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CRICKET ROADSHOWS

Week 14 Review - 10 Aug, Trent Bridge Roadshow feels the need for speed

Fast bowlers are born, not bred, according to Dennis Lillee, the former Australian speedster who terrorised batsmen throughout the world during the 1970s and early 1980s.

"I do believe that you are actually born to bowl fast," he admitted on Saturday's Cricket Roadshow. "You have to have a certain muscle make-up, a capacity to work bloody hard and you've got to be fairly steely-minded because it gets very hot out there, it gets hard out there – your toes bleed, your back aches, your legs ache and everything is really tough. You've got to have a real desire to want to bowl."

Lillee, who's turned his hand to coaching since ending his Test career (in 1984) with 355 wickets at 23.92, added: "I just want total commitment. These guys – at his coaching academy in Perth - can either work very hard or they can go and play tiddlywinks. That's basically what it's about."

It's a philosophy he's in-built into the current Australian pace attack and one that he believes is the primary prerequisite to becoming a successful quickie.

"They are very committed, very professional, they love what they do and they have great work ethics. They're all the things that make a fast bowler and these guys follow it to a tee," said Lillee.

And nothing gets him excited like a fast bowler does. "I've always loved fast bowling. Whenever I see a good fast bowler the hairs on the back of my neck stand up," he added.

It was his fearsome partnership with fellow Australian Jeff Thomson – whom Richie Benaud described as having "the most perfect fast bowling action there's ever been" - that in part contributed to the West Indies employing an all-out pace battery throughout their period of domination, a factor that team captain Clive Lloyd confirmed on Saturday's programme. The turning point was a 5-1 mauling Down Under in 1975-76.

"The point is that when we played Australia during that period we had some pretty good fast bowlers too but they were never fit," lamented Lloyd.

"Whenever we had the full compliment of bowlers we did extremely well and we matched them. Although we lost 5-1 the Test match that we did win we won in three days.

"So it said to me that it's obvious we don't have a bad side here it's just that we've got to get these guys fit. We employed a trainer and we kept our bowlers fit and did extremely well in that respect," said Lloyd.

Elsewhere on the programme Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar, arguably the fastest bowler in Test cricket today, said Lillee and Imran Khan had both been early role models but a more contemporary bowler was his real inspiration. "Waqar Younis is the main guy who I tried to copy," confirmed Akhtar.

The "Rawalpindi Express" then proceeded to demonstrate his action to Channel 4's Simon Hughes and attempted to explain where he gets his phenomenal speed from.

"My bowling is all about my run-up," he told The Analyst. "My run-up is my main weapon to generate pace. I sprint in and then take a huge jump and lean myself back to propel myself forward."

Also on the programme England's Matthew Hoggard explained his cricketing outlook – "Just go out and enjoy it; if you're not enjoying the game go and play golf because there's a lot more money in it" – Worcestershire's Kabir Ali talked about his international ambitions and sports psychologist Dr Mark Bawden attempted to explain why some bowlers are struck by the "yips".

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