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| Fast and furious on field, and off it too |
| Aabhas Sharma / New Delhi Oct 30, 2009, 00:01 IST |
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The boy who couldn’t bowl… Believe it or not, those were the exact words used to describe arguably the fastest bowler the cricketing world has ever seen — Glenn McGrath.
McGrath, who ended up with 563 Test wickets — the most by a fast bowler — was a tall, lanky teenager who, in his own words, was a “late bloomer”. In his book, Line and Strength, McGrath talks about his journey from a boy who lived on Mars chocolate bars for dinners to becoming one of the most lethal bowlers in international cricket.
Line and Strength is not your quintessential book about a cricketer’s life as it doesn’t follow any chronological pattern and is not written as a first person account. When McGrath thought of penning down his memoirs, he got in touch with writer Daniel Lane. And it’s clear that the author worked hard and spoke to almost everyone who has been an integral part of the cricketer’s life. Be it his family, friends, team-mates from his school days to international colleagues.
Born into a farming family, McGrath had a tough childhood and, unlike cricketers of his generation, started playing the game in his mid-teens. “While the passion was there, I wasn’t too sure if I could make it or not,” he says. Something a lot of people agreed with, seeing this 6’5” boy nicknamed “Pigeon” — because of his long legs. At 17, when he first started playing cricket, he was often referred to “nothing great”. He talks about how shy he was in school, a trait which he let go of after he became an integral part of the Australian team.
Anyone who has followed McGrath’s career knows that accuracy was the most potent weapon in his armoury and his perseverance paid off, be it in life or on the cricketing field. You won’t find chapters dedicated to how he made his Test debut or how he took a hattrick against the West Indies. Just like the champion on the field, McGrath keeps his book simple yet deadly and accurate.
The book is as much about McGrath the cricketer as it is about McGrath the man. McGrath talks about his wife Jane, who passed away earlier this year after a long battle, first with cancer and then with brain tumour. The way McGrath dealt with his wife’s illness with honesty and courage is heart-rending. “I knew about Jane’s cancer much before we got married, but our life was together and not separate,” he says.
McGrath was known to be a sledger, someone who was never shy in exchanging a few words with the opposition. And he talks at length about his infamous spat with West Indian cricketer Ramnaresh Sarwan in 2003-04.
However, at one point you do feel that probably McGrath should have described some of the epic series he was part of in detail. Or, he could have talked more about the batsmen he bowled to. Even then, there is enough in the book to hold the interest of a cricketing buff. He talks about how, at one point of time, he was being forced to consider retirement when he was in the twilight of his career. “It was something inevitable but certainly not something I had expected out of the authorities,” he says.
If the book delves into depth about his wife’s battle against cancer and how they coped with it, then it has two hilarious chapters dedicated to McGrath’s batting. His team-mates often took the mickey out of him by saying that he had more wickets than runs. He says that despite being the butt of all jokes, he took his batting seriously and when not practicing bowling, he was out honing his batting skills.
Unlike books of other cricketers of his generation, McGrath hardly talks in detail about personal successes. For a player who won three World Cups, you expect them to be described in detail. But there’s none of that.
Fellow cricketers talk about his perseverance, the unmatched will to succeed in maintaining length on the pitch. McGrath’s story is truly inspiring. A lot of credit should go to Lane for telling the story in such a fascinating manner.
There’s one thing McGrath says which does ring in your head as you flip through the pages. He talks about controlling the controllable. A mantra he followed in his cricketing career by bowling an immaculate line and length and never giving any free runs away. It’s something that helped him conquer the cricketing world. It’s a book which should be read by all cricket fans as it is a courageous tale of a man who fought many battles, both on the field as well as off it.
LINE AND STRENGTH
Glenn McGrath and Daniel Lane
Random House
432 pages; Rs 474
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