***Official*** Sri Lanka in Australia 2012/2013

[benchmark00]

Originally Posted by NUFAN

Nope. That's when sports science kicks in OR more likely, one of the quicks breaks down playing a meaningless ODI or something.

Surely you can't be suggesting they don't rotate players through ODI series? Literally been doing that for 10 or so years.

[hendrix]

Originally Posted by benchmark00

Well you just don't listen to the right things because it has been explained ****.

Young fast bowlers need their work load managed until they turn 24/25. After that, they are much more resilient and don't need to be managed to the same degree.

I'm not completely disagreeing with you, but the flipside to this is that they simply don't bowl enough overs to become bowling fit.

Also, you keep talking about the "science", so where is it? Is there a paper on this?

merry xmas btw

[Tangles]

How about we just use some logic here. Starc just took a bunch of wickets in the last test and got a whole bunch of confidence. That final spell where he was fast and aggressive was nasty for the batters. He should be bowling in Melbourne to help him kick on or continue what he started. Then evaluate his fitness for the Sydney test based on his overs, how he feels and if its a dead rubber. This just isnt rocket science.

[L Trumper]

Originally Posted by Tangles

How about we just use some logic here. Starc just took a bunch of wickets in the last test and got a whole bunch of confidence. That final spell where he was fast and aggressive was nasty for the batters. He should be bowling in Melbourne to help him kick on or continue what he started. Then evaluate his fitness for the Sydney test based on his overs, how he feels and if its a dead rubber. This just isnt rocket science.

What if he develops a stress fracture while playing in Boxing day test?

[Tangles]

What if's now rule team selection do they? What McGrath had been rested all the time and not turned into an ATG? It's a live test, he has had rest and is in form. Let the kid play.

[Tangles]

"Mitch is our one quick bowler who plays in all three forms of the game. He starts in all three forms of the game. It is tough on Mitch but hopefully he misses one Test to make sure that we don't have another injury and that there's a lot of longevity with that decision and he's ready to go in the one-dayers, he's ready to go for the tour of India and he's ready to go for the Ashes." - Invers

Theres your real reason right there. They don't want him to be injured for those all important 1-dayers. Ker-ching.

[Spikey]

Originally Posted by Son Of Coco

Tried to find a video of this young Jackson Bird fellow bowling...ended up with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZObbXS0k4o

was hoping this would be a video of aaron bird bowling itbt

[greg]

I find it vaguely amusing that the Australian selectors seem to have got the impression that not only have they got a first choice attack that is "the finished article" for test cricket, but apparently they've got a second and third choice attack as well! Based on about a dozen bowlers who have basically done very little in test cricket to justify such an impression beyond showing a bit of promise.

They are so concerned with keeping each and every one of them injury free that they are simply avoiding the question of identifying their actual best attack, and perhaps even more importantly give them the opportunity to develop their skills at the highest level so that they might actually become genuine world beaters.

Are they going to know their best attack come the Ashes? And are England going to be given the luxury of knowing that even if they stumble upon a good combination, that there is little prospect of having to face them for two consecutive tests?

[chaminda_00]

Originally Posted by hendrix

I'm not completely disagreeing with you, but the flipside to this is that they simply don't bowl enough overs to become bowling fit.

Also, you keep talking about the "science", so where is it? Is there a paper on this?

merry xmas btw

This is the key problem. There is a generation of fast bowlers that will never be bowling fit, because they never bowl enough when they are young. Look at siddle, hilf and Johnson. They should all be fit enough to bowl a ful calendar if the workload management worked. But they are still getting consistently injuries cus they didn't bowl enough when they we young.

[Midwinter]

let's not forget that under this philosophy they will be resting the bowlers during the Ashes series as well.

So there will need to be at least six bowlers available for selection.

[uvelocity]

Chamimda00 is right if he is talking about teenagers when he says young. Few years ago rules came in about how many in a row and how many in a day. Nanny state cotton wool stuff from the cradle to the grave. Also with burgey on wanting more details. Boonchmark is just blindly trusting here, lapping it up like a pussy does milk

[Burgey]

Fmd in under 11s I bowled 26 straight. 6-24.

Haven't been able to bowl since, but I got the job done.

[uvelocity]

Did you have to walk 15 miles there and back in 50 degree heat too?

[Burgey]

Yep. It was in parramatta park. No shade, no canteen. **** I was a hard ****.

[Top_Cat]

For those wondering about how the previous generations were able to do it, the fact of the matter is that they weren't. Craig McDermott missed 3 years of Test cricket early in his career, Merv similar, Jason Gillespie famously played half of the Tests available in his early 20's, Shaun Tait (say no more), Brett Lee had stress fractures before and after playing his first Test, etc. Just about every quick Australia has produced since I've been following cricket has missed large amounts of Test cricket prior to their 25th birthday.

The reason why the newer guys seem to be missing more than usual is because of the sports science being rubbished here; they're having minor injuries being managed by missing the occasional Test instead of bowling their way towards injuries which will result in a couple of years of recovery. Even Glenn McGrath, with his biomechnically excellent action and having played Tests relatively late (I think he was almost 24), missed an entire season of cricket twice in his career and that was most definitely managed rather than waiting for him to snap something entirely. It's just smart management of assets.

What's not smart is waiting for season-ending injuries to occur and digging deeper into the well of available quicks, especially in the era of back-to-back Tests/series. What's happening here is that by giving all of these guys a couple of Tests here and there, in a couple of years time when their bodies settle down, we'll have 8 or more quicks with 20+ Tests under their belts still bowling as quick as they did at 20 with much longer careers ahead of them and we'll all be looking back and wondering why it didn't happen sooner.