Six and Out - Some Serious Cricket

The Ashes Swing

by SixandOut on December 3rd, 2006

No, that’s not a new type of fancy Australian dance popular in pavillions after an eski full of cold ones. Nope, this post is a little different as I’m proud to hand the Edit button over to David Hinchliffe of Harrowdrive.com who has taken 10 minutes away from telling us how to play better cricket to tell us why the crucial factor of the Ashes 2005 - the swinging ball - is practically non-existent in Australia this year. (I would request that all people reading this post resist the temptation to make jokes concerning the non-cricket-related use of the words “swinging” and “swingers”. It’s not big and it’s not clever. I thank you.)

Over to you David:

Why Freddie, Hoggy and Jimmy can’t swing the ball Down Under

Swing bowling was the reason England tore the Ashes from Ricky Ponting’s vice-like grip in 2005. Listen to the rent-a-pundits and they will tell you the lack of swing bowling is the reason the little urn will be handed right back.

Does the science of swing back up the opinions?

Here are 3 reasons the ball doesn’t swing as much in Australia.

1. Kookaburra Balls Kookaburras are machine made so they keep their shine longer but soften quicker. This means they can swing more initially, but it’s hard to get one side rough with the other side shiny. That means no conventional or reverse swing.
2. Lush Outfields An outfield with plenty of grass means a ball that isn’t going to get roughed up as quick. As swing relies on that contrast between shiny and rough sides, plenty of grass is another nail in the swing bowler’s coffin.
3. The Weather It’s well known that there is more swing in England because there is more cloud cover. So it stands to reason that the finer climates of Australia are less kind. Interestingly, science has never been able to find out why this happens.

For England fans though, there is some good news. If anyone can get swing of any kind, it’s Fred and the gang.

You see, boffins using wind tunnels found out that to get the most from conventional swing you need to bowl around 70mph with a minimal amount of backspin on the ball and an angled seam. Enter Matthew Hoggard and Jimmy Anderson.

At the other end of the scale, reverse swing requires the older ball to be travelling above 90mph: A speed Flintoff, Harmison and Mahmood can all achieve.

So all is not lost for England’s swingers. While it may be much more difficult to get movement in Australia, from a sports science viewpoint there is enough variety in the England squad to get as much swing as there is available.

They just need to make sure they get it on the cut strip first.

Info: David Hinchliffe is a sports graduate, ECB Coach and England fan. You can find out how to use sport science to improve your own cricket at his website: www.harrowdrive.com

Share This

Related Stories

• Matthew Hoggard on bowling
• Jones out of Ashes
• Ultimate Christmas cricket
• Alex says it best
• Flintoff out

POSTED IN: Cricket