whufc wrote:Q. wrote:Fast bowlers have always been prone to these injuries, particularly stress fractures.
Could it be a case that alot of the older bowlers played through these injuries because they put it down to general soreness as technology may not have picked up a lot of the smaller fractures etc
Where these day technology is so advanced any slight injury can be picked up through X-ray, scans, etc etc
Fast bowlers in the past got hurt and had shorter careers. Bruce Reid a prime example but Thommo had his effectiveness curtailed when he crashed into Alan Turner I think it was against Pakistan. Have a look at Mitch. He's taken a lot of wickets and played a lot of Tests. In the past his foot problem may have finished him. Merv Hughes was destroyed in England in 1993, today he would be managed and might have been another to have a longer Career today.
Bowlers started to get hurt more when they're was first more tours and then more formats. A lot of younger bowlers have a mixed approach to the wicket (i.e not fully side or front on and twisting their bodies at the point of delivery) and this combined with too heavy a load on young players has led to injury. At the junior level there are limits as to how much bowling a kid can do but you try and hold back an 18 or 19 year old that just wants to bowl as fast as they can.
We need more bowlers because there is more cricket. Disagree with the post above ( not yours) that says bowlers are soft. Can't be much fun charging in on Roads against batsmen using tree trunks to drop kick the ball over a shortened boundary.
regards,
REB