Bhubaneswar will host the country’s first-of-its-kind sports literary festival titled the ‘Ekamra Sports Literary Festival in association with Emerging Sports’ November 2-3 ushering in a new era in the sports history of the state as well as the country.
The mega event will offer the sports lovers of the Temple City an opportunity to learn and experience interesting and unheard stories from the finest sportspersons and sports journalists in the world. A host of celebrities from across the globe will share their personal experiences and interact with the audience on the occasion.
The cricket lovers in the capital city have been fancying as to who would be there on the grand stage to light up something new about the game. They would be overjoyed to know that Australian fast bowling legend Jeff Thomson will be talking about the game and his experiences during this two-day unique literary fest.
Known as ‘Thommo’, the Aussie is considered by many as the fastest bowler of all time. During his career of close to 13 years, he had formed the most fearsome pace bowling combination with Dennis Lillee, who is also one of the fastest bowlers the game has ever produced.
Thomson’s unique action and outrageous pace made him arguably the most fearsome fast bowler in the history of cricket, securing him a spot in Australian Cricket’s Hall of Fame.
Currently, when there is any talk about unorthodox or unusual bowling action of a pacer, Lasith Malinga’s name comes to the mind first because of his slinging action. There were others like Shoaib Akhtar, and to some extent, Shaun Tait and Fidel Edwards were also in this bracket. But guess what, it was Thomson who made the sling action famous in the ‘70s.
Thomson, who picked up 200 wickets in 51 Tests and 55 in 51 ODIs, had an unusual, but highly effective slinging delivery action which he had learned from his father. In December 1975, Thomson was timed with a release speed of 160.45 km/h while bowling against West Indies in a Test at WACA.
Most cricketers, experts and viewers who have watched cricket since the ‘70s rate Thomson as the fastest they have ever seen. Interestingly, Australian wicket-keeper Rod Marsh claimed that Thomson bowled upwards of 180 km/h.
West Indian batting legend Viv Richards as well as cricket’s Little Master Sunil Gavaskar have rated Thomson as the fastest bowler they have ever faced. Richards’ opinion counts a lot, as he faced almost all the fastest bowlers of all time through the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Thomson came to the fore in 1974–75 with 33 wickets in the Ashes series against England. Helmets and the other modern protective gears were not available for batsmen at that time and there was no restriction on the use of the bouncer as well. The success of the Australian team with fast bowling prompted an era when pacers dominated the game, at the expense of slow bowling, especially spin.
He also created controversy during a TV interview before the first Ashes Test in 1974-75 when he said, “I enjoy hitting a batsman more than getting him out. I like to see blood on the pitch.” During the Ashes series, a Sydney daily – The Sunday Telegraph – ran a photo of Lillee and Thomson with a cartoon caption underneath that read: “Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust, if Thomson don’t get ya, Lillee must.”
In now-a-days the game barely finds a proper fast bowler with speed. So it will be interesting when Thommo will make his mark and shed some lights on ‘The Death of the Test Fast Bowler’.