by Durhamfootman » Tue Apr 16, 2024 7:56 pm
I mean I get where Key is coming from. He wants bowlers to work hard at their game to improve their skills in order to get the kind of results that county trundlers can get with a dukes ball and a green top..... except that county trundlers still have to bowl well to get their rewards. If they put the ball in crap areas, batsmen will flog them all over. I guess Chris Rushworth would fall into Key's definition of a 75mph trundler, but Chris Rushworth has been a remarkably consistent, skilful bowler for years, always putting the ball in good areas and asking questions of a batsman's technique. Getting 50, 60, 70 wickets a season for 10 years is not an indication of a systemic aberration in county cricket, it's an indication of a very, very good bowler. Could he ever have been a test bowler in overseas conditions? Probably not, but his consistency and control gives his captain the opportunity to play young gun fast bowlers who might not have that control or consistency yet, without unduly harming his team's chances in the match. As with everything in life, it's about getting the right balance, not imposing the latest hobby horse
It might help future test bowlers to play at times of the year when great overhead conditions for bowlers and lousy underfoot conditions for batters aren't the defining feature of half or two thirds of the championship season
I get what he wants to do and there were more overs of spin bowled, but a fair chunk of those overs were from occasional slow bowlers who, with the exception of Root, wouldn't get anywhere near a test tour of Australia or India. I said it a few days ago, but most of the bowlers who might benefit from this experiment either now or in the future weren't playing, partly because England restrict their appearances and so counties don't waste a precious resource like that on a dog ball and road, and partly because counties want to protect their rising bowlers from the huge volume of cricket scheduled by the ECB and the best time to do that is when they aren't playing with a dog ball in a batters paradise
It isn't necessarily a stupid idea, but they are doing it stupidly
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