What is the future for fast bowling?

[greatwhiteshark]

Who would want to be one now? How heart breaking it must be for these guys these days turning up to play and watching the curators shave all grass off the pitch and put no moisture into it. They fair dinkum other than their pay cheque must be thinking what on earth am I doing this for.

Now many will say we can't have lively pitches because whoever wins the toss gets to big an advantage but on these roads the same thing occurs.
Australia will get 500-600 in the first innings, Pakistan will go into bat knowing they cannot win the match and have been in the field for a day and a half or 2 days. Their minds won't be on the job and they will get rolled twice and the average joe bloggs out there will say "you see there was nothing wrong with the pitch"

20/20 and 50 over cricket is for batsman and that is ok, but test cricket is supposed to be for all 3 major components of the game.
It should assist or favour the fast bowlers for the first day and a half, then the batsman should dominate for the next 2 and a half days and on the final day the spinners should play there role. Very good batsman should have to fight to get runs in the first innings not be smashing the bowling around. But they still with a good technique be able to guts it out and fight to get runs.

Bottom line is yes I was a former quick, so lucky to play in an era where these roads were not dished up every match but I really feel for the quicks now, obviously the pay is good enough to cop it but it makes terrible cricket to watch and while we keep getting results there is not much that can be done about it.
We would get results with good cricket pitches also.

I watched the first 4 overs today and other than a quick check on the score I have not watched another ball, I knew exactly what the day had in store after 1 over.

 

[Scotland]

Their*

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Their*

Sorted for you Mr Scotland, can I still get a participation medal?

 

[Scotland]

Sorted for you Mr Scotland, can I still get a participation medal?

Everyone gets a medal for trying in 2017.

 

[Scotland]

I don't think the situation is really that dire. I'd be more worried about the future of spin bowling and batting than I would pace bowling.

Australian pitches still tend to produce plenty of bounce and carry but the problem is that they all blend into one. Hazlewood, Starc etc. need to bowl at the WACA with Matthew Wade standing just inside the rope just as much as they need to bowl on a green Bellerive wicket on a balmy 13 degree overcast morning as much as they do on a spinning SCG that isn't offering much for the quicks.

I also don't agree that T20/ODI is for batsmen. I follow the Scorchers who have won two BBL titles and made 4 BBL finals and they are generally not a high scoring side. 20 overs isn't a long time so if you lose a couple of wickets or get pegged down it kills your run rate. T20 is for action. I agree the pitches are too flat and the ropes in too far but it's not like each game is 0/200 vs 0/201. People want to see wickets as much as they want to see 4s and 6s.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Bowling machine in the nets. That's it.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

I don't think the situation is really that dire. I'd be more worried about the future of spin bowling and batting than I would pace bowling.

Australian pitches still tend to produce plenty of bounce and carry but the problem is that they all blend into one. Hazlewood, Starc etc. need to bowl at the WACA with Matthew Wade standing just inside the rope just as much as they need to bowl on a green Bellerive wicket on a balmy 13 degree overcast morning as much as they do on a spinning SCG that isn't offering much for the quicks.

I also don't agree that T20/ODI is for batsmen. I follow the Scorchers who have won two BBL titles and made 4 BBL finals and they are generally not a high scoring side. 20 overs isn't a long time so if you lose a couple of wickets or get pegged down it kills your run rate. T20 is for action. I agree the pitches are too flat and the ropes in too far but it's not like each game is 0/200 vs 0/201. People want to see wickets as much as they want to see 4s and 6s.

It all blends in together doesn't it? Preparing lifeless pitches makes it a batsmans game and because the batsman are rarely tested they get records there talent doesn't warrant. When a wicket with some life in it comes along which is once or twice a year then we see what the batsman lack big time. But instead of trying to fix the issue the easy way is just prepare lifeless pitches and that is the path that has been taken.
As for spin bowlers well the problem is we were spoilt with Shane Warne who was a once in a lifetime spinner. Over the last 100 years there has probably only been a handful great spinners. Very hard trade being a spinner and even harder to become a great one.

 

[STFU Donnie]

Who would want to be one now? How heart breaking it must be for these guys these days turning up to play and watching the curators shave all grass off the pitch and put no moisture into it. They fair dinkum other than their pay cheque must be thinking what on earth am I doing this for.

Now many will say we can't have lively pitches because whoever wins the toss gets to big an advantage but on these roads the same thing occurs.
Australia will get 500-600 in the first innings, Pakistan will go into bat knowing they cannot win the match and have been in the field for a day and a half or 2 days. Their minds won't be on the job and they will get rolled twice and the average joe bloggs out there will say "you see there was nothing wrong with the pitch"

20/20 and 50 over cricket is for batsman and that is ok, but test cricket is supposed to be for all 3 major components of the game.
It should assist or favour the fast bowlers for the first day and a half, then the batsman should dominate for the next 2 and a half days and on the final day the spinners should play there role. Very good batsman should have to fight to get runs in the first innings not be smashing the bowling around. But they still with a good technique be able to guts it out and fight to get runs.

Bottom line is yes I was a former quick, so lucky to play in an era where these roads were not dished up every match but I really feel for the quicks now, obviously the pay is good enough to cop it but it makes terrible cricket to watch and while we keep getting results there is not much that can be done about it.
We would get results with good cricket pitches also.

I watched the first 4 overs today and other than a quick check on the score I have not watched another ball, I knew exactly what the day had in store after 1 over.

After defending the MCG pitch last week, I am coming around to your POV on the matter. That old fart Neil Harvey was on the radio talking to that other old fart Jim Maxwell, and he talked about the pitches in his day being much greener.

The upshot of all these anodyne pitches is that when batsmen encounter a less than ideal pitch they are unable to cope. The last couple of decades has, somehat paradoxically, seen some of the heaviest scoring ever and many, many epic collapses.

 

[Carl Hooper]

England and south Africa produce the best cricket pitches I reckon.

We should follow their blueprint.

As a bowling all rounder I sympathize with the fast bowlers having nothing to look forward to and the spinners having nothing to spin it on.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

England and south Africa produce the best cricket pitches I reckon.

We should follow their blueprint.

As a bowling all rounder I sympathize with the fast bowlers having nothing to look forward to and the spinners having nothing to spin it on.

We used to have good pitches here, now they are all the same. Mostly roads

 

[Scotland]

Pakistan 2/6. Maybe they're just not very good at playing in Australian conditions?

 

[Scotland]

We used to have good pitches here, now they are all the same. Mostly roads

A function of more drop in pitches, I reckon. They're all just a bit samey.

The WACA are developing drop-ins already in preparation for the new stadium opening in the hope of replicating the WACA conditions but the WACA is a road compared to what it was in the 80s and 90s. 900 runs in the last two innings of the most recent test there. That's ridiculous. Offered a bit in the first day or two then flattened out to nothing. Where are the cracks where you can pork your cor???

 

[Pykie]

I think Hobart should be in the main Ashes/India rotation personally. It's hard to say at who's expense though.

Pitch wise, it should be the G', but the history and revenue dictates its first picked.


Given the huge amount of money that's about to enter cricket via the Big Bash rights, I wouldn't mind a specialist spinning wicket get developed in Alice Springs or Darwin, where its dry enough to mimic Asian conditions. Turn it into a rank turner and rotate Shield games through it.

Aus could also play the likes of Bangladesh, West Indies and Zimbabwe at the venue in Winter. Center of excellence could also run through there in winter as well.

Given our climate change across regions, we should have the biggest advantage in world cricket, by being able to just about produce any pitch across the world, yet we've been developing the flattest.