Years ago, I started watching a game called "Cricket". Nothing hooked me more with this game than the madness of "fast bowling". Every time I close my eyes and try to imagine a cricketer I would have loved to become like, these guys come to mind:
Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait, Dale Steyn, Shane Bond, Dennis Lilee, Jeff Thomson, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins.
There is a hidden implied "f*ck you" when someone beats you for pace in cricket. It is like the cricketing equivalent of Boxing. Going head to head, knocking the guy out with a straight punch on his jaws. No technique, no bullsh*t. Just raw, plain butchery. Sure, Cricket is a game of skills bla, bla, bla. You have got to swing the ball, then put it in right areas, try to gain reverse swing as the ball gets old, bowl according to your field and all that. But, everything is irrelevant if you can bowl so fast that you are able to get inside the reaction time of the batsman and then grab him by his throat, punch him in the face, kick the stumps and then come back almost innocently.
Every time a batsman gets out to a delivery, he starts to think about the mistake he made. Perhaps I should have let it go, perhaps I should have been more aggressive, perhaps I should have played that with a straighter bat and soft hands, maybe the umpire made a mistake and all that. There is always a scope of improvement every time you get out. You promise yourself to do things differently the next time. You promise to do more nets, you promise to cure that weakness of your game. You intend to fulfill those promises.
But, if you get cleaned up by extra quick pace, something which was beyond your control, some missile fired at you so fast that you barely saw it coming and your stumps were shattered or pads were hit before you even could react to it, there is not much you can do. It will just create enormous self-doubt in your head and you will never remain the same afterwards. The fact that playing that fast ball will always be beyond your reach, makes you question yourself as a batsman on a very fundamental level. It questions the very essence of you as a human being. In cricket, there is no bigger joy than watching your opposition give up before they have even fought. Enormous speed does that. Going inside the reaction time of someone and then beating the shit out of a batsman is simply surreal. Those are the moments you grow up for.
As a batsman, you are never in control while playing ultra-fast bowling. Already you are worried about your wife, your parents, your friends, your career, your runs and so on. With extra-fast bowling, now you have got to worry about your health too. Some fast bowlers could be really mean. They secretly think like, "No. I am not going to get you out. You will beg me to get you out. You will beg the umpire to not give a wide or no ball while I am bowling. Be scared. Be very scared." Sometimes they are f*cking psychos. They don't give a sh*t about cricket. They just want to break your jaw. They just want to watch you bleed.
While batting, You can never take the safety of your body for granted. You have got to have a healthy respect for your limbs. Body is a cruel mistress. It can't stand over the tremendous impulse generated by a cricket ball fired at a high velocity. It will break down. Brain is protected by helmets in cricket, heart isn't. You need both to live.
Bowling fast, though appreciated by everyone, can be as difficult to achieve. So many try, so few succeed. It is not natural for a human being to throw some round object over his shoulders with 95 miles an hour. Even biologically, human genes are thought to have an upper limit of around 100 MPH. To achieve this limit is to stand up on the face of God itself and laugh over it. Bowling fast requires tremendous sacrifice. You have to put your whole body on line, not worry about your limbs. Bowling fast requires a touch of madness. Why put yourself through so much pain? As a human being, the general tendency is to run away from the pain, not walk towards it.
Because bowling fast is not just about the numbers. It is about sheer joy in knowing that you are among few elite people to have walked across this God's green earth who can throw a ball stupendously fast. Bowling fast is something much much bigger than ourselves. The hidden beauty in bowling fast is impossible to describe. It is so extraordinarily beautiful. The madness involved, the applause earned because of going off the charts of speedometer. None is looking at the batsman or the runs. Every eye is on electronic scoreboard. Everyone is excited to see what reading of speed of last ball is about to display. Batsman is not playing the ball. He is living a nightmare out of it. No human being is able to forget a ball which intends to kill you at 100mph. Cricket ball doesn't get faster than that. It is the human body limit. We are here to fight ourselves to break the biological barrier. Human hands are weak. I mean, ridiculously weak. Our biology doesn't support us throwing a small piece of rock with supersonic velocity or something like that. The connective tissues aren't strong enough to provide ample thrust for that. We are limited by the very essence of being a human being.
