Cairns: "Hero? Me? Never"

[Howsie]

Was Cairns ever really all that fast? I only ever saw him bowling at 87-88mph at the absolute most - and averaging out at perhaps 83-84mph. Never remember him being proper, Darren Gough style, fast.

Cairns was, when fit and firing, a damn super bowler. But he wasn't out-and-out fast in terms of his pace, UIMM.

Well according to the cricinfo records between 1998 and 2002 Cairns was clocked in England bowling at 146.4 K, so around 90-91 mph was his max.

 

[Ausage]

I thought the original article touched on some interesting points on the worship of sportsmen, but it's pretty clear he has some bias against Cairns.

Cairns reply was fantastic on so many levels though. He's a hero to me for standing up to a media bashing.

 

[Craig]

Oh there are plenty of reasons why Cairns might not necessarily be seen as a hero. He was an arrogant little **** until Rixon got ahold of him (and always remained, to a certain extent, annoyingly egotistical). He also squandered his absurd talents for the first half of his career, and injury prevented him from making the most of them in the second. Throw in the booze and the coaching clashes and you have a frustrating and occasionally unlikeable individual who probably deserved the occasional bollocking he got from the New Zealand public and press a lot more than we now like to pretend.

However to a New Zealand Cricket Fan, I agree Cairns undoubtedly provided the moments of greatest pride since the retirement of Hadlee (the team's success from England 99 to Aus 02 was largely down to Cairns, and this period will probably stand as the high watermark of Post-Hadlee achievement for a long, long time). Back when I was a kid Cairns become a hero the moment he swatted the South Africans to all parts of the Gabba in the 93/94 World Series, and his injuries in the late 90's and early 00's inspired the same kind of collective misery that Bond's have over the past 6 years.

I'll never forget that knock at the 'Gabba against South Africa, that's for certain

 

[pasag]

I liked the reply as well. Nothing particularly wrong with the original article, not a particularly good one though.

 

[thierry henry]

Some people have their heads in the sand imo. The article has definitely touched on a perception that exists (or at least, existed) about Cairns during his playing days. Maybe everyone at cricketweb is part of the No More Tall Poppy Syndrome Club, or maybe we just have a disproportionate number of Chris Cairns fans, but imo Romanos has pretty accurately commented on the fact that Cairns has, by NZ standards, an outstanding record, and the public perception of him in NZ doesn't match said record.

As for his pace, I think the fact he still nudged 145kph AFTER all his injuries speaks volumes. I don't think anyone ever said he was genuinely express, just that at his (very short-lived) fastest he may have been nudging express, i.e. sometimes in the 145-150kph bracket.

And ftr I think it's quite possible that he did actually bowl his fastest before the age of 21....his entire international career was blighted by injuries and by all accounts pre-injuries everyone thought he was scary fast.

 

[Sanz]

Have always been a fan of Cairns and after reading this article I become a bigger fan.

 

[social]

Had a few beers with him in Dubai recently and he seemed like a really nice fella

And anyone that can pull a bird as good looking as his is definitely a hero

 

[Craig]

Had a few beers with him in Dubai recently and he seemed like a really nice fella

And anyone that can pull a bird as good looking as his is definitely a hero

?

 

[social]

?

Possibly

She was blonde and an absolute stunner

Mind you, my memory of that day is a bit hazy as it was a 12 hour session

 

[Hurricane]

No-one was clocked accurately until 1998 (1999/2000 in the case of the Antipodes). Cairns barely played any cricket before 1990 - he can't've been more than 21, if that, in said year surely? He'd be incredibly unusual if he was at his quickest barely after his 20th birthday, injuries or no injuries.

My teacher said he saw him bowl when he was 18 and claimed he was quicker than when he was 25. He said in the game he saw he bowled a ball on a good length and it reared up and hit the batsman in the head without a helmet. My teacher was impressed that the batsman continued his inning without retiring.

 

[Richard]

Cameras which are able to measure speeds using Dopler shift methods, do the calculation and present it in a matter of seconds as the game goes on as opposed to collecting data via super high-speed camera which is crunched later.

Ah yes I see, well that sort of thing then would be an only-if-seeked-out matter then yes? It wouldn't be the sort of thing applied to all.

In short, if Cairns went somewhere to find-out how quickly he bowled then he'd be able to tell us; if he didn't, no-one will know.

 

[Richard]

All fair enough...but what exactly is the relevance?

It's not extraordinarily relevant to whether Cairns is a hero or not, merely someone mentioned Cairns bowling fast and I said I'm not sure whether he did.

Bowling fast rather than fast-medium certainly does tend to ramp-up one's spectator appeal if not neccessarily effectiveness.

 

[Richard]

Well according to the cricinfo records between 1998 and 2002 Cairns was clocked in England bowling at 146.4 K, so around 90-91 mph was his max.

Suffice to say those records are a rather bizarre set of data but I've no reason to believe they're containing of inaccurate speeds, so maybe he did occasionally go over 90mph in 1999.

 

[sasnoz]

cairnsy was clocked at 149km vs south africa in 04

 

[Richard]

Really? That seems not far short of inconceivable as by then he'd already had serious problems with both spinal injuries and knee ones.

 

[sasnoz]

yeah it was abit strange it was a wide full toss that graeme smith dragged on to his stumps