In the words of the late American writer Philip K. Dick, “reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”
Reality for fast bowlers is that one will spend an infinite amount of time suffering from, or recovering from, injury during one’s career.
Pat Cummins is the latest of a long line of Australian fast bowlers who has gone down with a crippling injury. It is one more serious back injury in his short international career.
Many of his predecessors like Dennis Lillee, Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson have had extended periods on the sidelines in their formative years while his other fast bowling peers Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson have had career-interrupting injuries in recent times.
When Lillee broke down with stress fractures of the back on the 1973 tour of the West Indies, I realised how fortunate I was that our father had taught us how to bat.
Dennis spent six months in a body cast from his waist to his armpits and then another 12 months playing as a batsman in club cricket while he rebuilt his body and his action.
Most young bowlers I knew at the time had some sort of back injury as they grew up, but eventually, those who persevered, grew out of it.
Greg Chappel No off season Why does it seem that more fast bowlers are breaking down these days? The easy answer is to say that there is more cricket played these days; three different formats and cricket played the year round, every year, but can it be that simple?
The fact that bowlers had an off-season in years gone by was no doubt a blessing as was the fact that they had to work for a living so they weren’t training every day during the season.
Most of their fitness came from bowling and extra running sessions. Very little, if any, was done in the gym.
There is no such luxury these days as an off-season, so the bowlers don’t get time to recover from injury without losing a lot of playing time.
Cummins, who has been diagnosed with a stress fracture for the second time, will spend another frustrating few months on the sidelines as he rebuilds his back to withstand the rigours of bowling at pace.
As someone who has been involved in the development phase of Australian cricket for the past 7 years, I am privy to much of the research that has been done on how best to protect bowlers from injury in their formative years.
Australia is one of the leaders in this field of research and while the incidence of fast bowling injuries in Australia has been reduced from 27 to 15 per cent per annum, it is still disappointing when a talented bowler like Cummins goes down.
Of the best fast bowlers to have represented Australia in the past 50 years, only Graham McKenzie, Jeff Thomson and Craig McDermott have not lost time to back-related stress injuries.
Muscle and bone issues History suggests that these guys along with the likes of Courtney Walsh, Dale Steyn, Wasim Akram and Michael Holding are the outliers. Genetics play their part as does one’s action. Muscles can be built up but bones develop in their own good time.
The latest wisdom is that, to prevent injury, a bowler must increase their chronic load (number of balls bowled) in training to the level at which they will be bowling in games.
Despite the best plans, bowlers will be at risk up until the point at which their bones mature which, in most cases, is around the age of 24. Until that time, those that bowl at the upper end of the scale are going to put incredible stress on their frame and they are going to have to accept that injury comes with the territory.
Those that develop their pace from the ground up by using the big muscles from the legs upwards are likely to have fewer problems than those who use considerable upper body rotation to generate exceptional pace. Most of those who have the stress injuries are in the second category.
The reality for the modern selectors is that, if they wish to retain their sanity, they will need to plan and prepare by having a bank of fast bowlers of varying ages primed and ready to meet the constant demands of the modern game.