But, Just because Evolution made our bodies so fragile and weak is no reason to give up. This is what makes us humans too. We overcame every challenge nature ever threw at us till now. Every limitation is always only in our heads. Bowling fast without any boundaries is one way to challenge the supernatural. The most perfect way. If you really want to do something, the sky is the limit.
Coming back to my personal opinions, I have always loved speed. Reading, writing, typing, walking, running, speaking, you name it. It saves a lot of time. Just get to the point. But, sadly I was never gifted enough for being an express quick bowler. I have always hated a part of me because of this. In high school or college, when many guys used to bowl faster than I did, I have felt depressed and lonely. I would have exchanged my academic skills in a blink for that express pace. I used to try harder and harder to get that sort of pace, which makes the batsman piss themselves. I just wasn't never good enough. My action resembled to that of James Anderson. The front-arm action which didn't help the cause either. I watched so many tutorials, read books on fast bowling, imagined myself bowling quick. All of that to make myself faster, someone who can get you out without needing assistance from pitch, fielders or the umpires.
Constant injuries didn't help me either. Since I was tiny, I have been cursed in picking up injuries. I have always seemed to attract them like a magnet. In this short life, they have pushed my body a lot further. I broke my hands, my fingers and so many other organs in order to acquire pace. I have slept in a state of full body-pain on most nights. So many pain-killers. Just to achieve one life-long goal: Fast bowling. I always wanted to be the quickest someone ever faced. It just wasn't meant to be.
Very recently, I was watching a tutorial on bowling with side-arm action. Though it is recommended for more pace, It becomes really difficult to control the line. Also, the way you land while bowling side-arm is a tricky issue. I have tried it a lot. My left knee and right sheen have almost given up. They hurt and I really mean it. It is difficult to even walk straight without hobbling.
Anyway, personal things aside, speed is a lovely mistress to have. It saves the most important resource of your life: your time.
Just bowl fast and knock them over. Good Luck!
Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait, Dale Steyn, Shane Bond, Dennis Lilee, Jeff Thomson, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins.
There is a hidden implied "f*ck you" when someone beats you for pace in cricket. It is like the cricketing equivalent of Boxing. Going head to head, knocking the guy out with a straight punch on his jaws. No technique, no bullsh*t. Just raw, plain butchery. Sure, Cricket is a game of skills bla, bla, bla. You have got to swing the ball, then put it in right areas, try to gain reverse swing as the ball gets old, bowl according to your field and all that. But, everything is irrelevant if you can bowl so fast that you are able to get inside the reaction time of the batsman and then grab him by his throat, punch him in the face, kick the stumps and then come back almost innocently.
Every time a batsman gets out to a delivery, he starts to think about the mistake he made. Perhaps I should have let it go, perhaps I should have been more aggressive, perhaps I should have played that with a straighter bat and soft hands, maybe the umpire made a mistake and all that. There is always a scope of improvement every time you get out. You promise yourself to do things differently the next time. You promise to do more nets, you promise to cure that weakness of your game. You intend to fulfill those promises.
But, if you get cleaned up by extra quick pace, something which was beyond your control, some missile fired at you so fast that you barely saw it coming and your stumps were shattered or pads were hit before you even could react to it, there is not much you can do. It will just create enormous self-doubt in your head and you will never remain the same afterwards. The fact that playing that fast ball will always be beyond your reach, makes you question yourself as a batsman on a very fundamental level. It questions the very essence of you as a human being. In cricket, there is no bigger joy than watching your opposition give up before they have even fought. Enormous speed does that. Going inside the reaction time of someone and then beating the shit out of a batsman is simply surreal. Those are the moments you grow up for.
