Fast Years: Are They a Myth?

Dec 10th 2024, Kingsmead, Durban. A certain 18-year-old Kwena Mphaka comes into bowl his 10th legal delivery, conceding 2 runs. The scorecard flashes to show the speed of the delivery, 151.8 kmph!!!

Now a lot of people have already seen this little high school prodigy. He clocked 148 in the first delivery of his spell during SA20 and scraping 150 kmph hasn’t been anything alien to him either.

May 7th 2009, Lord’s. Chris Gayle during the 1st test against England, drives a Stuart Broad delivery through backward point for a 4. The speed gun has the delivery at 92.7 mph or roughly 149 kmph.

Now for someone who watched cricket in the late 2010s, Broad bowling almost 150 kmph sounds like the most ridiculous lie ever but the truth is it was that kind of a day.

England bowled Graeme Swann with the new ball instead of Anderson and well Anderson did come on to bowl, his plan alongside Broad was not to swing the bowl but simply to bowl as fast as possible on a placid deck and indeed, Anderson too clocked 146 kph on a gloomy Lord’s afternoon and got decent success too.

As for Broad, he did earn his billing, debuting as strictly as a right-arm medium in 2006 who could bowl 130 at best but working endlessly with strength, conditioning, and biomechanical experts to peak in terms of pace in Champions Trophy 2009(149.6 kmph) at just the age of 23.

Elsewhere at the fag end of 2018, A certain Jasprit Bumrah kicked off his red ball arrival down under by clocking 153 kmph and keeping average speeds at a ridiculous 143 kmph for the whole day with maiden overs one after the another.

Now Bumrah himself is a bit of an example of the concept of Fast Years. He started as someone who mainly bowled in the 130s but found a rather perfect master in Shane Bond ultimately a person is known by the company they keep and when the company boasts of James Pattinson, Adam Milne, and Mitchell Johnson, the effects were to show up sooner or later.

Bumrah spent most of late 2018 to covid arrival often clocking in high 140s with unplayable deliveries that played a huge role in India’s conquest down under and Mumbai’s conquest of IPL 2019.

Interestingly one of Bumrah’s idols is Waqar Younus and what unifies bowlers like Waqar, Bumrah, Broad, Anderson, and a few others is the concept of fast years. An imaginary duration of time when the bowler bowled the fastest they ever could before an injury, aging, or change of style pulled them down to lower speeds.

Famous Cricket Expert Jarrod Kimber, called the current version of Pat Cummins a rather boring repetitive guy which is somewhat on point when you realize that Cummins debuted as an express pacer at 18 years old.

One who in Kimber’s words, could clock up to 155 kmph, and batters could barely lay a bat on. Cummins’ injury turned him into a relatively less fast yet relentless hit-the-deck bowler who could still consistently bowl in the 88-91 kmph regions.

Regardless of the injuries, may it be Waqar, Bumrah, Cummins, or even Anderson who while not as fast as the others, was very metronomic in the 140-145 kmph region at best as a 20-something years old until the back injury made him change his action a bit.

As for Mphaka, he comes from a place of raw pace, somewhat like Cummins did (and so did Milne and Pattinson) while Bumrah, Broad, and Waqar earned their pace on the back hard work behind the scenes.

India, in recent years, has lucked in that certain term. Beginning with Ishant Sharma in 2008, Umesh Yadav & Varun Aaron in 2011, Mohd Shami in 2012, Navdeep Saini in late 2010s, finally ending at Harshit Rana and Mayank Yadav right now.

In almost all of these cases, India did kind of prefer that the bowlers rather save their fastest for a proper occasion rather than burning themselves out in the bilaterals with avoidable injuries, something which has been the case with a lot of Pakistan Cricket.

However, they have finally found two evolutionary bowlers Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf who seem to have learned of the art of bringing the pace out only when needed and preserving their “fast years”.

As for certain Adam Milnes, Mark Woods, and James Pattinson, it is/was a matter of burning bright but fast. Pattinson, now aged 34 is already done with international cricket but he did bowl his heart out whenever he got a chance to.

Wood and Milne on the other hand are 34 and 32 right now respectively. They have their philosophies figured out with pace being the only constant regardless of the injuries that they have suffered rather consistently, reminding a bit of a certain Shane Bond who ironically happens to be Milne’s childhood idol.

What is the next step of evolution in pace preservation methodologies? What will happen to the Mayank Yadavs, Ihsanullahs, Mphakas, and O’Rourkes of this world? Well, the time will tell.

About the Author: Aman Patel, A long-term viewer and student of the game. Specialises in cricket from the 2000s.