Slinging heat

No matter which way you look at it, speed in sport is exhilarating.

Over the next few weeks a rare treat awaits. Whether you will be burning the midnight oil checking the action from ‘down under’ or enjoying the local calypso series, superb athletes slinging heat will be the premier focus.

Lee, Tait, Steyn and Fidel Edwards will be the main ‘chin music’ merchants. Should Ntini, Mitchell Johnson and Jerome Taylor also slip up a gear or two, it will be an around the clock fast bowling exhibition of note. It will be a throwback to the ‘gas men’ of the 70’s and 80’s.

Whilst you sit comfortably in your favourite lounge chair purveying the cricket, try an exercise. Imagine you are the batsman and all that pent up ferocity is delivered directly towards you from some 18 yards with significant intensity.

These speedsters will have wide-eyed wielders of willow firmly in their sights and will be hell-bent on blowing them away. At deliveries of 150 kms per hour batsmen have 0.4 of a second to react to hard shiny, potentially damaging leather screaming their way. Decisions understandably have to be made quickly. First on the agenda is self preservation, second is to guard against dismissal, third is to attempt to score a run …. and fourthly, maybe even a boundary.

However, cricket is one of the few sports around that provides a false sense of security when viewing courtesy of the giggle box. When watching a tear away quick at full throttle on TV, it does not appear to be happening at break neck speed. Believe me, if you were to suddenly be the hunted it is a very different story.

The necessary initial ball following camera angle and the constant use of slow motion replays certainly adds to the increased perceived comfort level. That in itself is a catch 22 situation,as to accurately view the proceeding action intensity needs to be reduced so that as much information as possible can be absorbed. Cameras from side-on, at real speed, are the ones that truly translate the pace.

Trackside Formula 1 television cameras interpret the feeling of speed. Goalpost cameras attached to crossbars and utilized at game time speed do the same with football when goals are struck at velocity. Somehow with cricket you just don't get the conversion of the speed generated.

The only way a spectator can fully appreciate both the speed of a fast bowler and the skill of the intended target is to stand directly behind a batsman during a ‘hot’ net session. Rest assured the ducking and diving you will be doing from that position of immunity as you are protected by the netting is purely instinctive…. and the bowler will not have yet cranked up to full tilt.

Try it. You will walk away unscathed with a brand new appreciation of a batsman's ability and his reflex capabilities. …. and of course the intensity required in the art of fast bowling.

One more thing ….. as they say over here in The Magic City …. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!