SJS
Hall of Fame Member
Oxford (1973 to1975) - Pakistan’s tour of England - 1975 World Cup
This was the very first time that I watched genuine fast bowling of such high caliber and I found it very exciting…..
My cricket continued to improve at Oxford and the mental challenges involved in studying helped me in my attitude to cricket. I became more logical and analytical about my game....
This was the very first time that I watched genuine fast bowling of such high caliber and I found it very exciting…..
My cricket continued to improve at Oxford and the mental challenges involved in studying helped me in my attitude to cricket. I became more logical and analytical about my game....
Worcestershire didn’t think enough of me during that 1972 season.
By the end of it I was only marginally better as a cricketer – my new action was an improvement in my eyes. Though not to everyone else, and I could now actually bowl the out-swinger on occasions. I was slower but more accurate and all the experienced players at New Road had dismissed my chances of ever bowling fast. Their verdict was chastening to me because my ambition to bowl fast had been fuelled by the sight that summer of two of the greatest of their kind – John Snow and Dennis Lillee. During the England-Australia series my eyes were glued to Snow and Lillee. About that time it became an ambition of mine to bowl fast. This was the very first time that I watched genuine fast bowling of such high caliber and I found it very exciting…..
In my first season with Oxford…. My bowling was for the most part, only medium-pace; partly because I had to do a lot of bowling. Indeed I used to complain bitterly if my captain tried to take me off! Now and then, I would slip myself and let one or two fast deliveries go – despite being a medium pacer, I had the temprament of a fast bowler and hated being hit to the boundary – and when it all clicked for a couple of overs, the effect was exhilarating. My team mates always egged me on to bowl fast and although I sprayed it al over the place, I was encouraged enough by my progress by the time the term ended.
….elected the 1974 Oxford captain and…responsibility made me a better player. At least I managed to bowl fast for constant periods…….. my good friend Guy Waller, kept urging me to bowl quicker and after the brainwashing I’d experienced at Worcester, I had my misgivings. I felt that I gave away too many runs by tearing in like Lillee, and using too many slips and gullies but other considerations swayed me – I got bored bowling tightly at county batsmen who came (to Oxford) to just polish up their batting averages and we needed a strike bowler to retaliate after our batsmen had been given the bouncer treatment. I also knew that I had the temperament of the fast bowler rather than the cunning ‘line and length’ stuff, so I kept attacking….
My form with Oxford was sufficiently impressive to earn a recall to the Pakistan side in the latter part of the 1974 season.
His (Majid’s) advice on fast bowling was invaluable to me on that 1974 season. He told me I now had a perfectly good action and to take no notice of the Worcester attitude of just bowling line and length. His advice was to put more emphasis on pace and to remember that batsmen didn’t get out to accurate medium pacers all that often especially outside England. I also knew that Pakistan lacked a genuine pace bowler and that just possibly I could fill that gap.
The following year I was still raw and wayward in my bowling, When I occasionally took the advise of the older players at Worcester, I bowled accurately and managed to swing the ball – yet I was extremely sharp sometimes, even though I wasn’t tight enough and sometimes lost my swing. Gifford and D’Oliviera were happy enough with the improvement in my bowling but were much more enthusiastic about my batting…
Although sadness accompanied the end of my time at Oxford*, I shall always look back with fondness to those three years….My cricket continued to improve at Oxford and the mental challenges involved in studying helped me in my attitude to cricket. I became more logical and analytical about my game and the discipline of scholastic work stood me in good stead later on when I later needed to sit down and sort out where my cricket career was going.
At the end of that 1975 season I went back to Pakistan for the first time in four years….The cricket was very competitive, partly because our national side had been faring well in recent years and also because all the top players were playing in Pakistan in the absence of a Test series that winter. Initially I was written off by most journalists….Eventually I bowled fast and straight on the hard wickets and managed to swing the ball enough to claim 33 wickets in the four Pentangular matches. I realized that I would get nowhere bowling on the hard, wickets by bowling English style medium pace to a defensive field; the only way I was going to get men out was through sheer speed. That trip to Pakistan made up my mind – from then on, I would be a fast bowler or nothing at all. The days of compromise were over. I would continue to work on my action, to modify it in certain areas, but it would all be geared towards blasting the batsmen out.
