Series will be fast and furious

Paul Radley

• Last Updated: November 02. 2009 8:46PM UAE / November 2. 2009 4:46PM GMT

Pakistan have long regarded the Emirates as their second home, but they were not the only ones to bump into friendly faces when they touched down in Dubai last week.

The two most potent quick bowlers on show in the Cool & Cool Cup, Shane Bond and Mohammad Aamer, were immediately reacquainted with their mentors.

Dayle Hadlee was in charge of New Zealand’s string of fast bowlers before moving to the Emirates this year to become a coach at the International Cricket Council’s Global Cricket Academy.

The Black Caps have three players in the top five of the world’s one-day rankings, which is a legacy of Hadlee’s involvement with the national team.

What the brother of Richard Hadlee – New Zealand’s best Test bowler to date – does not know about the mechanics of Bond’s action, the bowler probably does not even know himself.

“I was playing a club match, and on the pitch right next door happened to be a young fast bowler,” said the former seam bowler of his first glimpse of Bond.

“At the drinks break I went over to have a look then came back and said to my club, ‘This kid is pretty special’.

“He won the Richard Hadlee scholarship to join the club and within a year he had been invited to join the national academy.

“Shane was about 17 and was doing his police training before moving in to full-time cricket.

“He and I know exactly what he does well and what he doesn’t do quite so well. It has always been an ongoing issue between the two of us to try and tweak his action to get it more fluent and a little more aligned.

“When he got injured we had to have a very close look at his action. I have the hugest respect for Shane and the courage that he has shown to come back from the injuries that he has had.

“He had a major operation that meant his spine was fused and then wired to hold it together. For him to come back from that and become No 1 in the world again is simply sensational.

“Shane has also had to put up with a lot of ill-informed criticism of him, saying he is always injured. That is grossly unfair. He has shown unbelievable courage to climb back on the horse and get out there and do what he does.

“Shane, the non-cricketer, is a lovely guy. He is considerate and well-mannered. Put him on a cricket field, and he has a burning desire to dominate. If that means hitting someone if they get in the way, so be it. That is exactly the attitude you want a fast bowler to have.”

A similar relationship exists between Aamer, the 17-year-old rising star of Pakistan, and Mudassar Nazar, another ICC academy coach. The former Pakistan captain left his role as the head of their national academy to move to the Emirates. Before leaving Lahore he set a skinny left-arm quick bowler on the path to the top; he is already a World Twenty20 winner now.

“I remember clearly the first time I saw Mohammed Aamer at a camp in Rawalpindi,” he said.

“He was about 14 then. There was nothing of him, but there was something about him I liked.

“His run-up was smooth, his delivery stride was good and his line and length was immaculate. And he did a lot with the ball. I thought, ‘This guy can go places’.

“I spoke to Wasim Akram and told him there was someone coming through the academy who was going to be a fantastic bowler.

“He went on an Under 19 tour of England, and he was the pick of the bowlers.

“On that tour he suffered from back problems. When we returned he had a scan done and it revealed three fractures in his back. Two had occurred years before, while he was playing street cricket.

“Because he was so good, he had just bowled and bowled.

“We sent him to Imran Khan’s hospital, and he became frustrated that he could no longer take part. We nursed him along and he came through.He had started interacting with the Pakistani players, because he bowled to them at net sessions. You could see he was making life uncomfortable for him.

“That was when Wasim saw him himself for the first time, and he really went for him. He had a chat with him, and once Wasim started talking about him, he became headline news in Pakistan.

“It did not faze him. He is a hard-working chap, and has always been different to everyone else. Even at 14 years of age, he knew what fields he wanted. He could always work batsmen out very quickly.”

pradley@thenational.ae