How does Pakistan keep producing fast bowlers on an assembly line? Every game that involves the neighbours brings out this question. Read on
Sarfarz Nawaz, among greats who mastered the reverse swing in 1970s, puts it on Pakistan’s meaty diet.
We eat meat which strengthens the body, we love wickets clattering and the batsman shivering so it’s natural that we produce fast bowlers, he says
Pakistan’s deadly reverse-swing went a notch up under the two Ws- Wasim and Waqar, a menacing partnership in the 1980s and 1990s.
Wasim says the duo followed Imran Khan’s legacy. “I think it’s the culture (to become a fast bowler), especially this generation of Waqar and I, we all had a role model in Khan.”
We are aggressive people in nature and that’s what helps. When I came I always wanted to be a fast bowler, and now we have Naseem, Shaheen, Mohammad Hasnain and Musa Khan who bowl at 140-150 kph (87-93 mph),” says Akram
The most decisive factor is Pakistan’s legion of tape-ball players
Tape ball is played in parking lots and disused patches of land using tennis balls wrapped in electrical tape to make them heavier, putting the onus on pace rather than spin.
Lahore Qalandars, a Pakistan Super League franchise which has been at the forefront of nurturing fast bowlers in recent years, received more than 350,000 applicants for their talent-hunt programme – nearly half of them tape-ball players.
According to Wasim, fast bowling is so deeply ingrained that Pakistan’s stocks will never run out. “Many natural resources will dry up, but not Pakistan bowling’s reservoirs,” he said.