Bowling performances in England during the World Cup

In the previous article we had looked at the batting performances in World Cup competitions on English soil, between 1975 to 1983.

This time, we look at the bowling performances, at the same venue, during the same period.

Just for the record, a total of 141 bowlers from 10 countries have in all bowled 35, 898 balls (5983 overs) in the World Cup in England. These bowlers have conceded 21, 596 runs and have captured 748 wickets (which obviously excludes dismissals by the way of run-outs). The bowlers thus average 28.87 runs per wicket; they capture a wicket every 47.99 balls and concede 3.61 runs every over.

Table A provides the summary of the wickets lost by various teams in the World Cup in England.

To Andy Roberts, the West Indian paceman, goes the distinction of capturing the maximum wickets in the three World Cups in England. Interestingly, from the list provided in table B, spinners Vic Marks of England and Abdul Qadir of Pakistan have been the most successful bowlers in terms of wickets, with 13 and 12 respectively. However they occupy the 14th and 17th positions in the overall table -- which seems to indicate that spin is not a potent weapon on English soil.

Table B in fact examines the success, or lack of it, of the slower bowlers in England. Since the World Cup matches are played in the first half of the summer, when it is usually wet and cold, slow bowlers find it difficult to grip the ball, and thereby are rendered ineffective. Table C underlines this point.

Just for the record, Indian slow bowlers have never fared well in England. Table D lists the performance of Indian spin bowlers in England in all one-day matches from 1974 to 1996.

This is an aspect our selectors need to think about, while picking the team for England. It would seem that even a bowler of the caliber of Anil Kumble could be rendered ineffective in English conditions.

TABLE A : SUMMARY OF WICKETS LOST BY VARIOUS TEAMS

Country	M	WKTS	B	CF	CK	C&B	HW	LBW	RO	St	O	RH	NO
Australia	14	108	28	39	14	4	-	11	12	-	-	1	23
Canada	3	29	11	6	3	3	1	4	-	1	-	-	3
East Africa	3	28	15	2	1	1	-	5	3	1	-	-	4
England	16	99	34	23	16	2	-	16	8	-	-	-	26
India	14	107	18	44	21	4	-	11	9	-	-	1	20
New Zealand	14	104	26	36	12	2	-	17	10	1	-	-	23
Pakistan	14	101	16	41	19	5	-	11	9	-	-	-	24
Sri Lanka	11	95	22	37	12	7	-	7	6	4	-	2	15
West Indies	17	94	20	31	17	4	1	13	6	2	-	-	31
Zimbabwe	6	53	10	11	14	2	-	8	7	1	-	-	8
	56	818	200	270	129	34	2	103	70	10	-	4	177
M = Matches; WKTS = Wickets; B = Bowled; CF = Caught by Fielder; CK = Caught by Keeper; C&B = Caught and Bowled; HW = Hit-Wicket; LBW = Leg Before Wicket; RO = Run-Out; St = Stumped; 0 = Others; RH = Retired Hurt; NO = Not Out

TABLE B : HIGHEST WICKET AGGREGATES FOR BOWLERS IN THE WORLD CUP IN ENGLAND (Qualification: 10 or more wickets)

