Modern Cricket batting exposed by Swing bowling
Pakistani fast bowlers are the pioneers and best practitioners of swing bowling. So incredible is their ability to swing the ball that Pakistani bowlers are regularly accused of ball tampering to get the conditions right for the ball to swing or reverse swing. Swing has been a lethal weapon for fast bowlers since 1970’s, but it is somehow being treated as something completely new to the international arena. Recently world-class top batsmen have shown how their techniques have failed to negate fast swing bowling.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Simon-Jones-c2531, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar and many more. The talent is well known among bowlers these days.
Swing bowling is all about keeping the balls seam up-right while delivering it. Whereas, the alignment of the ball makes it swing both ways keeping one side shinny and the other a bit on the rough side. Ball tampering is when a bowler forcefully roughens one side of the ball, and applies cream or powder to keep the shinning side shiner than ever. The simplest way to discover whether the ball is ready for reverse or late swing is to throw the ball straight to the fielder. The movement of the up-right seam ball thrown would let one know the swing, and to what extent the ball would move. The pitch and weather conditions definitely add to the cause of swing bowling.
However, in recent international matches one can see how World-class batsmen are being troubled by swing bowling. The Sri Lankans troubled the mighty Indian batting order with simple out-swingers in the ongoing tri-series in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/S-Young-c87719 team won a test against the mighty Aussie test side after 15 years thanks to some good swing bowling. They have also been able to trouble the English batting line-up throughout the current Test series. All these international batting superstars have been troubled by simple good length swing bowling.
Has swing bowling evolved over recent years? Or has the shorter format of the game ruined batting techniques? Besides, a few names in international cricket, at present there are a very few number of class-acts. For insistence, the only classy player in the Pakistani team is Mohammad Yousuf, who is on the verge of retirement.
While International Cricket Council (ICC) should take action in maintaining the standard of the game, by arranging and increasing the numbers of Test matches. Rather than making cricket into a money-making machine and ruin the technique and standards cricket, cricketing nations must take pride in playing the highest format of the game, which is Test cricket. Instead they concentrate on T20 cricket. For example, Pakistan’s team at present has a proper limited over side, but fails to play the longer format of the game.
Time will tell whether it is just the out-of-form batting of superstars, or genuine inability to endure swing and reverse swing bowling. As the World Cup 2011 is around the corner one can be certain that swing bowling will create problems for batsmen. Teams like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England should rely on swing bowling as vital weaponry when they tackle their opponents in the upcoming cricket World Cup.
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