“Go West young man”. It appears to be the new anthem for any fast bowler in Australia looking for a new home. Western Australia, long considered to be the breeding ground for fast bowlers, is now the migrating home for disillusioned 'quicks' seeking opportunities on pitches long considered to be the fastest and bounciest pitches in the world.
Ashley Noffke is the latest quick bowler to join the Western Australia Warriors. Nurtured in Queensland, Noffke has had a very public falling-out with the locals and has decided to move to Perth to begin anew the quest to add to his solitary ODI cap. A fine bowling allrounder with a high action and a good outswinger, he joins a West Australian attack that is virtually entirely "Made in Queensland". Steve Magoffin and Ben Edmondson were both fringe players in the Queensland system when they left home, unable to crack the pedigree attack of Michael Kasprowicz, Andy Bichel, Joey Dawes, Mitchell Johnson and Noffke himself. For Queensland, an embarrassment of riches has now become a fast bowling kindergarten again, having lost the first three of those players to retirement and the latter two names to the West.
Noffke’s defection seems to be the bitterest pill to swallow, judging by local reaction. The public appear to be pretty ‘dirty’ on the Queensland Bulls administration, blaming them for a lack of loyalty in only offering Noffke a one year contract and for suggesting that he be left in cotton wool for the longer version of the game only. To be fair to Queensland, it must be noted that it is their preferred policy to offer one year contracts to most senior players. It’s a curious tradition but one that Noffke is well aware of. Shunned by Australian selectors after a brief taste of international cricket and crippled by persistent injury last season, he clearly felt slighted by the offer of a short contract and decided to call a very public bluff by releasing a media statement through his manager. As far as ransom notes go, it fell flat. Hello Perth, hello Fremantle Doctor. Noffke will take plenty of wickets at the WACA if he stays fit.
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why the fast bowling factory in Western Australia has dried up in recent times. There was a time not long ago when it was a fertile breeding ground for the best 'quicks' in the country. Dennis Lillee, Terry Alderman, Bruce Reid, Jo Angel, Brendon Julian and Chris Matthews came through that halcyon period. Ironically, Western Australia’s three most recent Test fast bowlers have all come from interstate – Matt Nicholson, Brad Williams and Mitchell Johnson (who moved to Perth to be closer to his partner). Even more ironically, Western Australia’s most recent Test bowlers have actually been spinners; Brad Hogg and a bit of part-time stuff from Marcus North. In the Lillee heyday when the WACA was by far the most feared pitch in the world, that would have been unthinkable.
Mind you, such ironies are not restricted only to Australia. West Indies captains have always turned to their giants to restrict opposition batsmen but who would have thought that it would be a slow left-arm orthodox bowler? Suleiman Benn is now the most reliable bowler available to Chris Gayle. What next – a 200 cm Indian fast bowler with a Bon Jovi hairstyle and a vicious bouncer? Never......
Whilst Queensland supporters are irate at their system for allowing Noffke to fly the coop, I can see why the CEO decided to hold his ground and not be held to ransom by one player. In an era where ‘player power’ rules supreme, it is a refreshing change to see a situation where a CEO sticks to a decision made on principle. This week, in the midst of a global recession when ordinary Australians are being asked to make sacrifices, our cricketers have just been given a pay rise and even the WAGs have been granted flight upgrades. They will no doubt regret losing a player of Noffke’s ability but at least the rest of their young squad realise that the selectors have enough faith in them to let him go without caving in to pressure from managers and blog sites. A glass is either half-full or half-empty. This is Queensland’s chance to show that the HQ of the national fast bowling factory is still in Brisbane.
Will there ever be another dynasty with the calibre of Rackemann, Kasprowicz, Bichel, Dale, Noffke, Johnson, McDermott, Muller etc? The name McDermott rings a bell….his son, Alister made his debut for the Bulls last season. There must be something in the water here!
