Nimish Dubey@nimishdubey
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what a medium pace bowler is.
Classically, the definition we were told used to be simple, and used to depend upon how important speed was to the bowler. If speed was a crucial element of the bowler's arsenal (and they were not spinners), they were generally categorised as pace bowlers. If they were not depending heavinly on speed, but were not spinners, they were called medium pacers.
It was a pretty wide and yet simple definition. A medium pacer was someone who was not as quick as a pace bowler and depended on a number of other skills - generally accuracy, swing and movement off the seam, and even quickish off and leg breaks, called cutters.
A pace bowler on the other hand, carried the threat of physical harm and making the batsman hurry. Pacers also swung the ball (although generally lesser) but were sharper off the wicket and were known for bouncers and swinging yorkers.
There were some medium pace bowlers who could sometimes move up a level and even get into the pace category (Gary Sobers, Ian Botham and Maurice Tate were great examples) but their main strength was not speed. Some medium pacers were slightly quicker and some were not - just like some pace bowlers were faster than others.
When the whole idea of speed guns came into vogue, there was a very rough defintion of pace bowling being around 136 kmph (abput 85 mph) and above. Everything below that was medium pace. A bowler was also considered pace when he consistently bowled at above this pace, and not just the odd delivery in six.
This simple definition unfortunately, has been muddled up with commentators coming up with vaguely defined categories of "express pace" "fast medium" "medium fast" and God knows what else, and putting their own benchmarks out there. There are some who even consider 130 kmph to be pace, by which definition, Terry Alderman, Richard Hadlee, Ian Botham and Imran Khan would qualify as pace bowlers.
To make matters worse, there is a lot of loose commentary out there, which randomly allots speeds to bowlers of the past. I have seen posts which which claim Kapil Dev bowled at close to 140 kmph (and even 150 kmph) and that Alderman was often close to 140 kmph. That might be true, but then that would place them close to the speeds of Michael Holding and Malcom Marshall.
There is a section of cricket followers out there who seem to think that medium pace is basically bowled at 120 - 125 kmph. That's not exactly correct. A medium pacer is a bowler whose primary weapon is not pace, but is movement and accuracy.
The presence of speed as a threat was the biggest difference between a pace bowler and a medium pacer. Dennis Lillee was pace, Terry Alderman was medium pace. Shane Bond was pace, Richard Hadlee was (for the latter part of his career) medium pace. In fact, as many bowlers grew older, they often graduated from being fierce pace bowlers to controlled medium pace ones - Richard Hadlee, Glenn McGrath, Joel Garner, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Zaheer Khan and Shaun Pollock are great examples of this. They retained the ability to 'slip in' a quicker delivery but did not depend on speed. Many commentators even would include Dennis Lillee in that, but the man would fiercely object to it!
And that is the essence of the definition of a medium pacer - a seam and swing bowler who does not use pace as a primary weapon. The speed gun is a statistical distraction. It is the use of speed and its importance that counts.
Of course, this will be disputed, but it is the definition that was broadly handed down by coaching manuals and I am happy enough with it.
#Cricket #Bowling #MediumPaceBowling
(@alawyerwrites @WG_RumblePants)
