Nick knight, English cricketer

Lahore, Aug 5 Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar feels pacers of today do not bowl fast anymore as the laws of the game and the rigours of it don't provide that space.Shoaib was the first bowler to break the 100mph mark. He retired in 2011 having taken 444 international wickets across the three formats."Ten years ago, bowlers would bowl 155kph (96.3mph) and now they're all of a sudden bowling 135km/h (83.9mph). We now only have a few real fast bowlers around the world. Back in the day, South Africa alone had six."The cricket laws don't allow you to bowl fast now: two new balls, too much restriction, too much cricket, too many Twenty20 leagues, too much money, too many TV rights," Shoaib told BBC's TMS commentator Isa Guha and Aatif Nawaz on the BBC's Doosra podcast."Players are now getting smarter and more focused on money; they want to save their careers and legs and play for 10 years whereas I would fight for that specific series only, I fought for the day."The laws were more relaxed back then. When they banned us from bowling more than two bouncers I was gutted. I was like: "How do you trap the batsman? Where is the bodyline bowling?"Please allow me to hit the guy and let him hit me back. This is what you want to see in international cricket. I'm sick of seeing this lame, prim and proper cricket," said the 'Rawalpindi Express' who made history by becoming the first bowler to officially bowl at 100mph during the 2003 World Cup."Breaking the 100mph barrier wasn't a big deal to me. It was just media hype, an international cricket gimmick. I wasn't getting paid for this to break my bones trying to bowl that fast," said Shoaib."I just thought: "For heaven's sake, I need to finish this and just do it." So I planned it all out, I started training for it."I ran with 170kg weights on my back, taking 20kg off after every 100 metre sprint. I also used to bowl from 26 yards with something much heavier than a cricket ball. When I came back to the 22 yards, I was about 6km/h (3.7mph) quicker."I planned to bowl it against Nick Knight. I said to him: "I'm going to hurt you, so make sure you stay out of the way.' I told him I'd bowl 100mph in that over, on that exact ball," he added, throwing light to his preparation.( With inputs from IANS )

Home

City

Latest News

Cricket

LT Premium

National

International

Maharashtra

Opinions

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Nagpur

Entertainment

Photos

Business

Technology

Sports

Lifestyle

Social Viral

Lokmat Games

Health

Pahalgam Terror Attack

Tahawwur Rana

IPL 2025

CM Devendra Fadnavis

Mumbai Local

Weather Update

Nick Knight, NewsFOLLOW

Nick knight, Latest News

Cricket :IPL 2022: Jos Buttler hasn't taken his form for granted, says Nick Knight

Mumbai, May 2 Former England cricketer Nick Knight has been left impressed with the way Rajasthan Royals' star ... ...

Cricket :RR opener Jos Buttler hasn't taken his form for granted in IPL 2022: Nick Knight

Former England cricketer Nick Knight is impressed with the way Rajasthan Royals' star opener Jos Buttler is scoring runs game after game in the ongoing IPL 2022. ...

Cricket :IPL 2022: SRH vs GT will be clash of bowling-heavy sides, feels Nick Knight

Former England cricketer Nick Knight is looking forward to the IPL match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad as it will be a contest between two quality bowling sides. ...

Cricket :IPL 2022: Will DK's RCB showing revive his India T20 World Cup dreams?

Navi Mumbai, April 13 Dinesh Karthik's role as a finisher for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) could pitchfork the ... ...

Cricket :We now only have a few real fast bowlers around the world: Akhtar

Lahore, Aug 5 Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar feels pacers of today do not bowl fast anymore as ... ...