Line & Length
R Mohan
Short men stand tall at the crease
March 20, 2008
In describing new wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose's maiden Test century the former England captain and columnist Mike Atherton made the interesting point of how short batsmen have been world beaters.
Of the 10 highest Test run makers, as many as five are below 5'9 while Allan Border at 5' 9 is a borderline case, perhaps belonging to the short class among batsmen.
The four comparatively taller men among those with the highest Test aggregate are Steve Waugh (4), Rahul Dravid (6), Jacques Kallis (8) and Graham Gooch (9).
The gigantic figure of Inzamam-ul-Haq comes up at 11 and the barrel-chested Viv Richards is 12th on the all time list.
It is fascinating that the world's finest Test batsman ever was Sir Donald Bradman who at 5'7 would have been as welcome in a club of jockeys. Even shorter than the Don are Sachin Tendulkar at 5'5 and Sunil Gavaskar at 5' 4 while Brian Lara would tip the gymnasium height scale at a modest 5'7.
While history records that some of the finest batsmen have been short men, saying so could lead to a heated debate as I once found out after describing in detail what I thought of one of the finest batsmen I had grown up watching - Gundappa Viswanath.
Having said that bouncers passed by him like the idle wind, I had to endure a diatribe based upon the presumption that short men were not bothered so much by the short ball because it sailed well above their heads.
How way off the mark that could be was probably not realised by those draining the ammunition on the other side of the argument. What is a short-pitched ball to a tall batsman may indeed sail by those lesser endowed in stature, or linearly challenged. But what about the good length ball that could come at such batsmen's faces.
Just imagine Joel Garner bowling to Viswanath when each delivery would have threatened to knock his head off. Atherton reckons that small batsmen have better balance at the crease and an ability to pick up the length of the ball more quickly.
They can also drive bowlers to distraction with their ability to cut deliveries to which taller men might play forward. Fair enough as a technical point, which is borne out by the methodology of many of those among the all-time run accumulators.
Greg Chappell, one of the most elegant of batsmen, tended to be put off a bit by the short-pitched stuff, which at one stage threatened his career, inflicting an amazing series of failures.
Martin Crowe was another who was elegance personified but who was prepared to stand up and hook so as not to allow the bouncer to strike at his balance in the crease.
As a rule, shorter men are not as bothered by the obvious short-pitched ball. In linear terms, they present less of a target than, say Tony Greig, of whom there was a lot for the bowler and the ball to aim at while he was at the crease.
Nothing bothered Viv Richards who never donned a helmet in his whole career.
If they threatened to knock his block off, he simply stood up and hooked, sometimes telling them it's red, it's round, go fetch it, after sending the cherry past the boundary ropes.
It's a pity we did not get to see much of the other Richards - Barry. He must have been right up there with the best, while also being one of the taller men to be considered among the batsmen said to be touched by genius.
As a cricketer, Sir Garfield Sobers was in a class of his own. He was a bit of a croucher at the crease so he would hardly have seemed to be one to be in the tall category. All the points made about short batsmen should not lead us to believe there were no great tall batsmen in the game. Sobers and the two Richards are sufficient to beat any such line of reasoning. Clive Lloyd could unleash mayhem on the cricket ball. Maybe, being short helps in elongating a career to be able to dominate the all time run-makers' list.
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
Of the 10 highest Test run makers, as many as five are below 5'9 while Allan Border at 5' 9 is a borderline case, perhaps belonging to the short class among batsmen.
The four comparatively taller men among those with the highest Test aggregate are Steve Waugh (4), Rahul Dravid (6), Jacques Kallis (8) and Graham Gooch (9).
The gigantic figure of Inzamam-ul-Haq comes up at 11 and the barrel-chested Viv Richards is 12th on the all time list.
It is fascinating that the world's finest Test batsman ever was Sir Donald Bradman who at 5'7 would have been as welcome in a club of jockeys. Even shorter than the Don are Sachin Tendulkar at 5'5 and Sunil Gavaskar at 5' 4 while Brian Lara would tip the gymnasium height scale at a modest 5'7.
While history records that some of the finest batsmen have been short men, saying so could lead to a heated debate as I once found out after describing in detail what I thought of one of the finest batsmen I had grown up watching - Gundappa Viswanath.
Having said that bouncers passed by him like the idle wind, I had to endure a diatribe based upon the presumption that short men were not bothered so much by the short ball because it sailed well above their heads.
How way off the mark that could be was probably not realised by those draining the ammunition on the other side of the argument. What is a short-pitched ball to a tall batsman may indeed sail by those lesser endowed in stature, or linearly challenged. But what about the good length ball that could come at such batsmen's faces.
Just imagine Joel Garner bowling to Viswanath when each delivery would have threatened to knock his head off. Atherton reckons that small batsmen have better balance at the crease and an ability to pick up the length of the ball more quickly.
They can also drive bowlers to distraction with their ability to cut deliveries to which taller men might play forward. Fair enough as a technical point, which is borne out by the methodology of many of those among the all-time run accumulators.
Greg Chappell, one of the most elegant of batsmen, tended to be put off a bit by the short-pitched stuff, which at one stage threatened his career, inflicting an amazing series of failures.
Martin Crowe was another who was elegance personified but who was prepared to stand up and hook so as not to allow the bouncer to strike at his balance in the crease.
As a rule, shorter men are not as bothered by the obvious short-pitched ball. In linear terms, they present less of a target than, say Tony Greig, of whom there was a lot for the bowler and the ball to aim at while he was at the crease.
Nothing bothered Viv Richards who never donned a helmet in his whole career.
If they threatened to knock his block off, he simply stood up and hooked, sometimes telling them it's red, it's round, go fetch it, after sending the cherry past the boundary ropes.
It's a pity we did not get to see much of the other Richards - Barry. He must have been right up there with the best, while also being one of the taller men to be considered among the batsmen said to be touched by genius.
As a cricketer, Sir Garfield Sobers was in a class of his own. He was a bit of a croucher at the crease so he would hardly have seemed to be one to be in the tall category. All the points made about short batsmen should not lead us to believe there were no great tall batsmen in the game. Sobers and the two Richards are sufficient to beat any such line of reasoning. Clive Lloyd could unleash mayhem on the cricket ball. Maybe, being short helps in elongating a career to be able to dominate the all time run-makers' list.
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