Firstly, Noffke is a decent player, but his age and future prospects count against him ever being a fixture in the Australian side. Secondly, the Australian domestic competition is much better geared to producing new talent (IMHO) when compared to say, the English county circuit. As there is no promotion/relegation involved, states such as Queensland can focus on building a side around youth without fear of being relegated. Thus, whilst the states all love to win, they don't feel the need to bow down to player demands or import South Africans.
Posted by: AJ at June 14, 2009 3:12 PM
An explanation for their recent surplus of decent quicks due to the bowlers in Queensland having to work alot harder and to extract bounce and pace on more sluggish wickets across their district cricket system as compared to WA where fast bowlers may have relied on the hardness of the wickets for their pace and bounce and 'not having to put that much effort' into their bowling. So when it comes to the test of having to bowl on different types of wickets, inevitably the Queenlanders pass the test having already been used to 'bending their backs' as the coaches say and get good returns from their efforts. Having said that though, apart from Dennis Lillee, most of Australia's most decent quicks have come from Queensland with Thompson,McDermott, Bichel, Kasprowicz and Johnson just to name a few. So this notion that WA has had a tradition of producing quicks could be a by product of the fact that the great Lillee had come from WA and also the reputation of the WACA wicket.
Posted by: Scott at June 14, 2009 4:48 PM
The lack of homegrown fast bowlers in the West Australian side has been a matter of significant consternation for quite some time in WA, and even though I really doubt it is linked it has seemed to follow the tradjectory of the slowing of the WACA and some of the local grade wickets in the past decade and conversion from quick man's paradise to the producer of some of the most boring Sheffield Shield draws in recent memory. Hopefully as the pitches appear to be quickening up again over the last couple of summers the current dearth of quick bowling talent appearing out of the Western Australian club and youth system will prove to be a short term generational thing and matters at the WACA will resume its old style very shortly
Posted by: Peter at July 4, 2009 7:11 AM
NSW produce more fast bowling quality for Australia then the other states combined: McGrath, Lee, Clark, Bracken, Bollinger, Cockley, Cameron and the list goes on.
Samir Chopra lives in Brooklyn and teaches Computer Science and Philosophy at the City University of New York; his academic interests include the philosophical foundations of artificial intelligence and the politics of technology. In his third undergraduate year, he captained Mathematics in the departmental cricket competition (and lost to Chemistry in the first round). Samir played C-grade cricket in Sydney and makes guest appearances for his old club when possible (and desirable). Samir runs the blog Eye on Cricket and the cricket page at The Faster Times.
Paul Ford is a co-founder of the New Zealand cricket supporters' cult, the Beige Brigade. He was once described by a current New Zealand cricketer as "looking spastic" even mucking about with an Excalibur and a tennis ball in the backyard. Paul bowls right-armed Nathan Astlesque "nudes", his batting would make Ewen Chatfield look elegant, and he is a committed fielder. He sometimes grows a beard to hide his double chin and inhabits a periphery of cricket that Cricinfo is proud to be glimpsing through this blog.
Stephen Gelb grew up in Cape Town, a short walk from the beautiful Newlands ground. Always a better student of the game than player, his passion for cricket survived eight years as a student in Canada, where he learned to love baseball too. He lives in Johannesburg doing economic research at The EDGE Institute and teaching at Wits University.
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Born in Colombo, educated at Oxford and now living in Brisbane - Michael Jeh (Fox) is a cricket lover with a global perspective on the game. An Oxford Blue who played first-class cricket, he is a Playing Member of the MCC and still plays grade cricket. His views on cricket might best be described as those of a "modern traditionalist". Michael now works closely with elite athletes in his job as a manager at Griffith University in Queensland.
Saad Shafqat takes special pride that his cricket-watching life began during the three-month interval between Javed Miandad's debut Test in Lahore and Imran Khan's 12-wicket haul at Sydney. Although a practicing neurologist based in Karachi, cricket has never been far from his activities. He has co-authored Javed Miandad’s autobiography Cutting Edge and has been a contributor to Cricinfo since 2005. His regular column Reverse Swing appears fortnightly in Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English daily.
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