As a batsman, you are never in control while playing ultra-fast bowling. Already you are worried about your wife, your parents, your friends, your career, your runs and so on. With extra-fast bowling, now you have got to worry about your health too. Some fast bowlers could be really mean. They secretly think like, "No. I am not going to get you out. You will beg me to get you out. You will beg the umpire to not give a wide or no ball while I am bowling. Be scared. Be very scared." Sometimes they are f*cking psychos. They don't give a sh*t about cricket. They just want to break your jaw. They just want to watch you bleed.
While batting, You can never take the safety of your body for granted. You have got to have a healthy respect for your limbs. Body is a cruel mistress. It can't stand over the tremendous impulse generated by a cricket ball fired at a high velocity. It will break down. Brain is protected by helmets in cricket, heart isn't. You need both to live.
Bowling fast, though appreciated by everyone, can be as difficult to achieve. So many try, so few succeed. It is not natural for a human being to throw some round object over his shoulders with 95 miles an hour. Even biologically, human genes are thought to have an upper limit of around 100 MPH. To achieve this limit is to stand up on the face of God itself and laugh over it. Bowling fast requires tremendous sacrifice. You have to put your whole body on line, not worry about your limbs. Bowling fast requires a touch of madness. Why put yourself through so much pain? As a human being, the general tendency is to run away from the pain, not walk towards it.
Because bowling fast is not just about the numbers. It is about sheer joy in knowing that you are among few elite people to have walked across this God's green earth who can throw a ball stupendously fast. Bowling fast is something much much bigger than ourselves. The hidden beauty in bowling fast is impossible to describe. It is so extraordinarily beautiful. The madness involved, the applause earned because of going off the charts of speedometer. None is looking at the batsman or the runs. Every eye is on electronic scoreboard. Everyone is excited to see what reading of speed of last ball is about to display. Batsman is not playing the ball. He is living a nightmare out of it. No human being is able to forget a ball which intends to kill you at 100mph. Cricket ball doesn't get faster than that. It is the human body limit. We are here to fight ourselves to break the biological barrier. Human hands are weak. I mean, ridiculously weak. Our biology doesn't support us throwing a small piece of rock with supersonic velocity or something like that. The connective tissues aren't strong enough to provide ample thrust for that. We are limited by the very essence of being a human being.
But, Just because Evolution made our bodies so fragile and weak is no reason to give up. This is what makes us humans too. We overcame every challenge nature ever threw at us till now. Every limitation is always only in our heads. Bowling fast without any boundaries is one way to challenge the supernatural. The most perfect way. If you really want to do something, the sky is the limit.
Coming back to my personal opinions, I have always loved speed. Reading, writing, typing, walking, running, speaking, you name it. It saves a lot of time. Just get to the point. But, sadly I was never gifted enough for being an express quick bowler. I have always hated a part of me because of this. In high school or college, when many guys used to bowl faster than I did, I have felt depressed and lonely. I would have exchanged my academic skills in a blink for that express pace. I used to try harder and harder to get that sort of pace, which makes the batsman piss themselves. I just wasn't never good enough. My action resembled to that of James Anderson. The front-arm action which didn't help the cause either. I watched so many tutorials, read books on fast bowling, imagined myself bowling quick. All of that to make myself faster, someone who can get you out without needing assistance from pitch, fielders or the umpires.
Constant injuries didn't help me either. Since I was tiny, I have been cursed in picking up injuries. I have always seemed to attract them like a magnet. In this short life, they have pushed my body a lot further. I broke my hands, my fingers and so many other organs in order to acquire pace. I have slept in a state of full body-pain on most nights. So many pain-killers. Just to achieve one life-long goal: Fast bowling. I always wanted to be the quickest someone ever faced. It just wasn't meant to be.
Very recently, I was watching a tutorial on bowling with side-arm action. Though it is recommended for more pace, It becomes really difficult to control the line. Also, the way you land while bowling side-arm is a tricky issue. I have tried it a lot. My left knee and right sheen have almost given up. They hurt and I really mean it. It is difficult to even walk straight without hobbling.
Anyway, personal things aside, speed is a lovely mistress to have. It saves the most important resource of your life: your time.
Just bowl fast and knock them over. Good Luck!
