I’m a case in point I guess. Been bowling for over 15 years on the green now, never batted above about 10 for Reed but I’m still convinced I’m an undiscovered talent. I may not have a whole host of shots with which to gain the fans support. I may not look like the most elegant batsmen out there. Yet for various reasons, not least the fact that I’ve yet to be out on a Saturday this year and have a Sunday average approaching 60, I still think there’s talent there.
So maybe I’m not the best person to comment upon this, as clearly I’m something of an all-rounder. It did leave me wondering though. Is it possible that someone with little or no apparent talent in the discipline they don’t specialise in can be dragged up at least to the level of good old fashioned mediocrity? What I needed was a project. Someone who’s bowling or batting was something of a laughing stock and I could help transform it. I’d be like a modern day cricketing guardian angel…
Now despite the above I still reckon my bowling has the edge over my batting, so I figured that I’d probably have more success coaching a batsman to bowl, than a bowler to bat. I knew it’d be tough still but
there must be a guinea pig out there. Fortunately at nets this week I found the perfect candidate, a stubborn left handed batsman with an unfortunate tendency to play across the line around his front pad but
who has at times this season morphed from a sedate opener to a big hitting number 5.
To begin with I took a brief look at his current action. There were certainly ample holes to pick in it and I realised that this might be a job that required even more patience than teaching maths. I decided
that the best way forward would be to remodel it completely, and build from there. We altered the wrist position, the angle of run up and the position of the front arm and feet at delivery. I decided to move away slightly from the classical side action which had clearly been failing abysmally up until this point.
So, remodelled and raring to go my protégé jogged in, with good poise and a much better looking action he sent down the first ball of the rest of his career. It barely reached the batsmen, bouncing 3 times,
once before it reached the matting of the net. Maybe I was being too ambitious, maybe this was an impossible task, but I wasn’t prepared to give up just yet. A couple of minor technical hitches were sorted out, I told my young medium pacer to try to stay more upright through the delivery stride and he had another go. Miraculously he bowled a reasonable ball, fullish, on a length, and at a pace that the batsmen
only had time for the one cup of tea and sandwich as opposed to a roast dinner before it got to him. This was brilliant, amazing, wonderful, and what is more it continued for the next few attempts.
Now we had the fundamentals I took another look at my protégés action and decided he looked like a natural out-swing bowler. Okay, natural might be stretching the truth but I definitely thought he had a chance of nibbling one away, so I taught him, and he charged in gamely once more, delivering what has now become his signature ball, the treble bouncer which struggles to reach the batsmen. Oh dear, maybe I’d just got a bit carried away.
I told him to stay upright, keep his head up, grip the ball a little looser and show a little more dynamism through the crease. He took this on board and bowled again. It was on a good length, swung away
precociously and beat the outside edge, yes that’s right, IT BEAT THE OUTSIDE EDGE. Had to be a fluke, surely? So he bowled again, and the batsmen who hadn’t reckoned on this new found talent tried to waltz down the pitch, again it swung away and was far too good for him, this time taking the edge and going in the direction of second slip.
Now this was only the nets, and it was only one ball, but I’d be lying if I said my protégé wasn’t excited by this. It was as he claimed, ‘the only time he’d bowled an actually threatening ball in his life’. He
tried to learn the in-swinger at this point and it failed miserably but I’d have to say I was proud of the lad. From no hoper to Sunday level medium pacer in just 15 or so balls. It’ll be interesting to see whether the improvement can be sustained next week.
So what does all this prove, I guess it proves that with expert tuition it is possible to convert what appeared to be the most useless situation in the world to mediocrity, possibly beyond, I’ll keep you updated. I’m just wondering how many of you out there have talents you’ve not yet discovered, either cricketing or otherwise. It’s worth trying new things out, you never know where it might get you. I’ll be genuinely disappointed if my protégé doesn’t get a bowl this weekend and I’ll be expecting at least a One-for.
Cheers for reading,
Onefa
