da brwin： Shane Bond, the world’s third fastest bowler is nowonly a few km/h away from becoming a genuine contenderto the big guns, of Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee
Eddie Smith28-Feb-2003Shane Bond, the world’s third fastest bowler is nowonly a few km/h away from becoming a genuine contenderto the big guns, of Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee.Against Bangladesh yesterday, Bond recorded his fastest delivery, clocking 153.6km/h and beating hisprevious best effort of 153.5km/h on June 29last year in the West Indies.Bond has steadily built up speed from his firstTest matches in 2001 which netted him top speeds of142.3km/h and 146.2km/h. In January 2002, Bond clockedfastest speeds of 147.6km/h and 148.2km/h and burstinto the express paceman’s club, onJanuary 26 in emphatic style with a 151.2km/h searingyorker which shattered Adam Gilchrist’s stumps.Jason Gillespie is Bond’s nearest rival for the No 3 spot as last year he bowled at 151.0km/h and153.9km/h in consecutive matches in South Africa.Gillespie however has not gone above the high 140s(km/h) since then and his top speed in the tournamentso far sits at 148.9km/h. By contrast, Bond hasreached 148.6km/h, 151.3km/h and now 153.6km/h in hisfirst three matches and looks to be on the verge ofsomething very special.In his second match against the West Indies, Bond wasin the express lane, during his first spell, bowlingnine deliveries above 150km/h. He ended up with fastestballs of 151.3km/h, 148.0km/h and 146.3km/h in eachspell.When Bond emerged on the international scene, hehad played 19 first-class matches. Hewas chosen after some outstanding bowling in India’s Buchi Babu tournament showed he had overcome back injuries that frustrated the early stages of his career.The extra pace he has gained is most likely theresult of increased experience, confidence andrefinement to his action.A distinct disadvantage however to Bond’s chances ofknocking off either Lee or Shoaib in the pace race,is that he plays half of his matches in New Zealand.The radar guns being used in New Zealand only measurehorizontal velocity which may be fine for baseball,but in cricket horizontal velocity is not relevant.Incricket varying angles must be catered for toaccurately reflect bowling speeds and this cannot bedone with the equipment employed in New Zealand. Thescanning rate of a standard radar gun does not allowfor the ball’s speed to consistently be captured theinstant it leaves the bowler’s hand so the speeds ondisplay in New Zealand may also reflect an airaffected velocity.The big companies like BBG Sports and EDH have foundunique ways to negate these variables and displayspeeds which represent actual ball velocity ratherthan horizontal velocity.The result of all of this is that Bond’s fastestrecorded ball in New Zealand stands at 146km/h. In thefield of bowling speeds that is a long way from his153.6km/h recorded today by BBG and his 153.5km/h byEDH.Not since Nantie Hayward bowled at 154.4km/h late in2001 has a bowler materialized to threaten Shoaib andLee for the Nos 1 and 2 spots. Bond hasannounced himself as a genuine threat and may soon bea contender for the title of the fastest bowler in theworld.