No	Bowlers	Country	M	Balls	Md	Runs	Wkts	Ave	Best	5	4	SR	R/o
01	AME Roberts	WI	16	1021	29	552	26	21.23	3/32	-	-	39.27	3.24
02	RJ Hadlee	NZ	13	877	38	421	22	19.14	5/25	1	-	39.86	2.88
03	Madan Lal	Ind	11	698	12	426	22	19.36	4/20	-	1	31.73	3.66
04	MA Holding	WI	11	695	16	341	20	17.05	4/33	-	1	34.75	2.94
05	RMH Binny	Ind	8	528	9	336	18	18.67	4/29	-	1	29.33	3.01
06	RGD Willis	Eng	11	709	27	315	18	17.50	4/11	-	2	39.39	2.66
07	ALF de Mel	SL	6	396	13	265	17	15.59	5/32	2	-	23.29	4.01
08	CM Old	Eng	9	543	18	243	16	15.19	4/8	-	1	33.94	2.68
09	M Amarnath	Ind	14	663	9	431	16	26.94	3/12	-	-	41.44	3.90
10	Sarfraz Nawaz	Pak	11	714	15	435	16	27.19	4/44	-	1	44.63	3.65
11	BL Cairns	NZ	11	692	16	436	14	31.14	3/36	-	-	49.43	3.78
12	Kapil Dev	Ind	11	702	19	382	14	27.29	5/43	1	-	50.14	3.26
13	IT Botham	Eng	12	798	26	456	14	32.57	2/12	-	-	57.00	3.42
14	+VJ Marks	Eng	7	468	9	246	13	18.92	5/39	1	-	36.00	3.15
15	BJ McKechnie	NZ	8	539	9	304	13	23.38	3/24	-	-	41.46	3.38
16	J Garner	WI	8	540	12	289	13	22.23	5/38	1	-	41.54	3.21
17	+Abdul Qadir	Pak	6	406	6	264	12	22.00	5/44	1	1	33.83	3.90
18	MD Marshall	WI	6	420	10	175	12	14.58	3/28	-	-	35.00	2.58
19	JV Coney	NZ	10	534	7	303	12	25.25	3/28	-	-	44.50	3.40
20	DK Lillee	Aus	9	588	8	400	12	33.33	5/34	1	-	49.00	4.08
21	GJ Gilmour	Aus	2	144	8	62	11	5.64	6/14	2	-	13.09	2.58
22	KD Boyce	WI	5	312	3	185	10	18.50	4/50	-	1	31.20	3.55
23	M Hendrick	Eng	5	336	14	149	10	14.90	4/15	-	1	33.60	2.66
24	Asif Iqbal	Pak	5	354	5	215	10	21.50	4/56	-	1	35.40	3.64
25	Imran Khan	Pak	13	356	10	182	10	18.20	3/15	-	-	35.60	3.06
26	BD Julien	WI	5	360	11	177	10	17.70	4/20	-	2	36.00	2.95
27	RM Hogg	Aus	8	468	9	271	10	27.10	3/40	-	-	46.80	3.47
28	+DS de Silva	SL	11	660	12	463	10	46.30	3/29	-	-	66.00	4.20

+ Spinners

TABLE C : Performance of slow bowlers in the World Cup in England from 1975 to 1983.

Bowlers	Teams	Type	M	Balls	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Avge	4wi	Best	S/r	R/o
Vic Marks	Eng	ROB	7	468	9	246	13	18.92	1	5-39	36.00	3.15
Adbul Qadir	Pak	RLBG	6	406	6	264	12	22.00	2	5-44	33.83	3.90
Somachandra deSilva	SL	RLBG	11	660	12	463	10	46.30	-	3-29	66.00	4.20
Larry Gomes	WI	ROB	8	444	4	304	9	33.78	-	2-46	49.33	4.10
Viv Richards	WI	ROB	17	312	2	219	9	24.33	-	3-41	34.67	4.21
Majid Khan	Pak	ROB	7	282	8	117	7	16.71	-	3-27	40.29	2.48
Tom Hogan	Aust	SLA	4	282	2	172	6	28.67	-	2-33	47.00	3.65
Hedley Howarth	NZ	SLA	4	240	5	148	5	29.60	-	3-29	48.00	3.70
Best for India :
Ravi Shastri	IND	SLA	5	121	1	87	4	21.75	-	3-26	30.25	4.31
Type: ROB = Right arm off-break bowler; RLBG = Right arm leg-break bowler; SLA = Left arm slow bowler.

TABLE D : Performance of INDIAN slow bowlers in all one-day matches in England from 1974 to 1996.

Bowlers	Type	M	Balls	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Avge	4wi	Best	S/r	ER
Ravi Shastri	SLA	11	499	1	331	8	41.38	-	3-26	62.38	3.97
Anil Kumble	RLB	5	306	4	204	5	40.80	-	2-29	61.20	4.00
Bishen Bedi	SLA	6	426	17	216	4	54.00	-	2-68	106.50	3.04
Kirti Azad	ROB	3	102	1	42	1	42.00	-	1-28	102.00	2.47
Gopal Bose	ROB	1	66	2	39	1	39.00	-	1-39	66.00	3.54
Maninder Singh	SLA	2	132	1	86	1	86.00	-	1-31	132.00	3.90
Ashok Mankad	ROB	1	35	0	47	1	47.00	-	1-47	35.00	8.05
S Venkataraghavan	ROB	7	498	7	275	1	275.00	-	1-58	498.00	3.31
Venkatapathy Raju	SLA	1	59	1	50	0	-	-	-	-	5.08
Type: ROB = Right arm off-break bowler; RLBG = Right arm leg-break bowler; SLA = Left arm slow bowler.

Statistics