The Sunday Times - UK (2022-05-22)

The Sunday Times May 22, 2022 19

healthy — to protect them from

dangerous spikes.

To an extent this chimes with the

old-school philosophy championed

by Steve Harmison, the former

England fast bowler, who argues “the

only way I got fit for bowling was by

bowling more and more... the min-

ute you stop everything else in your

body becomes susceptible to an

injury”. But Harmison played before

Suffered a stress

fracture of the

back last summer.

Hasn’t played for

England since and

is not expected to

this summer

OLLY STONE

In her first major race of the season,

world champion Dina Asher-Smith

ran into a headwind to win the

Diamond League 100 metres in

11.11sec, just 0.01 faster than Shericka

Jackson, while Britain’s Daryll Neita

was third, 0.02 further back. And she

was also part of Great Britain’s

victorious 4x100m relay team.

“I’m not the sort of person who

bothers about times,” the Briton

explained. “But I am the sort who

comes good in championships rather

than the Diamond League. As it was

my first race of the year, I made

mistakes, particularly in the second

half where I could have run taller. But

these get tidied up over a season.”

The second of 14 League meets in

2022 took place at Birmingham’s

Alexander Stadium, which will have

Asher-Smith

wins first race

of season by

tiniest margin

ATHLETICS

Asher-Smith looked forward to

returning to Birmingham this year

its 12,700 capacity rise to 30,000 for

the Commonwealth Games. The

track was not fast, but few were

complaining. “It’s the same for

everyone,” said Daniel Rowden, who

finished eighth in the men’s 800m.

“It was really heart-warming to

have everyone cheering on the line,”

added Asher-Smith. “I’m hoping to

be back here for the Games.”

Having missed the indoor season

after a back injury, Laura Muir won

her season’s first outdoors 1,500m. In

a race featuring training partner

Jemma Reekie, Muir was ahead from

first to last. Australian record holder

Jessica Hull hovered over Muir’s

shoulder, but on the final strait came

Muir’s fifth gear and she finished in a

reasonable 4min 02.51sec, as Hull

trailed in at 4.03.42.

“There were no frontrunners so I

needed to be prepared to take it out,”

said Muir. “To win my first race

makes me really happy. I smashed

the last month of training. After the

injury I’m way ahead of schedule.”

In the men’s 100m, Zharnel

Hughes was disqualified and Adam

Gemili disappointed. Olympic silver

medallist and World No 1 Keely

Hodgkinson held off Natoya Goulet to

win the women’s 800m in 1min 58sec.

In the men’s 400m, Matthew

Hudson-Smith — 27th in the world —

benefited from US training to triumph

ahead of three Top 10 ranked runners.

Omitted from England’s Test squad

earlier in the week, Sussex’s Ollie

Robinson, inset, bowled 18 overs

for figures of none for 42 in the tour

match at Hove against New

Zealand. It was hard graft for all the

Sussex bowlers, as a succession of

New Zealand batsmen contented

themselves with retiring after

reaching half-centuries.

The tourists finished on

342-3.

In the County

Championship

Division One,

Somerset crumbled to

69 all out against

Hampshire at Taunton,

leaving the visitors needing

just the solitary run for victory. At

Old Trafford, Lancashire were made

to follow on by Essex after being

bowled out for 103. Captain Dane

Vilas scored 62 in Lancashire’s

second innings but they still trail

Essex by 75 runs with one wicket

remaining.

Yorkshire were dismissed for 450

against Warwickshire. The reigning

champions struggled in their

second innings response with the

top three all falling cheaply to

Jordan Thompson. Warwickshire

will begin today still requiring 149

to make Yorkshire bat again.

Northamptonshire dug deep in

their first innings response to Kent.

They batted out the day to end on

347 for seven but still trail by 172.

At Lord’s, a hundred partnership

for the eighth wicket between

Middlesex’s Luke Holman and

Martin Andersson

frustrated Durham, for

whom England captain

Ben Stokes took four

wickets.

Leicestershire

remain winless and

rooted to the bottom of

Division Two after they

fell to a mammoth innings

defeat at Worcester. Azhar Ali

made 225 as Worcestershire

declared on 577 for six, before

bowling the visitors out for 170.

