Crocked quicks need to stay out of trouble

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

MORNE Morkel is out with a shoulder problem. Dale Steyn, who was bulletproof until he turned 30 in June last year and has since lurched from one injury to the next, is being rested for the Champions League T20. Ryan McLaren has had his arm broken by Mitchell Johnson.

Beuran Hendricks will miss much of next season because of a stress fracture of the back, and cynics would describe the fragile Marchant de Lange - who was in action in SA’s one-day series in Zimbabwe last month - as being between injuries.

But Rory Kleinveldt, Vernon Philander and Wayne Parnell, who have suffered their fair share of aches and pains in recent months, are in one piece. For now.

If one of them blows a gasket, Kyle Abbott, who has replaced Jacques Kallis and Steyn in SA squads and Rajagopal Sathish for Kings XI Punjab, could step up.

So, things could be worse. But South Africans will be forgiven for asking what the hell is going on: could the fast bowlers stay out of trouble until after the World Cup, please?

However, with SA’s first game in that tournament still five months away, Brett Schultz saw more good than harm in all that.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” the former fast bowler said on Monday. “The injured and rested guys aren’t getting game time, but they are getting rest time. So, I suppose that’s more positive than negative.”

Besides, Schultz said, “it’s not as if you are ever 100% as a fast bowler - that’s just part of the job”.

But with SA scheduled to play 13 more one-day internationals before the World Cup, not to mention three tests and six T20s, the supply of quicks needs to be steady and reliable. Schultz had faith in SA’s structures to repair leaks and clear blockages in the pipeline.

“They calculate every ball they bowl; it’s all very scientific,” he said. “If you have a proper injury they rehabilitate you past the point of recovery. There’s no rush.

“Modern cricket is more about fully functioning athletes than it is about pure passion players, which used to be the case.”

Would Schultz have left a bigger legacy at international level had he not been limited to nine tests and an ODI by a bowling action that seemed designed by the Spanish inquisition?

“My impact was my action; that’s what made me different,” he said. “So, even if I was playing today I would have had a premature end to my career.

“But I would have managed my workload and my injuries better to be able to play for longer.”

With Steyn, McLaren and Kleinveldt all having turned 31 and Morkel and Philander due to bring up the end of their third decade in the next year, SA’s seam bowling stocks could kindly described as mature.

Not that Parnell, Abbott and Hendricks are on their way out, while Kagiso Rabada has yet to arrive.

Best they stay safe. SA will need all of them.