I was watching ladies Big Bash league (WBBL 2), was surprised to watch that no female bowler were fast enough, viz in excess speed of > 125 Kpm (77.5 mph).
In today’s age of technology, where one can enhance their technique(diet) learn new skills(watch videos) and have all training resources, yet you don’t see many exceeding 125 kpm.
What was surprising was the fact that, women have batters playing the reverse sweep, the switch-hits effectively, and also saw few spinners bowling excellent doosras without changing their action….yet pace was lacking!.
I believe Cathryn Fitzpatrick was the last genuine fast bowler, clocking 125 kph regularly. She is from Melbourne, Australia.
(see at the bottom for more information)
This took me back to an old magazine The Australian Cricket Feb,1982. where a wonderful article was written on Sharon Tredrea, the fastest female bowler Australia produced. She too lived in Melbourne.
Here is what Int. umpire Dickie Bird had to say when he was officiating a woman’s game in NZ (World series between Aus V NZ).
“Sharon Tredrea is as fast as Paul Allott, the English fast bowler. Allott was clocking 135 regularly!.
She was an all-rounder who played Int.cricket for Australia in the 70s. During that time she was the fastest woman bowler.
Below pictures and information is scanned from that magazine. It was written by Mark Hooper for The Australian Cricket, Feb 25, 1982.
Ladies cricket.
This prompted me to watch ladies cricket at WBBl 02 – and see how they have performed playing T20 league cricket. I was very impressed with their batting and fielding skills. Surprisingly saw only one(Harmanpreet Kaur) batswoman shuffling while batting, irrespective of game situation they did not lose their balance, or tilt towards leg or off, and yet they possessed all the shots, including reverse sweep and switch hit. The fielding has been excellent, as they are aware of the match, and read the game well. The fast bowling has been good in terms of swing, seam, line and length, but none went above 115. Perhaps they might not been going flat out.
Here is how females performed at the WBBL 2 (second edition). i also took liberty to compare it with male performance at BBL 6.
Below photograph of Catherine Fitzpatrick was taken from The Australian newspaper, the Weekend issue, dated Dec 12, 1998 – The article was promptly titled < Speed demon ready and waiting for battle of the titans> written by Amanda Weaver, and photograph taken by Trent Parke.
Below is the article in which their then coach John Harmer says Cathy is the world’s fastest bowler – male or female – on a pound for bound basis. She says, according to John, I am getting more out of my body than other bowlers in a biomechanical sense!. She adds It is a never -ending comparison between us and the boys but we will never be as quick because of that physical difference.
Here is another Fitzpatrick picture taken by Brett Faulkner as Southern Stars were going through their paces at the SCG training complex, on June 2001, It was for an article written by famous journalist Andrew Ramsey (along with Jeff Dunne) just before their Ashes tour to UK. They won the series 2-0.
All data updated till 20th Jan 2017 ( WBBL 02 – 52 games/BBL 06 – 30 games)
