It's a long summer, let's see plenty of short deliveries

Since that terrible day at the SCG, many have had a say on whether or not the bouncer has a place in the game of cricket.

While it was tragic, the simple reality is that what happened to Phillip Hughes was a freak incident. It resulted in a terrible injury that, according to Australian team doctor Peter Brukner, has only been reported 100 times.

So rare was the injury that none of the very experienced staff at St Vincent’s Hospital, one of the best in Australia, had ever seen it.

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Is this really enough to stop the delivery?

Every January for God knows how many years, I have attended the Sydney Test. And while I loved seeing our batsmen dispatch the English bowlers to all parts of the SCG, last January I really wanted to see our speed bowlers, with Mitchell Johnson leading the charge, steam in and scare the absolute bejesus out of the English.

Bouncers are a part of the game and a call to ban them from the game would be futile. The 1932/33 Bodyline series was savage and it was brutal. Yet, in many ways it defined the war that is the Ashes, and that spirit lives on in every Ashes series that has been played since.

Without fast bowling we wouldn’t have the ruthless and intimidating characters like Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Craig McDermott, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Johnson just to name a few. They have all brought so much to the game and their names are now etched in the history books.

I doubt that any fast bowler intentionally lands a ball on the pitch in the hope it strikes a batsman above the shoulders, but short pitched deliveries are part of any game plan. When used with a show-no-mercy attitude, it is one of the best tactics in the game. And let’s be honest, it’s damn exciting to watch.

Last year Michael Clarke told Jimmy Anderson during the first Test in Brisbane, he should face up and get ready for a broken arm. Many criticised him for that comment and he was subsequently fined, but many who did had also criticised him for not being tough enough.

I bloody loved it. It was Clarke saying, “We are here to win and we will do what ever it takes to achieve that.”

Following all the commotion that ensued, largely due to the language used and because it was all captured by the stump microphone, it took English captain Alastair Cook to put things back into perspective when he said, “On the pitch it’s pretty much war, isn’t it?” And that is bang on.

Now it is finally time to get back to the business of playing cricket, and attempt to put the emotion aside. And I can’t wait.

So come Tuesday in Adelaide, at what will now be the first Test of the Australian summer, I hope that whoever has the responsibility of delivering the first ball of the Test match, be it us or the opposition, steams in flat chat and digs it in short, sending the strongest possible signal that we are back.

Game on.