Everyone fears a fast bowler and the impact he can have: Shaun Pollock

Everyone fears a fast bowler and the impact he can have: Shaun Pollock: The former South African captain Shaun Pollock was a very fine bowling all-rounder. His bowling partnership with Allan Donald troubled batsmen around the world. While Donald was known for his speed, Pollock was more renowned for his accuracy and swing. He is South Africa’s leading wicket taker in Tests and ODIs. The nephew of legendary South African cricketer Graeme Pollock and the son of former South African fast bowler Peter Pollock, he managed to live up to the expectations in an illustrious career for the Proteas. Post retirement he has remained active in cricket with coaching stints and as a commentator.

In an interview to bcci.tv about the fundamentals of fast bowling Pollock said, ‘You can’t get more talent, you have what you have inside you and you learn to hone that.’

Summing up the term fast bowling he said, ‘There is no doubt that fast bowlers have an impact on the cricketing world. When a new star is born and makes an impact in world cricket, there is an excitement around it. They put fear into the batsmen. If you ask any batsman if they fear fast bowling, if they tell you that they don’t then they tell you in fibs. Everyone fears a fast bowler and the impact he can have.’

Explaining about the importance of a fast bowler understanding his own limitations he said, ‘It has got to do with the maturity levels as you grow as a fast bowler and also the coaching; the people involved in helping the fast bowler through. You need to earmark what he can or can’t do and then make sure that he gets strength in order to compete at the highest level and do those skills separately. There are definitely certain limitations to certain players and they need to understand those. When they do that is when they can become most effective.’

‘It is more like an awakening. You can’t get more talent, you have what you have inside you and you learn to hone that. You have an awakening to what you can achieve. Right from when you start as a young kid and you are working your way up, you play against different teams under different age group levels and you progress gradually. You then finally come into the international stage and work out whether you can succeed or not. You then become aware of your abilities as to what you can exactly do,’ he emphasized.

When asked about the amount of cricket being played these days and the challenges faced by fast bowlers, especially the ones from visiting teams when they bowl in the subcontinent he said, ‘I think there are certain fast bowlers who suit sub continental conditions. Myself, coming from South Africa were if you hit line and length there was some assistance and some bounce. You just had to be consistent on that length and be successful. Coming into the subcontinent you have to learn the art of trying to create more pace closer to the batsman because there is not as much bounce. If you bang it into the pitch then it absorbs a lot of ferocity of the delivery and it ends up coming up slowly. The more you can create pace closer, the more you can create some movement; you often see the bowlers who can get the ball to skid through and the people with a lower arm action who have the ability to reverse swing the ball can be really effective.’

When asked about India fail to produce a big resource of quality fast bowlers he said, ‘It is weird to understand why India struggles to get those kinds of bowlers coming through consistently. I don’t know if it is just because of the genes or the things that they eat growing up. I think the difficulty for the people in India is the amount of cricket you play. It is no doubt that it is down to genes. Fit muscles, strength and technique obviously play a huge part and your athletic build contributes to it. But there are a lot of aspects that is difficult to work out. India have some guys who can bowl real quick like Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav. Javagal Srinath was the quickest Indian bowler that I have played against in those days. But it is a surprise that they don’t come through more consistently.’

About Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar he opined, ‘You need to work with him (Umesh) for a good period of time and get into his brain to find out where he feels he is strong and where he feels he is weak. You also need to work on certain days; where he would have run in and just felt great and it would have felt that his body was free to get through his action and felt that his timing was good. He looks like a strong guy with some real pace. He gets it up to 145kmph.’

‘Bhuvneshwar Kumar who is bowling around 130 to 135kmph; it is not going to be much of a difference if he can push it to 138kmph. It is only when you start hitting towards 140 or 145 that you feel the difference of that pace when you playing against it. You need to work out your strengths and if you feel you can come off as a good swing bowler, stick to that ability and do that. In all honesty, I wouldn’t have been as successful as I was if I had been brought up in India because the conditions wouldn’t have suited me. When Bhuvi travels abroad, that is where he should come to his own. But because he is born and bred here and there is a lot of cricket being played in India he needs to come up with a technique that can make him affective and consistent,’ he said.

When asked about work outs and its role in building a body required for fast bowling he said, ’ I think gym has become a part and there is no doubt that I feel strength is important to be a fast bowler. But I think the flexibility and the suppleness is also vital. It is all about the timing of the delivery, how your right hip comes through; the flick of the wrists at the right time and a lot of other things that are contributing factors. Core strength in particular is one of them because then you don’t have your back issues that tend to affect most bowlers. The amount of cricket that is played, it means it gets difficult for a fast bowler to sustain being a fast bowler day in and day out.’

‘No doubt there is a lot of analysis and on some occasions there will be over and on some they will be under. But, if you can work on something particular and it gets a guy into a strong position which allows him to form a firm base from a good foundation and it can help him release the delivery well etc then it can definitely help. But yes, I think you got to be aware that not everyone is going to bowl the same,’ were his views on the analysis that part of modern day cricket.

Pollock has been impressed with the young speedster Kagiso Rabada and said, ’The first time I saw him was in footage in the U-19 World Cup. He looked exciting, a tall guy delivering the ball from a great height. He had raw pace. But what I noticed about him right from the beginning is that he had great control. That is exactly what he has brought to the party. He bowls at close to 140kmph but he has got control hitting a decent length making the batsman play at a lot of deliveries. Dale Steyn had the ability to skid the ball and more ability to shape it away. But I think Rabada will get into his own even more when he gets back to South Africa. From what I have seen till now is that he has got control for a young man and has that raw ingredient of pace. He is a strong man and doesn’t look like he is going to suffer too many injuries. He has a long future ahead of him.’

His views on senior bowlers in a team and their role in the growth of a young fast bowler were,’I think as a senior player you have a huge impact on the younger guys coming through. It is not always from what you say or tell them. It is sometimes just about them observing you. I know that when I first came into the Natal setup, my mentor was Malcolm Marshall. He would give us advice, you would take that on board, and you would watch how he went about his business in the nets and how he worked different batsmen out. You would also watch how he would bowl in different surfaces.’

When asked about the importance of a bowling partnership he said, ‘Absolutely! I was very fortunate to have a bowling partner in Allan Donald when I started my international cricket. Later I had Makhaya Ntini and we struck up a good partnership. In the latter part of my career, it was with Dale Steyn. Bowling partnerships are vital.’

He concluded stating, ‘When I first came in, there was Waqar and Wasim bowling in tandem, McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee or at times McGrath and Shane Warne bowling together. I just feel I was fortunate enough to play in the year where those legendary bowlers were around. I was just happy that I played against some of the greats of the game.’