As the South African cricket team returns home after another successful tour of Australia, I’ve been interested in the clear difference in philosophy for both teams.
While the Australian team has fully embraced the use of sports science and conditioning, the South Africans remain quite old-school in the way they develop players.
The Aussies want great athletes who are fit, fast and versatile, while some of the South African players would struggle to run a lap before training. But the biggest difference I’ve seen is the way both teams talk about fast bowling.
Australia has a great history of aggressive fast bowlers who charge in and attack batsmen with the short ball before setting them up with a full one on the stumps. There is an obsession with what speed each bowler can reach, with those who can bowl at over 140km/h given more opportunities at international level than any other type of fast bowler.
The South Africans also have a history of angry fast bowlers, but in this modern age they seem to value accuracy and consistency over raw pace.
Vernon Philander and Kyle Abbott never get close to 140km/h and very rarely bowl bouncers. Even Kagiso Rabada, who is capable of bowling express pace, often bowls well within himself so he can be more accurate.
On Australian pitches, it is hard to identify which philosophy is more effective, but we only have to look at the success of South African bowlers in places like England or India to see why they have adopted this approach. In their opinion, bowling fast means nothing without swing, seam and accuracy.
I will be interested to see how this new breed of Aussie fast bowlers is able to adapt to different conditions around the world.
I have a feeling that, eventually, things will turn back around and instead of searching for the next Brett Lee, the selectors will begin looking for the next Glenn McGrath.
What’s the difference between the two? About 250 Test wickets.
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