 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
          
|
 |
Dennis Lillee is arguably the greatest fast bowler ever in the history of the game. I find it very difficult to believe that there was somebody better than Dennis Lillee. There may well have been, but to me Dennis Lillee had all the qualities that fast bowling is all about. He was big, strong, aggressive, confident, had marvelous skills, he intimidated the batsman with a little bit of chatter and cool gamesmanship. No problem with that, that's fair play these days and of course he got you out, which means he did his job.
But his point is his philosophy of fast bowling. "If I landed the ball roughly where I wanted it to land, then I knew I started on a good note. I believe it has to be somewhere near the batsman, where the batsman has to play a shot of the ball, therefore you have a chance to get him out."
Pace will help but it is not vitally important. But Dennis Lillee also believed, that fast bowling perfection was a combination of number of difficult qualities. He broke it down into a robot like player. Imagine this, the breathtaking run up of Wes Hall, the silk smooth delivery of Ray Lindwall, the blistering pace of Jeff Thompson, the fire brand aggression of Fred Trueman, the scintillating swing of Alan Davidson, the accuracy of Brain Statham, the devastating cut of John Snow, the lethal bouncer of Charlie Griffith, the demoralizing yorker of Andy Roberts, the stamina of Mike Procter and the sheer brilliance of Keith Miller. Boy !!! What a bowler.
Copyright Sharp Focus Ltd 1999 |
|
|
Gear
