Get our fast bowlers out of the gym and back in the game

Question: why has the media not highlighted this scandal? Howard should be more in the spotlight for the havoc he has created.

HOWARD NEEDS TO GO! It must be obvious now to any reasonable person that Howard and has team are doing something wrong. Never before has there been so many injuries to fast bowlers.

Seems you have really got Jameswm, ChristotheDadyo & TheGenuineTalienders' panties in a knot there David. They just keep on yelling while putting their hands over their eyes and toes in their ears. Boys, I don't think David is saying nobody should go into the gym. I don't think he is saying that every rehabilitation session should be about getting on the beers. I don't think he is saying there isn't a place for "sports scientists" (or physios/chiros for us mere mortals). But what i do think he is saying, and which is pretty fricking obvious, is that in my 35 years of following cricket i have never seen such a bunch of injuries happening to key players, and coincidently that seems to have occurred with the batch of new trainers that have been appointed by CA. You may not like that David hasn't researched every obscure detail & fact behind every injury that has occurred to a Test player in the last 100 years. Fair enough. But to dismiss his valid criticisms of the health of our national squad, just because he doesn't place the sports scientists on the pedestals that you do, is just as ignorant. Again, Jackson Bird. Injured in India. But not part of either test team. So how did that happen when he's played 2 injury free seasons for Tasmania ? Will he be available for the Ashes series ? Perhaps it's just easier for you guys to pick on the notion that David thinks beers = training.

"But blaming training is, I believe, ignorant." Explain Jackson Bird's injury then. Would love to have my ignorance exposed. The facts are that since CA has taken on their current "high performance" trainers, our Test cricketers are spending LESS time on the field. I would have thought the intent would have been the opposite. But i'm not a "sports scientist". Just a mug with an opinion. (And 10 years of fast bowling injury free - thank god for those beers ;) )

Jameswm, Despite some very good points you do make, it's pretty obvious that despite some poor points David has made you yourself are somehow involved in this new industry of "sports science". Let me guess, final year of a sports science course perhaps ? ;) It is as obvious as the balls on a bull that something is not right with Australian cricket at the moment when it seems we can hardly get a fit cricketer on the park. I don't think David is advocating a "beers & no training" policy, however he has obviously ruffled your vested interest feathers. Just a question - how many West Indian fast bowlers broke down in the 80's & 90's ? Somehow i don't think that is due to the miraculous talents of the sports scientists. And the fact that Jackson Bird has been injured while not playing in India should be a HUGE wakeup call to CA. He would have been an excellent bowler in English conditions, so CA - some transparency please. Just how did he get injured on the cusp of a 10 test match series that he seems so suitable for ?? My two cents, if anyone cares. Mickey Arthur - gone. It's a disgrace (and not xenophobic) to think that a country with the pedigree in cricket that Australia has cannot choose a coach who has grown up in, and thus understands, the high expectations and history of our game here. Not saying he isn't competent, but surely we have enough ex-Test players with the ability to coach our team. Just another Robbie Deans experiment that will ultimately lead to failure because of the lack of understanding what a national team means to Australia. Michael Clarke - doubted him for a long time, hated the fact he was annointed as an "untouchable" from early on his career. But, on the most party I can't fault him since being gifted the captaincy. Like his tactics generally (given the right personnel at his disposal), and you can only admire how his batting has lifted. However, he should not be a selector - pick the best 11 and then the captain after that. For the next few years Clarke will no doubt be in both. John Inverarity - What can I say ? Boring as a player, and pompous as a selector. I thought Hilditch was a bit dodgy, but Inverarity takes the cake for incomprehensible babo-talk to try to justiy selections. Pat Howard - Probably a good rugby player, but just wtf is he doing around a national cricket team as a high performance manager ? If every member of the CA boy's club had to scrub up to the standards we as normal people are expected of in our jobs, then he should be gone. How many injuries have occurred on his watch ? And rather than going through each member individually, our current Test squad is an embarrassment. + Clarke, Warner (though he really needs to learn the value of patience in a test match innings), Pattinson, Siddle (not the best bowler, but we need someone who has some sort of hunger & inspiration). - Hughes (given too many chances, needs to go back to the Shield for a couple more seasons), Cowan (do like him, but he's had his chance and just can't accelerate an innings), Watson (most OVERRATED cricketer in Australia for some reason, look at his Test average), Wade (was excited at first, but he really is at best a competent 'keeper and there are at least 2 better options than him currently), any of our current spinners (Doherty, Lyon, Maxwell). I LOVE cricket and am a passionate Australian. That's why i hope we lose 10 nil in the upcoming Ashes series so that perhaps we have a chance to sweep out all the hangers-on that have come into CA and really set up a domestic cricket agenda that is going to give us success in the future while adhering to the Australian way of playing cricket - giving it your all, not accepting failure, whilst combining that with attacking & attractive cricket. And my final wish. SACK JAMES SUTHERLAND. He's had 10 years and Australian cricket has turned into a commercially-orientated joke under his watch. I can't believe he survived the Argus Review, which makes me think the role of the CEO has been deliberately left out of any review of the state of Australian Cricket. But hey, along with the CA Board, let's just let the boy's club roll on.. My two cents. :)

