He has made a tremendous impact

IN HIS treatise `The Young Cricketer's Tutor', while specifying the credentials of a bowler, John Nyren wrote: ``The three best qualities in this important person in the game are, a high delivery, an upright body and balls to be pitched at proper length. The present generation would have seen all of these virtues in Antiguan Curtly Ambrose, who the other day at Old Trafford joined the `400 Wicket Club' in Test cricket. A redoubtable opponent, Ambrose will leave a big vacuum; he has decided to bid adieu from international cricket. What has to be seen is whether he will change his mind following a plea to hang on for one more year by fellow Antiguan, Sir Vivian Richards.

Ambrose is the latest instance of a bowler making a monumental impact on the game in the last three and a half decades (1934- 2000); the proof of it being so magnificently presented in their deeds. After the England versus Australia Test at the Oval in 1964, when `Fiery Fred' was asked what if someone was to emulate him and cross 300 wickets in Test cricket he said, ``Aye, but whoever does it will be bloody tired''. Test cricket's history records that the `pit boy' from Yorkshire, Freddie Trueman was the first bowler to reach the 300 wicket milestone some 36 years ago.

Trueman held the world record for a dozen years before West Indian offspinner Lance Gibbs bested it in the 1975-76 series against Australia in Australia. Trueman, England's legendary fast bowler must be pleased that not only more than a dozen have passed the first standard benchmark, but also for the fact that a majority of them have been men in the fast lane and two out of the four involved in active cricket are within striking distance of his mark. But what must have amused him is how most of them managed to defy age and carried on with a heavy load, like the West Indian `partners in crime' Walsh and Ambrose have demonstrated so, since they took over in the mid 80s.Test cricket's bowling division has an impressive list now with the beanpole, Ambrose becoming the fifth bowler to capture 400 wickets. It was only recently, his new ball partner for more than a decade, Courtney Walsh dislodged India's Kapil Dev from the pedestal to become the highest wickettaker in the traditional form of the game. Since, the Jamaican, Walsh, appears to be going on an overdrive and is not far away from what ought to be a phenomenal 500 wickets, which a year ago, Allan Border (highest rungetter in Test cricket) said ``Warney had the capability to reach''.

West Indian fast bowlers have always made news. At the outset it was Learie Constantine (58 wickets from 18 Tests), but it was Wesley Hall who turned out to be a paradigm for the succeeding generations of West Indian fast bowlers. Hall, according to the discerning was a genuine fast bowler (Frank `Typhoon' Tyson wrote in `Cricket, the great bowlers' that Hall was out and out fast) who brought many famed batsmen to their knees. West Indians Hall and Griffith (Charlie) were as outstanding as any famous fast bowlers who hunted in pairs, but as cricket journeyed into the 70s, Clive Lloyd gave a new sweep to the West Indies fast bowling, employing the four pronged pace attack in Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall; all in a class of their own.

Quite a handful filled odd occasions when Lloyd's West Indies held sway over the rest of the Test playing nations in the 70s and 80s when the quartet's speed, skill and strength was the talking point. The West Indies' decline started as one after another hung his boots leaving a high reputation and also a task for those who followed their footsteps. Since the mid 80s, the West Indies fast bowling attack reduced by half and lacked depth, but Walsh and Ambrose did not shirk their responsibilities and see their motivation and commitment levels diminish even at the worst times.

Walsh and Ambrose's collection is well over one thousand wickets in Tests and one-day internationals put together. At 36, Ambrose has decided to call it a day; the ongoing series against England will be his last. There was utter disbelief last May when Ambrose announced that he would retire at the end of the series in England. ``It's time to pack. I set myself high standards and if I cannot measure up to that standard, I would rather not play. I would prefer to leave on a high,'' Ambrose said.

What West Indies cricket will see after Walsh, too, quits is a handful of fast medium bowlers led by Reon King. The West Indies is due to tour Australia this winter for the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy the two teams shared in early 1999 in the West Indies, thanks to Brian Lara's brilliant batting in two Test matches.

But the West Indies attack in Australia without Ambrose will be like an important limb severed, but he might well say, ``I have done my bit for the West Indies''. Four hundred plus wickets in 97 Tests is no joke. And surely the Antiguan - who will stop at Test Match No. 98 - will not be tempted to travel to Australia just for the sake of logging 100 Tests.

The next man who is likely to be in hot pursuit of Test cricket's 400 Club will be Shane Warne, who is 34 wickets shy of the mark. It might take the whole of the Australian summer and the series against India in India for the legspinner to join the elite group. Perhaps Warne might do it in the three Tests to be played against India between February - March 2001.

What, however is more likely to happen is a first bowler from South Africa and Sri Lanka making the entry into the nine-member 300 club. Allan Donald is three short of it and Muthiah Muralitharan is nine.

Australia's Glenn McGrath at 288 has a good chance of doing so in the home series against the West Indies, while an Indian might get to the magical 300 mark. Anil Kumble needs another 24. He will be keen to do it in the home series against Zimbabwe and Australia. Should he do so, by next March the 300 Club would have swelled to 13.

The last three and half decades has been good for the bowlers of the fast bowling ilk; the slow men coming into their own in between. In fact the likes of Warne, Muralitharan and Kumble are on the threshold of reaching the landmark figures of 400 and 300 wickets in Test cricket and carve a niche. There is plenty for the new generation of bowlers to look up to, but nevertheless it will be a weighty task, more so for the West Indian bowlers.

G. VISWANATH

Mumbai

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