Notes on the big boys of cricket

And they are all 6'8" tall.

A few days ago I saw pictures of Mudassir Gujjar, the 22-year-old Pakistani bowler. Gujjar is 7'6" tall. That is the tallest height I have come across for a cricketer. The closest Gujjar has come to playing international cricket is his selection by PSL side, Lahore Qalandars, last year, then he disappeared. I wonder what happened to his career.

Anyway, since then, I haven't been able to stop thinking about cricket's big boys. As a result, I started collecting notes on three bowlers, and they all share the same height: 6’8”.

Zimbabwe's next big thing

I wanted to write an article on Zimbabwe's next big thing, Blessing Muzarabani. He is the country's next big thing, literally. Besides his height, I was drawn to him because Muzarabani has such a compelling story. I promise you, Muzarabani's story is the type that will tag at your heartstrings and force you to root for him. He is the definition of the underdog prevailing despite difficult beginnings.

His story is one of those that stands out, even in a country like Zimbabwe where young cricketers go through a lot to reach the highest levels.

As I said before, Blessing Muzarabani stands out. I guess it's difficult to blend in when you are a towering 6'8". In Southern Africa, anyone who is 6'8" is always going to stand out, we are not a tall lot. Many hover around the 6 feet mark. Therefore, it is not surprising that he has always been "that tall kid." Well, he hasn't always been 6'8" - naturally - but he has always been a tall fella, towering over everyone around him.

So, one of the first things people noticed about him was the height. Around the age of 7 he was that tall-for-his-age kid who was always following his 17-year old cousin, Taurai Muzarabani, to cricket practice at Takashinga Cricket Club. And even then his height bellied the 10 year age difference. As a teenager he was always that tall kid who showed up unannounced at Harare Sports Club hoping to bowl at the pros in the nets. Blessing had a habit of doing just that, because he loved the sport.

The downside to being that tall was that no one in his circles wore the same shoe size as he did, so he had to go without proper cricket shoes. You see, Blessing comes from a very modest family and things like cricket shoes are often an unaffordable luxury. Like many others, he had to depend on hand-me-downs. But being that tall kid, his feet were longer than most.

Of course he didn't mind that he didn't have cricket shoes - I suppose it's hard to miss something that you never had to begin with - or if he did mind, he did not let it get in the way of his dream of a career in cricket. So he played with no shoes. He played with no shoes at school, played with no shoes at his Takashinga club, and when he turned up at Harare Sports Club hoping to bowl at the pros, he would do so without shoes.

The story of someone who goes from that position in life to being one of the very few players from his country to be playing at international leagues such as the Pakistan Super League is worth telling.

One guy whom I asked about Blessing said to me, "You will never find many guys who are like Blessing. A few months after returning from playing club cricket in the UK, most cricketers have a habit of selling off kit to anyone who can afford it. Mainly to pay bills and stuff. Blessing isn't one of the ones that do that. He has a good head on his shoulders, he invests his money well."

New Zealand's next big thing

Not many bowlers have had the kind of start that Kyle Jamieson has had in his international career. Five 5-wicket hauls in 8 games for Jamieson is very impressive. In fact, it is very difficult to speak of New Zealand's path to the World Test Championship final without mentioning the 6'8" right arm pacer. Jamieson was in tremendous form in the three series at home against Pakistan, West Indies and India, and it is fair to say that he is part of New Zealand's perfect storm that brought them to the final and within reach of sharing the mace with India.

Like many, I joined the bandwagon in trying to understand how New Zealand had made it this far. It always makes for an interesting story when a team like New Zealand performs beyond their expected levels. I mean, at the start of the WTC cycle, a lot of us did not expect an India vs New Zealand final. And yet here we are. Not only that, but New Zealand are showing that they have as much claim to the title as anyone else.

It doesn't happen often, but all the chips just fell in the right place at the right time for New Zealand. The perfect storm. A “perfect storm” refers to a combination of factors coming together to produce an extraordinary result, and often it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to reproduce.

New Zealand got lucky with the points and percentages, with the Covid situation, then the wins at home. But that alone would not have been enough, they also needed to make the right selections at the right time, which they did. And one of those right selections was Kyle Jamieson who currently have the most phenomenal numbers in Test cricket, he averages 14 with the ball - the third best bowling average in history. As Jarrod Kimber said, this is a bowler who is as close to fast bowling perfection as possible.

South Africa's big boy

New Zealand has been searching for a reliable spinner since Danny Vettori's retirement. As things stand, they don't seem to have found the right fit. On the other side of the world, Proteas are still looking for their perfect left arm seamer. At one point Wayne Parnell looked like the right man for the role, then he just disappeared. I suppose the powers that be lost their patience with him, but who knows what could have been had they persisted with him. I mean, Parney had shown glimpses of what he could do. Loads of potential.

Right now there is Beuran Hendricks, but he only features in the white ball stuff. I don't think they trust him with the red ball. Anyway, he would need to be better than Rabada, Ngidi and Nortje by some some distance if he is to be selected ahead of them in Test cricket.

Enter a 6'8" tall 21 year-old called Marco Jansen. Anyone whose development is tracked by a side like Mumbai Indians for two or so years and still impress them enough for them to bring him to the IPL is worth paying attention to. Not just that, but Marco was the second best bowler in CSA 4-Day Challenge held in January.

I mean, imagine a bowler who brings the advantages of being a left armer, granted the advantage is not as great as it was in the past when there were few left armers in international cricket, when they had the advantage of the element of unfamiliarity to bowlers. But, imagine a bowler who brings that and the uniqueness of being quite a tall.

You see, batters do not strictly watch the ball, it is much more complicated than that. If they did just watch the ball, trust me, no batter would hit a single ball. Think of it this way, a cricket pitch is 22 yards (20.12 meters in length). And if one is facing a bowler coming in with a 130km/h delivery, the batter only has less than one second to react from the time the ball is released to when it reaches the batter. No human has reflexes that are THAT quick.

So, to pick line and length and everything else, the batter has to "predict" where the bowler is going to deliver the ball. To do this, batters pick cues from the bowler's torso, elbow, wrist, hand. There was a study that was done years ago, where researchers recorded videos of bowlers in action. They then showed the video to a wide range of people, from expert batters to ordinary people. But the videos were cut before the bowler released the ball. The participants were asked to predict where the ball would pitch after only seeing a segment. The expert players were better at predicting the path of the ball than rest of the participants.

Now, because the most form of bowler you are going to come across is a right arm bowler, this means that most batters can predict/anticipate where a right armer is going to land the ball much better than they do most lefties. Of course, this is no longer as prevalent as in the past. The increase in left armers has meant that batters are developing better skills against left armers.

But, you are not going to see a lot of 6'8" bowlers around, let alone 6'8" tall left armers. I mean, the average point of release for most bowlers is around 204 centimeters, according to Ben Jones and Nathan Leamon, in their book Hitting Against the Spin. A 6’8” fella will have a higher release point, creating a whole different angle. This creates an interesting possibility if you think of what Marco Jansen might be able to do to batters because of the fact that he brings a different angle, one that is even different to other left armers.

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