Why is Pakistan a pace factory?

The Pakistan Cricket Board’s initiative to identify fast bowlers through a nationwide “King of Speed” competition is indeed laudable.

Ahmad Jamal, who bowled his fastest at 143km/h, would have remained unknown but for this competition.

Quite a few of Pakistan’s best talent have emerged from street cricket and talented bowlers like Jamal, in the past, would have faded away without being spotted.

How does Pakistan produce pacers by the dozen every year?

Having discussed this with almost all former Pakistan pacers, all of them attributed it to the burning desire in every budding pacer to emulate their heroes.

Recently, in Dubai, I was fortunate to meet two of their greatest heroes who could wreck any team with their sheer pace — Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar. Younis was kind enough to let me go close to the bowling crease from where he was giving instructions to a bunch of young pacers at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium two months ago.

He kept urging them to bowl faster and then went on to correct their approach to the wicket.

Akthar, when asked what makes a good pacer, said that one should bowl as quick as possible and not cut down on pace. In fact, he wants Jamal to bowl even quicker.

In the past, coaches would restrain pacers from going full out — wanting them to concentrate on their line and length. Many pacers have thus faded away due to poor guidance from coaches. There have been coaches who even changed a bowler’s natural action!

Thanks to the knowledge passed on by legends like Younis, coaches these days do not ask bowlers to cut down on pace. If Lasith Malinga was playing in the early Eighties, he may not have played international cricket. Most coaches at that time believed that, as a pacer, one must bowl with a set action.

Pakistan’s big advantage is their past heroes like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Younis and Akhtar. In fact, the nation owes a lot to Khan, who inspired a whole generation. Akhtar candidly admitted that he took up the game only because he wanted to be like Khan.

Behind Younis and Akram’s success too was Khan’s encouragement. All of them were united in their dream and that was to bowl like Khan.

This also reveals that, to be a good pacer, one must dream to bowl like their heroes.

No wonder, Jamal is inspired by Akhtar!