Pace Pow-wow Will Slow Burnout
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday May 28, 1998
A reunion in Canberra today is the start of a study to assess the workload of cricket's match-winners, writes PHIL WILKINS.
PAUL Reiffel will be missing when the firepower of Australia's cricket team assembles in Canberra this morning, caught short on horsepower during the Burnie to Broome Charity Bash car rally.
Having forfeited his position on the fly-in, fly-out New Zealand tour because of a broken finger, the 35-Test paceman went to India, bowled 24 wicketless overs in the Chennai Test loss, broke down in Jamshedpur with a shoulder strain and returned home to Melbourne and the slow drive to Broome which he has yet to complete.
Paul Wilson replaced Reiffel in the second Test in Calcutta, delivered 12 overs without success in his maiden Test, tore abdominal muscles and was air-freighted home.
Adam Dale succeeded Wilson in Bangalore, claimed three wickets in Australia's four-day win and came home to Brisbane, spared the subsequent limited-over marathon.
Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie, the new-ball heroes of the Ashes triumph in England, never reached India. Nor did Simon Cook. Ian Harvey tore a hamstring, Andrew Bichel remained on the selectors' shelf and Damien Fleming emerged from 12th-man mothballs and a gold-trimmed purple patch for Victoria to reach Australia's side.
By the time the team staggered out of Sharjah Stadium, Michael Kasprowicz was the only fast bowler left standing.
An Australian pace bowlers' reunion will take place at Canberra's Australian Institute of Sport today and tomorrow, under the management of former NSW fast bowler Steve Bernard, during which electrodes will be attached to the 14 players' bodies and blood, sweat and urine tests completed.
Then, next week, 14 players under Steve Waugh's captaincy will be announced for the Commonwealth Games, a side probably containing three pacemen and an all-rounder but almost certainly without McGrath, Gillespie and spinner Shane Warne.
"It would be self-defeating to rush them back," Bernard said yesterday.
The Australians will engage in three round-robin games against India, Canada and Antigua in one of the four pools of four nations from which the four semi-finalists will be decided, the two qualifying sides meeting in the final.
With or without the gold medal, some of the players will simply stretch their wings at tournament's end and fly on to Pakistan for a three-Test tour after which they will engage in an Ashes defence at home before leaving again for a Frank Worrell Trophy series in the West Indies before departing for England . . .
Somewhere, squeezed into this program, the Australians will take part in a mini-World Cup in Bangladesh.
As the international demands become more excessive and pace bowling breakdowns become more inevitable and widespread, the Australian Cricket Board becomes more apprehensive that it is involved in killing off the golden geese which have made Australia the outstanding Test team of the '90s.
Consequently, today's gathering in Canberra. Australian team manager Bernard yesterday described the physiological testing of the pacemen as the "first step on a long journey", one which will be repeated periodically to address the workload of the match-winners of the game, to gauge their physical strengths and weaknesses and establish injury-prevention guidelines.
Undoubtedly, Paul Reiffel will be tested and taped eventually, some time after he rolls into Broome.
Hopefully, with the cruel demands of the modern game, the measurements won't be necessary for a series of pace bowlers' pine boxes.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald
