Batsmen have a ball while bowlers toil
Pitches, tired attacks lead to a run feastJanuary 22, 2004 Edition -1
Stuart Hess
The batsmen may have been the ones having a case of the runs during the recently completed series between the West Indies and South Africa, but it's the bowlers who are feeling decidedly ill.
In a summer in which bat has overwhelmed ball, many are wondering just what has been the reason for the avalanche of runs witnessed, not only in SA, but also in the four-match series between Australia and India down under.
It started with Australian opener Matthew Hayden setting a new world record of 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth, and far from it being all downhill from there, the world's batsmen have merely sought to punish the bowlers even more. In the series between India and Australia, a combined total of 12 centuries were scored, including an astounding four double-hundreds.
But it went even better for the flashing blades here, with West Indies and South Africa tallying 20 centuries between them, one short of the current record for the number of hundreds in a
series, scored between the West Indies and Australia in 1955, when those two teams played a five-match series.
But what's behind the astonishing run feats this summer? Are batsmen better? Are bowlers worse? Are pitches better prepared? Are bowlers simply exhausted from the overwhelming workloads they carry these days playing both one-day internationals and Test cricket?
One wouldn't be too far off the mark saying it's a combination of all of the above.
Batsmen are undoubtedly better than they were say, a decade ago. Advancements in technology have definitely aided them. Much like bowlers are able to closely analyse their actions, so can batsmen check on their stance at the crease and, more importantly, study which areas bowlers are likely to bowl.
In addition, the small number of countries playing Test cricket, combined with the high number of times they face each other, means batsmen have more opportunity to face bowlers and over time good players will figure out how to score more runs.
But among their greatest aids has been the improvement in the standards of pitches around the world, an element South African captain Graeme Smith touched on at the end of the series.
"The pitches in all four Tests have been excellent for batting," said Smith, emphasising a point which saw more than 5 500 runs being scored by the two sides.
Types of soil are closely analysed as are the various kinds of grass. Groundsmen also prepare pitches days - sometimes weeks - in advance of Test matches which provides for better playing surfaces, offering truer bounce, and unless there's moisture in the air, less movement.
With so much loaded in favour of the batsmen, its no surprise that bowlers appear pretty exhausted - a problem exacerbated by the non-stop schedule that is such a feature of world cricket at the moment.
Take South Africa for example. They play the first of five one-dayers against the West Indies at Newlands on Sunday, before embarking on a six-week tour of New Zealand. In August they're off to Sri Lanka for four weeks, before playing the Champions trophy in England the next month.
In October they trek to India for three Tests and no doubt a host of one-dayers, before a home series against England - which looks likely to contain five Tests and seven one day internationals - and then another series against Zimbabwe in February 2005. In March they travel to the West
Indies also for six weeks.
As was seen with Australia, the absence of Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Shane Warne proved crucial to their fortunes. Warne, of course, was out due to a drug ban, but McGrath and Lee were both victims of injuries brought on by heavy workloads.
Nevertheless, the mountains of runs rattled up by the world's batsmen has provided rich entertainment for the game's fans. And at a time when many were questioning the ability of Test cricket to attract supporters and thus advertising revenue, the run-scoring feats of the world's best batsmen could not have come at a better time.
