SA Footy

New Zealand quick bowler Shane Bond has said there is a danger of losing more fast bowlers from Test cricket unless boards and team managements rest them periodically.

"Bowlers are almost going to be like pitchers, where you play a game and sit out the next, because of the amount of cricket played these days," Bond told Cricinfo. "I worry that fast bowlers are going to withdraw from Test cricket early to play limited-overs cricket."

http://www.cricinfo.com/newzealand/cont ... 59190.html

And now Bond will get plany of rest....

Shane Bond has announced his retirement from all forms of the game, less than a year after making his international comeback from the ICL wilderness. Bond ended his Test career in December, when he felt that his body could not handle the rigours of the five-day game, and he has now decided to step away from the shorter formats as well

Quicks need more rest, so they can chase quick $$$$

The IPL always sounds like a good rest from the real 'cricket'. More money, less cricket....

The Dark Knight wrote:The IPL always sounds like a good rest from the real 'cricket'. More money, less cricket....

Bond has said that he will not be playing in the 2011 IPL

He's right. At the start of last Summer there were something like k23 injured fast bowlers in Australian first class cricket.

smac wrote:He's right. At the start of last Summer there were something like k23 injured fast bowlers in Australian first class cricket.

Wow

It will end up like how the baseball pitchers do it - rotations/rests

Some of us supporters will need to let go of some of our prejudices about resting I suspect - every time it comes up someone brings up the IPL or tells us how bowler X has no "ticker"

It's easy to look at today's calendar with Test matches, Sheffield Shield matches, 50 overs games, T20 for Australia, and also IPL, and consider today's cricketer is playing a lot more cricket than years gone by. Certainly in terms international standards, that would appear to be fact.

I used to think this until Doug Walters said Test fast bowlers of years gone by also played a lot of Sheffield Shield, as well as grade cricket, whereas today's quicks play little if any. I looked at this argument and no fast bowler today would measure up to someone like Graham McKenzie in terms of work load in matches. So why are today's bowlers breaking down more with soft tissue injury?

My theory is that, like AFL players, our international cricketers are training way too hard, certainly far harder than in years gone by. There is greater emphasis on a quick bowler now to be brilliant in the field and more than capable with the bat. The more you push your body, the fitter you may become, but the more susceptible to injury you will be.

I watch some of the pre-match "warm ups" these days, and the quicks go through a tough regime, and then have to go out and spend a day in the field afterwards. When I played it was a case of a few warm up balls in the nets, then a few easy stretches before a spell and I was ready to go. Most of your physical load would be spent whilst bowling in matches. I would have trouble getting through the warm up these days!!!

Then, after practice they are off to the gym pumping iron and working out where we were enjoying a relaxing beer in the club room.

I can see the theory behind rotating bowlers, but perhaps they should also address the issue of how hard these guys are working OFF the field. There's no wonder in my mind as to the reason so many are breaking down.

AH, I've heard that theory too - it would be interesting to see a proper comparison of figures in regards to how much bowling players were doing back then, as compared to now.

Fast bowlers breaking down is nothing new though. In my era I think of Lawson, Lee, Lillee, McDermott, Hughes, Fleming just off the top of my head. I'm not convinced it's related to modern workload (not even convinced they are actually bowling more overs these days - just more at International level) or modern training. If anything I would have thought better conditioning off field would lessen the injuries.

I'd like to see a comparison of injury rates to fast bowlers over the years to see if it's actually any worse today v 30 years ago.

I think injuries go with the fast bowling trade with some exceptions like Ooh Ah. Rather than persist with the old ways for the sake of it I support rest/rotations.