phantom005

I was reading the biography of english fast bowler harold larwood. He was said to be of height 5'7''. But was the fastest bowler of his time. Watching Bob willis bowling on tv reminds me of what harold larwood must have been in old black and white cricket days. Cause the cricket scenario is just the same as of the past. Harold larwood i had seen a teleserial called 'bodyline' was captained by douglas jardine of england team. Harold larwood used to work in a coal mine. Poorest of england cricketeers in those days. And in his lunch time used to put up a stump for bowling practise. He then used to place a england coin over the stump and used to bowl such that the ball used to hit just the coin!!!
This might be a code perhaps that harold larwood used to place a coin on the pitch at good length and had a powerful eyesight arm co-ordination that he used to pitch the ball exactly on the coin. I read in his biography that he was a terror in bowling. Many batsmen used to get stomach cramps when their turn used to come to bat. And when they came out, their earlier batsman used to return to the pavillion on a field stretcher!!!(retired hurt). Bowling action of harold larwood seems slow, run up short, arm action quick. So i think his bowling is ordinary but the end resultant is extraordinaire!!! His bowling record is impressive...in 21 tests he took 73 wickets. And in first class cricket of his 1400 wickets 750 were clean bowlds. This earned him his cap and a sweater.
This feat reminds me of wasim akram and michael holding how they used to torment many a sides.
But as showcased in the teleserial, harold larwood was a very white looking guy. He used to bowl around the wicket short pitched to australian batsmen. The slips were placed ontowards the leg side.
In modern day bodyline is still played by some fast bowlers like javagal srinath, fanie de villiers and allan donald. A classic example of negating bodyline bowling was shown by michael atherton when allan donald used to bowl around the wicket. Michael atherton used to work the ball towards the mid-wicket.

phantom005

I was watcing a yester year match between england vs india test 1974 highlights.

1st Test: England v India at Manchester, Jun 6-11, 1974 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

The england bowling side had fast bowlers. Of them chris old had an incredible bowling action, also bowling action of michael hendricks is cool. They bowled tandem with bob willis. While other bowlers were derek underwood, who bowled fast slow left arm offspin. And i even checked in their bowling records they are great. Also bowling was tony greig. So this bowling english team of 1974 was a formidable side.
Fast swing seam and short bowling.
Funny that no indian batsmen of 1974 never used to wear a helmet(headgear), neither forearm guard, neither chestguard and nor a thigh guard. Some used to wear a thigh guard, old fashioned gloves and only legpads! So they used to hook and pull over short balls. Even the stumps seem long and heavy. The popping crease also seems wide.

Rodnash

The world best fast bowler is Bret lee without a doubt.

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phantom005

What if the bowling of harold larwood was never filmed in his playing days. And the bodyline test series scenes were edited cleverly by other test match scenes. Harold larwood run-up was said to have been 17 meters. The pitch is 20 meters. In the bodyline teleserial it was infact shown that harold larwood used to start his run-up from the boundary!! So when watching fast bowling of bob willis his run-up is 18 strides that is about i think 40 meters which is started somewhere at the logo. Then that makes 70 meters radius ground from the pitch. So was harold larwood's run-up 70 meters?
I think waqar younis might had been a big fan of bob willis fast bowling. So waqar younis run-up and speed seems like bob willis. The bowling action might be different but the technique resultant is very similar. Perhaps bob willis might had first started 'reverse swing' concept.
England's grounds are then 140 meter in diameter.
Some days ago i was watching australia vs sri lanka test match. The commentators said the the shot striked from the pitch to the boundary distance was 95 meters in radius!!! So are australian cricket grounds 190 meters big grounds in diameter! So i am just in imaginations how could a batsman hit a four or a six to 95 meters off a fast bowler?