It’s not a problem reserved totally for Ulster cricket as all over the world quality fast bowlers are declining in numbers and perhaps soon they’ll be a luxury rather than an essential in teams in much the same way that the spinner was in past days.
There was a time in senior cricket when every club had its fast bowling demons and when youtravelled to away matches there was always a certain amount of trepidation of what might happen on a fast bouncy wicket.
Not so long ago, Bangor had big John Elder, Tim English and later Jeremy Stewart roughing you up, North has Stanley Hewitt, Simon Corlett and big Rex Gilliland, Woodvale had the explosive Alfie Redpath, the graceful Adrian Erskine and Ian Carroll, Waringstown had Derek Healy and Bertie McGill, Lisburn had Ian McBride and Henry McAuley, Lurgan has Alan Johnston, Alan Donnelly and Paul Lyness, Ballymena had Dessie Kane, Harry Cooke and Neville Neill, Holywood had Stewart McCormick, Instonians had Tom McCormack, Trevor Walker and Billy Thompson, Downpatrick had the peerless Noel Ferguson, Roy Briggs, George Lennon, Kamal Merchant, and a young Jim Patterson, North Down had Billy Dale and Lawrence Hunter, and of course the much-travelled McCrum brothers Charlie and Paul were up there with both the fastest and the best in the fast bowling business, no matter where they plied their trade. Moving up the M2 it was no different with bustling big Roy Torrens and Alan Jeffrey at Brigade, Paul Wallace and I
van Lapsley at St. Johnston, Raymond Mitchell and Roger Kerr at Donemana, John Callaghan and Jerry Kirton at Strabane, Nigel Thompson, Crawford Martin and Hendy Wallace at Eglinton, and many others scattered around the country clubs of North-West cricket. Dare we add test stars Rumesh Ratnayake (Downpatrick), Rudi Bryson (Muckamore), Kapil Dev (Limavady) and Shoaib Akhtar (Strabane) to quicken the ante and you have a general feeling that fast bowlers were pretty strong around the Ulster cricket scene in days gone by.
OK maybe a few of them weren’t as fast as we thought, but on a fast hard track these guys all had the potential to be lethal.
But can we say the same these days?
While most teams will make the best use of the new ball by starting with their faster bowlers, there’s no doubt a bigger emphasis is placed on restricting the scoring rather than sheer pace to get wickets. Of course getting both is the ultimate, but that’s now becoming utopia at most clubs where the limited overs game has produced a bevy of useful medium pacers and tight slow bowlers, most of whom can bat a bit. Traditionally, genuine fast bowlers were never renowned for their batting skills, although there were many notable exceptions, not least the McCrums, Corlett, Torrens, Wallace, Thompson, Patterson, and Hewitt. Maybe we were too critical of them in the first place?
Unfortunately the demise of the genuine fast bowler is unlikely to change as the shorter the game the less need to take wickets, and inevitably, the less need to take risks with either fast bowling or extravagant spin. And therein lies a dilemma further up the line as time cricket desperately needs these skills, but where are they going to come from? Even at test level, countries are crying out for genuine pace men and already the tall speedy Bready farmer Boyd Rankin is being tipped for honours at the highest level if he qualifies for England. Given that big Boyd is largely unproven in the professional game, it’s a mighty leap forward but indicative of what’s happening at the highest level these days.
The problem is just as critical in the Caribbean where once most islands had a plethora of fast bowlers coming and going at every level. Not so these days, where slow bowlers are numerically stronger, and the once mighty West Indies bowling attack regularly features bowlers who would be better described as fast-medium rather than genuine fast bowlers. And just to emphasize the point, bothIndiaandSouth Africa have been known to open their attack with slow bowlers, albeit on only rare occasions!
Ireland will dearly miss Johnston, Langford-Smith and Rankin from their attack this season, but since most of the games being played are limited overs matches, the reality is that we need tighter bowlers much more than genuine pace. In any case there’s a dearth of pace bowlers around so the decision might be academic
If that’s going to change national Coach Phil Simmons has a mountain to climb as club cricket is producing less and less genuine pace men.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
