The need for speed .....

They’re falling like flies. After years of repetitively expending explosive energy at optimum velocity, the bodies are saying no more. The halcyon days of contentedly examining a cluster of the game’s most emotionally charged performers constantly straining sinew for their country is coming to an end. The modern day fast bowler is a threatened species.

Brett Lee is the latest casualty to consign his services to the less strenuous versions of the game that engage colour. No more test matches for him. He now joins that rapidly expanding list of mind-like characters that includes Shane Bond, Andrew Flintoff, Shaun Tait, Dirk Nannes and the declining Makhaya Ntini, as well as the near extinct Shoaib Akhtar. The temptation of bulging wallets of the shortest form has provided a well timed diversion but no one can escape the fact that years of lung busting endeavour has ultimately sniped careers. Who would want to be a fast bowler?

A fast bowler is all about break-neck speed. You’re either quick or you’re not. It’s all about instilling some dimension of insecurity or preferably fear into your subject who is firmly locked in your sights some 22 yards away. They all want to be the fastest. They all know when the priceless attribute of rhythm is on board and propelling them further. They all glance at the scoreboard reading of the speed gun post delivery when everything clicks and an explosive force has delivered something special. They all know that Shoaib has delivered what is considered the fastest recorded thunderbolt at 161.3 kph during the 2003 World Cup. They all know that Shaun Tait is the latest to have that target on his radar and only last week reached 160.7 kph with one of his missiles against Pakistan.

The question I wish to ask is: “Will fast bowlers get any faster?”

A recently posted French sports scientist’s research paper has suggested that optimum performance in sports has been obtained. He painstakingly researched a century’s worth of world records and concluded that athletes have reached their peak and are most unlikely to attain further heights. Geoffrey Berthelot, a researcher from an internationally respected research institute for athletes in Paris, found that peak times in track and field have not improved in 64% of events since 1993. He calculated that 1988 was the finest year for achievement and that the 1990s saw an actual decrease in performance. He also confirmed that today a lot of events show no progression at all.

His conclusion is that world records are flattening and individual performances have reached a plateau. The nagging feeling that humans have obtained all they can in raising the athletics bar is driving coaches and trainers alike to furiously scramble for new training methods and instruction in an attempt to shave the minutest fractions off times. One such dubious recent introduction was the splash the Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit made during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It was determined the now banned swimsuit was the sole determining factor in 21 out of 22 world records.

A real concern has been and still sadly is the ever present temptation to use illegal performance-enhancing drugs by morally void individuals. There is a general belief that human athletic performance has peaked but in modern sports the wildcard is technology to improve excellence.

I am however a firm believer that sporadically an athlete of supreme and extraordinary talent will explode onto the scene and ignite the sporting landscape leaving records in his wake. Usain Bolt with his recent astonishing exploits is a prime example of this.

The game of cricket needs the seasoned fast men to endure.

Let’s hope that the likes of Shoaib and Brett were not just bolts out of the blue.