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Originally Posted by Mahmood Bowl as quick as you can [...] I started out wanting to bowl as quick as I could and that’s what I would say to younger bowlers too [...] That’s the one thing that you can’t really coach. You can always improve on your technique and control after, but the first thing that a lot of coaches look for in a young bowler is whether they can bowl fast. If a young kid has got pace, then you can work with that. |
I recall reading this tosh at the time and being disgusted that {a} the fool had been able to get as far as he had in cricket without developing a sounder grasp of cricket; and {b} that the ECB publicised such nonsense. I also refected, briefly, that this country's cricketing future really would look grim if there were even the slightest truth in what he said.
I've absolutely relished Mahmood's subsequent disappearance as much as I've delighted in Hoggard becoming the most accomplished England bowler of his generation and in Sidebottom emerging as such an excellent new-ball partner
ps. I have it on good authority that the ECB coaches now ingrain a distinction between "spin" and "pace" bowling instead of between "spin" and "seam" bowling: a folly that merely encourages juvenile outlooks. It's all very well saying that the coaches and players know what they mean... but conflating "seam" and "pace" downgrades the skills and crafts involved and and is just downright irresponsible given that youngsters are already prone (as Mahmood illustrates) to idolise one dimensional speedsters over craftsmen whose skills and craft are far, far greater.