Unblessed with much pace, staying agile lest they get left behind, the game’s seam bowlers are a resourceful bunch. The popularisation of the wobble seam delivery has been transformative for a new breed of trundler – we’re talking Vern Philander, Mohammad Abbas, Scott Boland, Sam Cook – whose innocuous pace is offset by an uncanny ability to land the ball on the edge of the seam so it jags away off its initial path. The delivery – first perfected by Stuart Clark, then adopted by Stuart Broad and memorably described by the great bowling coach Troy Cooley as a “dirty seam” – has helped to usher in an era of nosediving batting averages, where bowlers now hold sway.
Cricket’s equivalent of the rabona. Dewald Brevis is now the showboater-in-chief, though with Harry Brook hot on his heels, it’s all set up beautifully for HB to skew one in a Test match and get savaged by the masses. That he’ll be on 140-odd at the time will be entirely beside the point.
In late November 2014, 48 hours after the Australian left-hander Phillip Hughes was struck on his neck while attempting a pull shot to a Sean Abbott bouncer at the SCG, the catastrophic news came through. The impact had crushed the vertebral artery, causing it to split and provoking a massive brain haemorrhage. Hughes had not regained consciousness and would die three days before his 26th birthday.
His doctor explained that fewer than 100 such cases had been recorded in medical literature. The outpouring of grief was overwhelming, spreading far beyond cricket’s usual confines. An IT worker and former Sydney grade cricketer put his bat outside his house, his club cap on the handle, and posted a photograph on Twitter.
Within hours, thousands across the world had done the same. In New York, Hugh Jackman propped up a cricket bat on an empty stage before a Broadway performance. In Munich, Elton John dedicated Don’t let the sun go down on me to Hughes.
Within weeks, helmet manufacturers had designed a neck guard – a bulky piece of high-impact plastic attached to the bottom rim of the helmet – to protect the fateful region, and soon enough most players were wearing them. The neck guard is now compulsory in Australian cricket – an unshakeable visual reminder of that terrible day, when the game changed for ever. Stuart Broad might not have started it, but he’s damn well patented it.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
