The curious case of Shaun Tait
Posted on Jan 18, 2008 by Scorpicity |Once again there was much hype in the Australian media and the man himself on his speed and also that he will rip through the Indian batting like butter. Sadly he failed at everything… bowling extraordinarily fast, walking the talk or be a handful to the Indian batsmen. If RP. Singh preferred facing Tait and accordingly Laxman shielded him from playing the other bowler, it pretty much sums up his disastrous outing. Ricky Ponting hardly got him to bowl as very time he came on, he looked all at sea and the Indians were gleeful to get the run rate moving. And does all this come as a surprise to me… no way! In fact, it would be a very happy and much needed reality check to him on not getting carried away, understanding his abilities and stick to the lessons which the more successful bowlers in his side do with good results.
I accept the fact that today, he was a bit out of sort on the line and length aspect but he never was good at it either. On his speed, I always felt that there were many extra Ks added by the excitement of his fans. I reckon now that I have seen enough of Tait, from the world cup onwards to give my take on it. To me he looks a guy who can bowl consistently at the 140s and hit a few 150 plus deliveries. He certainly does not look or have not from whatever I have seen hit speeds of 150 plus average and occasionally bowl at the 140s… this is clearly evident from most of the matches I have seen. And therefore this so far does not make him extraordinarily fast which the likes of Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar in their younger days have achieved.
So the whole point is to stop misleading this lad… He may run in with froth in his mouth and grunt and bowl typical caveman style but that isn’t going to help him much in the long run, as he has already shown signs of breaking down in this match. Look… this lad doesn’t look too bright either, judging by the pads he wore. Many have shot off their mouths that he can reach astronomical speeds of 170ks much like his earlier Australian fast bowling legend Jeff Thomson who recently reckons to have bowled at 170Ks…. Yeah right!
Tait seems to be basking in all the attention and it tends to show that he wants to be in the spotlight all the time. When he came out to bat in those designer pads, there was nothing more amusing to highlight this point. He might feel stupid when he got out which a commentator pointed out that if it was a regular pad, it would not have popped up so far and high. It remains to be seen if he has or will test those pads or come out again with them.
I like and deeply respect fast bowlers and personally I am keen to see him do well… he is a promising bowler with good wicket taking abilities. But as it stands today, with so much expectations and hype on him, he is definitely going the Shoaib Akhtar way of madness… where at one point in his career, all he was bothered about was reaching the 160 mark and that resulted in frequent breakdowns leading to his decline. It took him some time to realize when to go full out and when not to and he became more conscious of other critical aspects of his bowling leading to better success. The same happened to Lee, who realized it a year back after his injury and has also spoken about it and the results are there to see… he is bowling brilliantly well and still biting quick.
As for Tait, I wish he shuts himself out from the madness around him, work on his line and length FIRST and then try to stretch his abilities at selective times to reach his magical figures. He has the ability to bowl odd balls in the high 150s and has shown signs of it but that involves a huge strain on him judging by his average speed. He ought to focus on his line and length, master that first before striving for the extra speed and glory associated with it. If he continues to mindlessly stretch his abilities like he currently does, he is going to go the Ian Bishop way… And that would be a sad day for cricket considering how few genuine quicks are around.
by kp, on January 18 2008 @ 8:07 pm
Speed Does Matter….but u need accuracy than its difficult to play….but as Shohaib and many other bowlers has shown that Raw pace cant be good….as u can see perth the fastest pitch in the world…cant help…tait…whos as fast as pitch…….lolz
In short….As u mentioned…go back and work on ur line and length…this is international cricket mr. tait….this isnt so called “Gully or club” cricket.
by Ottayan, on January 18 2008 @ 9:33 pm
Sadly another man who believed in his own hype.
by Soulberry, on January 18 2008 @ 10:01 pm
Brett Lee, who was a better bowler than Tait when he arrived on the scene, would still be a good model for young Tait to emulate.
The saving grace for Akhtar was that there were times he came up with match-turning performances. On the current evidence Tait doesn’t look capable of that yet. If te androgens continue to pump around him, cricket will see yet another unfulfilled promise gone to waste.
the fact the RP played rather comfortably worried me…this could yet be India’s match, but Australia look the frontrunners to me.
This is the first time I have had doubts about India in this series.
by scorpicity, on January 19 2008 @ 12:05 am
Kp… he is actually quite good enough to play international cricket… but lot to work on… after all he did scare the pants of the new zealanders… but then so did a malinga, steyn and especially akhtar who blew three subsequent generations of their pants away in that one devastating fast bowling spell.
by scorpicity, on January 19 2008 @ 12:07 am
Otts… he has a good chance to come really good, as long as he truly realizes what he is capable of and stops play halloween games with the press… As it stands today only the New Zealanders and Australians are scared…. to the rest of the world he is like Scooby Doo.
by scorpicity, on January 19 2008 @ 12:09 am
Soulberry… bang on… he has to take a leaf out of Lee’s book and learn from him… right now all the signals that one gets is that he is better than lee which lee himself agreed and passed the buck… am sure Lee must be smiling coyly.
by Soulberry, on January 20 2008 @ 7:48 am
Congratulations Scorpi!
And Delhi won too! There’s a PJ Sangwan shaping up gradually…he’s a left-arm paceman and just 19!
by Uncle J rod, on January 20 2008 @ 8:22 am
I have seen the man bowl alot of times, this was the slowest i have ever seen him bowl. Whether he lost his rhythm or he was carrying an injury i don’t know, but i would say this, write him off at your own peril.
by scorpicity, on January 20 2008 @ 10:18 am
Hey Soulberry… fantastic final… Delhi edged ahead… hoping to catch the action today on neo playbacks… PJ Sangwan eh… not heard of him… must be straight from the u19 team… let’s see how he shapes up next season.
by scorpicity, on January 20 2008 @ 10:41 am
Uncle J… one thing I can assure you is that am certainly not writing him off at all… have a lot of hope in him into becoming something great… however my point is that there is too much exaggerated dope on him, which is getting to his abilities… in short he already is becoming big in the head which is a bad sign, having not achieved anything so far.
I don’t think he was carrying an injury in this match… he just looked plain unfit… maybe it was the heat. However would agree with you that he lost his rhythm totally in the match in the later spells and certainly can bowl at higher speeds (not on a average though) than seen in this match…. I will strongly disagree on the average speeds… his average speed is still in the 140s and late 130s and that has been the case from the world cup onwards. My point is that it has been quite some time since he came into the scene… so why is all the talk about fear and blood crawling unheard of speeds being talked about very damm time he gets to play… where is that? A year and still no signs of it? The whole idea of this post is to stop this melodrama and let him concentrate on what he needs to do on his bowling skills like landing the ball in the right areas… speed will automatically follow…. cheers