Walsh was a speed demon that all batsmen feared
West Indies pace bowling legend Courtney Walsh has revealed his secrets on how fast bowlers can stay fit throughout the entire cricketing season.
Walsh, who was only injured twice throughout his career, stated that he was able to deal with the stress and strains of being a world-class pace bowler due to the way he was brought up.
Speaking exclusively to The Saturday Age, Walsh said: “I had a slight back injury as a kid, but that wasn’t from bowling, it was from lifting something. I think I strained a muscle – that was the only injury I had, way back in 1982. When I was playing, I got a hamstring injury but I only missed one Test match with it, when I was captain on the 1995-96 tour of Australia.”
Walsh is currently managing the West Indies under-19 World Cup squad in Australia.
Speaking about Australia, Walsh is in the land down under at a time when they are facing a huge crisis, since many of their frontline pace bowlers have been hit with injuries.
“The way I grew up was I did a lot of bowling to remain fit, so the muscles were accustomed to a lot of bowling, but I used to pace myself along the way,” Walsh said.
Walsh noted that even though the young Australian bowlers have great potential, they still have to train hard everyday in order to limit the number of injuries they get.
“I know a conscious effort is made now to limit the amount of overs the youngsters bowl and I think that can be good and bad in a way, because if your body gets accustomed to bowling five overs, then that’s what it’s going to be [able] to do. That didn’t work for me … the bowling muscles for me needed to be well trained for the workload they needed to do,” Walsh said.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the fast bowling duo of Pat Cummins and James Pattinson have failed to become a common appearance in the national team since their bodies have worn out after just one year of international cricket.
Walsh believes that Australia’s bowling attack will only flourish if the bowlers stay fit and develop consistency in their line and length.
