Life in the fast lane

Fast bowling is a young man's job with all the effort and stress that the body goes through to propel that ball down to the other end. But there are exceptions to every rule and in recent times two gentlemen have gone a long way towards proving that point; Courtney Walsh successfully stretched his career into the late 30s and now Glenn McGrath is seeking to do the same.

Most fast bowlers have already started to lose a fair amount of pace as they approach their mid-thirties, and their existence in the team has begun to depend more on guile than speed through the air, but even the most gifted find it difficult to exist past the age of 35 or so.

It is never an easy decision, for a sports personality, to go on longer than people would expect for fear of falling well below the high standards set earlier in youth but better training methods have certainly helped to push up the retirement age. Fast bowling is no different and both Walsh and McGrath have benefited from not having been tearaway fast bowlers in their youth, as they perhaps have a bit more petrol in the tank than the men who regularly visited speeds of over 90mph.

McGrath's speedometer now rests around the 80mph mark, and is much more frequently under than over, yet he remains a thorn in the side for most batsmen. His participation in this Ashes series was again under question but he responded by taking another five-wicket haul in the first innings and 7 wickets in all in the [Brisbane] Test. And he did this by simply doing what he probably has been the best at for years, bowling a very controlled line and length just around the offstump with very few bad deliveries.

He has never been a big swinger of the cricket ball but gets enough movement off the pitch in either direction to create doubt in the mind as to which balls to play and which to leave. He also has a very effective bouncer, which you wouldn't expect at that pace, but again his control puts it in the right place. His deliveries seem almost to defy the laws of physics by apparently quickening off the surface of the pitch; of course that's impossible but deception is a great tool for any bowler.

Irrespective of the basic skills or fiery pace of a fast bowler, the surface prepared for the game will have a say in the effectiveness of the individual. Glenn McGrath stands at about 6'5" and, from my experience, the pitches in Australia have always been a joy for pacemen of height and Brisbane with its good pace and bounce was no different.

The news is that the other pitches will not be as kind. Even Perth apparently is not the fast surface of years gone by that the Windies pacer bowlers enjoyed to the extent that they never lost a Test at that venue before the turn of the century. If that is true, it will be very interesting to see how he performs in the rest of the series.

By the second innings at Brisbane, Pietersen and Collingwood realised that the longer you spent at the crease, and as the kookaburra ball got softer, there were certain liberties you could take against the great man. The job will be to survive his spell with the new ball and at the moment not many would be willing to wager against him winning that battle.

Glenn McGrath is a great and has been a great for some time now. Some say he can continue until the age of 40; for me personally the jury is out and I will wait to see how he fares in the rest of the series. McGrath should know his body better than anyone else and, if he applies to his career the good senses so evident in his bowling, he will not overstay his welcome. In the meantime, those not encumbered with the task of scoring runs against him can sit back and watch his mastery.