By the end of it I was only marginally better as a cricketer – my new action was an improvement in my eyes. Though not to everyone else, and I could now actually bowl the out-swinger on occasions. I was slower but more accurate and all the experienced players at New Road had dismissed my chances of ever bowling fast. Their verdict was chastening to me because my ambition to bowl fast had been fuelled by the sight that summer of two of the greatest of their kind – John Snow and Dennis Lillee. During the England-Australia series my eyes were glued to Snow and Lillee. About that time it became an ambition of mine to bowl fast. This was the very first time that I watched genuine fast bowling of such high caliber and I found it very exciting…..
In my first season with Oxford…. My bowling was for the most part, only medium-pace; partly because I had to do a lot of bowling. Indeed I used to complain bitterly if my captain tried to take me off! Now and then, I would slip myself and let one or two fast deliveries go – despite being a medium pacer, I had the temprament of a fast bowler and hated being hit to the boundary – and when it all clicked for a couple of overs, the effect was exhilarating. My team mates always egged me on to bowl fast and although I sprayed it al over the place, I was encouraged enough by my progress by the time the term ended.
….elected the 1974 Oxford captain and…responsibility made me a better player. At least I managed to bowl fast for constant periods…….. my good friend Guy Waller, kept urging me to bowl quicker and after the brainwashing I’d experienced at Worcester, I had my misgivings. I felt that I gave away too many runs by tearing in like Lillee, and using too many slips and gullies but other considerations swayed me – I got bored bowling tightly at county batsmen who came (to Oxford) to just polish up their batting averages and we needed a strike bowler to retaliate after our batsmen had been given the bouncer treatment. I also knew that I had the temperament of the fast bowler rather than the cunning ‘line and length’ stuff, so I kept attacking….
My form with Oxford was sufficiently impressive to earn a recall to the Pakistan side in the latter part of the 1974 season.
His (Majid’s) advice on fast bowling was invaluable to me on that 1974 season. He told me I now had a perfectly good action and to take no notice of the Worcester attitude of just bowling line and length. His advice was to put more emphasis on pace and to remember that batsmen didn’t get out to accurate medium pacers all that often especially outside England. I also knew that Pakistan lacked a genuine pace bowler and that just possibly I could fill that gap.
The following year I was still raw and wayward in my bowling, When I occasionally took the advise of the older players at Worcester, I bowled accurately and managed to swing the ball – yet I was extremely sharp sometimes, even though I wasn’t tight enough and sometimes lost my swing. Gifford and D’Oliviera were happy enough with the improvement in my bowling but were much more enthusiastic about my batting…
Although sadness accompanied the end of my time at Oxford*, I shall always look back with fondness to those three years….My cricket continued to improve at Oxford and the mental challenges involved in studying helped me in my attitude to cricket. I became more logical and analytical about my game and the discipline of scholastic work stood me in good stead later on when I later needed to sit down and sort out where my cricket career was going.
At the end of that 1975 season I went back to Pakistan for the first time in four years….The cricket was very competitive, partly because our national side had been faring well in recent years and also because all the top players were playing in Pakistan in the absence of a Test series that winter. Initially I was written off by most journalists….Eventually I bowled fast and straight on the hard wickets and managed to swing the ball enough to claim 33 wickets in the four Pentangular matches. I realized that I would get nowhere bowling on the hard, wickets by bowling English style medium pace to a defensive field; the only way I was going to get men out was through sheer speed. That trip to Pakistan made up my mind – from then on, I would be a fast bowler or nothing at all. The days of compromise were over. I would continue to work on my action, to modify it in certain areas, but it would all be geared towards blasting the batsmen out.
* refers to Pakistan's close defeats at the inaugural World Cup in 1975
.... to be continued
.... to be continued
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