Where have the bowlers gone?

It’s been a month of breathless action. Runs have not so much flowed as they have cascaded; teams have not merely chased down fourth-innings targets, but blazed away at them; and batsmen have blasted double- centuries as if these were out of fashion The figures say it all: 6749 Test runs have been scored in 1909 .1 over at 3.54 per over in the last six Test. Is this the beginning of a golden age in cricket? It’s tempting to ask.

The trouble is that we often tend to equate cricket with batting. It’s not unnatural. Cart wheeling stumps, the sight of the ball flying at the batsman’s ribcage or a blinding catch may occasionally spur the crowd, but people essentially come to watch the leather being belted Considering Test match are producing more result than over before , it is understandable that the sheer abundance of runs – and the exhilarating pace at which they are being scored –is being construed as prosperity and good health for cricket.

Spare a look at the other side and you will see absolute impoverishment. It isn’t a mere coincidence that this spectacular massacre of bowlers is taking place at a time when Test bowling standards are art an abysmal low Many great bowlers are on the wane : Allan Donald is gone wasim akram is struggling to stay fit, waqar younis has lost pace and sting and Anil Kumble has done nothing to prove that he can be match winner outside India . The current crop of West Indian fast bowlers is an insult to the memory of its predecessors; Health Streak bowls more half-volleys than outs wingers and, not so long ago, Andrew Flintoff was England’s best bowler.

Barring Australia, Who have two great bowlers – shane Warne and Glenn McGrath – and two very good ones – Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee, there are no great bowling sides in the world today. Though Chaminda vass has been incisive recently, Muttiah Muralitharan is still the sole matchwinner for sri Lanka and Shaun Pollock virtually carries the south African bowling all by himself. If a World XI were to be chosen today to take on Australia, Murali and Pollock would be the only automatic choices, whereas there would be a struggle over who to leave out of the batting line-up. Australia’s continuing rise is directly proportionate to the gradual fall of everyone else. Watching loads of runs being scored is fun, but no-contests are a killjoy.