Pakistan’s new towering fast bowler, Mohammad Irfan has been advised to work hard and concentrate on his skill by former West Indian fast bowler, Joel Garner, also known as “Big Joel” or “Big Bird” because of his 6′-8″ height. Speaking exclusively over telephone from Barbados, Garner, who turned 61 earlier this month, said: “Though I have not seen him (Irfan) bowling, my message to him would be to work hard and utilise his skill in the matches. He has to do a lot of practice in the nets and become utility bowler for his country”.
Irfan made his Twenty20 debut against India on Tuesday.
If Irfan’s controversial height issue is kept aside as Will Jefferson at 6′-9 1/2″ is the tallest recorded cricketer to have played (for Essex and Nottinghamshire counties) the game at the First Class level.
Speaking from London, where he was celebrating the X’mas holidays with his family, he said: “It is more advantageous to be a tall bowler I think. The extra bounce you can extract from the wicket from being tall is a big advantage-just look at Stephen Finn. But there are many advantages to being tall when you bat as well. Having long levers is only good if you can make the most of them. Tall batsmen need to still be able to keep their head and eyes level and flex their knees to help them move quickly into good batting positions”.
Jefferson played with some great Pakistani cricketers over the years, Abdul Razzak recently and Danish Kaneria at Essex. He also faced Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis on a tour of England in 2000.
“I enjoyed fielding in the slips in my career and being tall was a huge help in this position. But you need to practice keeping low a lot of the time and not coming up too early. Being tall you can reach balls having long arms that other. Shorter players cannot reach”, he added. “Also, when you are tall, it is important to get you in the right positions on the pitch during one day and 20/20 games. Long off and Long on are good to try and catch balls that might be going for six into the crowd! And cover and mid wicket when the spin bowlers are on in one day cricket as you are in the batsmen’s eye line and they might be concerned about trying to get the ball over you”.
“My message to Mr Irfan would be to work hard on his footwork and his core muscles, and also his diving and sliding technique as cricket now expects everyone to be an athletic fielder, no matter what size or shape you are”. “My height might have held me back from playing international cricket as my chance came and went in 2004/05 when I was at my peak. I worked incredibly hard at my fitness and have finished my career with no regrets-only a bad back and hip! Being tall does put more stresses and strains on your body so one word of advice would be to look after your body for the long term-not just the short term of playing the game”, he added further. Stating about his family history, he added, “My father, Richard Jefferson played for Surrey in the early 1960’s and was a very tall fast medium bowler who could bat. He was 6″7 inches tall. I have a tall brother and two tall sisters as well, and already my nieces and nephews are looking like they are going to be tall as well”.
