destroyed the Delhi batting-order like how ammo fired from a bazooka would dismantle machine tanks finishing his spell with 4-0-14-5. 

When you endure all the injuries, put on the right attitude during rehab, overcome pain, push yourself to the breaking point, and patiently wait; the time will come.  

You reap what you sow, and that’s what Wood is seeing at the moment.