Christo, I'd be more than happy if the guys today were missing just because they twisted an ankle. Unfortunately, every time they get hurt today it's the bloody season - and then some - with someone telling us it's just normal.

Emotion should have nothing to do with decision making. Nor should nostalgia. This is the common theme with pieces of this nature, not actual examples or evidence of the claims being made. Fitness for fast bowling is a tricky business and should not be compressed down to "stay out of the gym and get on the gas after a hard day at the office"

Firstly it's drivel, not dribble, and secondly you didn't answer them, because they were either too hard or didn't suit your agenda. Just don't give us another uneducated and un-researched article on how strength training is to blame for our bowlers' injuries.

No arguments from me! except things just aren't like the 90's in my case! I remember the first series I really got into was the flogging we copped in 86-87, Then at 12, watching AB clean up the Windies from the hill with my old man at the SCG in 88-89. And then ;later that year being allowed to stay up and watch the Ashe or should I say watch us paste the poms at the tender age of 12 and a half in 89 was tops. Now there's no hill, something that looks like a sky scraper is in it's place.Performance wise We're looking a lot like the 86-87 again, except the current crop look more like the Richies and less like the Boony's. So I'm hoping for an 89 like tour. With a few bolters about to come good :) ahhh the 90's. The rock music was unsurpassed, the beer was relatively cheap, the girls were especially pretty & sporting heroes abounded". Even the Wobbs were winning!

There's something wrong with these cotton wool spoon fed mummas boys. harden up and do a Garbo run before breakfast -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download it now [http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-roar/id327174726?mt=8].

You're kidding yourslf Lord. You can't seriously sit there and try an justify you're rubbish argument by telling people to take out the beers comment once you have that shut down, then take out the gym comment, which is what you were arguing against. What's left to discuss from the article. Oh well, rugby season is here. You can starting flicking out ill-informed articles on that again to mix it up.

Bingo. Surprised no one has bought it up yet.

That was it JGK.. the ability to absorb the pressure. Boon just sucked it into himself like a sponge. No-one understands that anymore, they all have one eye on T20.

Now, I know that I'm not a sports scientist or anything, but there is one apparent problem that bowlers face. CA's intention is to create, for lack of a better term, 'athletes', and to be an athlete, your body has to be symmetrical to each other. However, it's the symmetrical bodies that are causing bodies to break down. Sports scientists always say to strengthen the weak areas of the body, however, cricket might be proving different. By strengthening muscles cricket bowlers don't usually use, they eventually weaken the important muscles until they either tear, fracture due to stress or break. So where does this leave CA? Hell, who really honestly knows.

Classic!

My 13 to 23 stretched from 1985 to 1995 - starting at the lowest of lows for the Aust cricket team and ending with the Frankie. Or put another way, starting with Bob Holland, ending with Shane Warne. A bit of a ride if I'm honest. It's no wonder I love AB and Tugga.

You brought up the gym in the article yourself David.

Nice one sheek...:)

No, what you have written is sensible, logical and well written. What David Lord wrote wasn't.

David, the people have spoken. You're the one talking dribble.