Derbyshire’s Shan Masood

missed out on becoming the first

batter to reach 1,000 runs in county

cricket before the end of May, since

1988. The Pakistan opener was
      trapped in front for a duck by Stuart
      Broad. Derbyshire resume at Trent
      Bridge with Nottinghamshire
      needing 162 runs in their second
      innings, with 10 wickets in hand.

SOMERSET BOWLED OUT FOR 69, WHILE

ROBINSON IS WICKETLESS AGAINST KIWIS

Cricket now goes on all-year round
and during the English winter most
established players go off round the
world playing in T20 leagues or at
international level — and for fast bowl-
ers that means testing the body in ever
more convoluted ways.
T20 has spawned all manner of var-
iations of delivery and, counterintui-
tively, the slower ball is a real effort
ball that requires lots of practice to
perfect. It is hard work.
The English domestic calendar has
always been crowded but the addition
of a fourth competition, the Hundred,
has only further congested the pro-
gramme.
The most significant development
in terms of its impact on fast bowlers
is the decision to play these tourna-
ments in “blocks”. This season, for
example, began with seven rounds of
four-day championship matches, but
for the next six weeks the focus
switches to the Vitality T20 Blast,
before two further blocks of champi-
onship games bookend the Hundred
in August.
This results in highly uneven work-
loads, with T20s requiring no more
than four overs before a return to the
first-class game potentially results in
spikes of ten times that volume. One
county medic likened it to someone
used to running only 5km suddenly
switching to marathons. “It’s a prob-
lem hiding in plain sight,” he said.
Of particular concern is that into
the forthcoming block of Blast games
have been inserted two champion-
ship rounds, for which fast bowlers
will have little opportunity to build
their loads. “There will be a lot of wor-
ried county physios during June,” one
director of cricket said.
Alex Tysoe, the Surrey physiother-
apist, published a journal article on
fast-bowling workloads that con-
cluded that it was important to keep
getting work into fast bowlers
throughout a county season — pro-
vided they are otherwise fit and

T20 distorted the schedule and the

role of fast bowlers within it.

Regulating workloads is not easy.

There have been a lot of big scores in

the championship this season and fast

bowlers who had hoped to gently

build up their tolerance to bowling

have found themselves instead spend-

ing long hours in the field.

Rob Key, the managing director of

England men’s cricket, has said that

the causes of the injury crisis need to

be investigated. This is likely to be led

by Dr Pete Alway, the ECB research

and operations manager, who has a

PhD in lumbar stress fractures. The

ECB is also advertising for someone to

undertake a fully funded PhD into

stress fractures.

The cruel thing about stress frac-

tures is that they are hard to detect,

typically take six weeks to heal, and

then another 9-12 months for the bone

to fully restore. Bones are like mus-

cles, growing denser the more work is

put into them, but conversely during a

lay-off their strength dwindles, and

can only be revived with care. This is

probably why some injuries occur

shortly after a player returns to

action.

The most vulnerable group is

youngsters aged between 18 and 22

whose bones lack the same density as

older bowlers. Stuart Broad and

James Anderson have largely avoided

stress injuries in their mature years

probably because their bones are

stronger but also because they play

only red-ball cricket and are equipped

with the time — and knowledge — to

build up loads in advance of Tests.

It will be interesting to see how

England’s new boy Matthew Potts

fares this summer. The Durham

seamer is 23 years old and has already

bowled 233.5 overs in the champion-

ship. Managing his work through the

coming months will be a challenge,

but a rewarding one if the player,

coaches and medical staff can some-

how negotiate the right path.

One county medic

likened it to

someone used to

running only 5km

suddenly switching

to marathons

Back injury rules out

the 25-year-old for the

rest of the summer

SAQIB

MAHMOOD

Misses first two Tests

against New Zealand

with shoulder and

knee issues

CHRIS

WOAKES

Missed T20 World Cup

and the Ashes with

stress fracture of lower

back. Will miss at least

first two NZ Tests

SAM

CURRAN

John Aizlewood