McGrath: Pace bowlers need an off season

Cricket365
March 4, 2016

Australia legend Glenn McGrath believes fast bowlers need an off-season following the recent spate of injuries that have hit pacemen in world cricket.

The Aussies have suffered the brunt of the injuries with James Pattinson the latest seamer to break down, being ruled out for the remainder of Australia's domestic season due to shin-stress problems.

This follows the news that Peter Siddle was diagnosed with a stress fracture to his back while the world's best fast bowler, South Africa's Dale Steyn, has not played international cricket since December last year.

McGrath to Cricinfo: "Bowlers need to know themselves and what sort of workload they need off the field. For me, personally, the more I bowled, the better I felt whereas other guys need to be managed a bit more.

"So there is no one rule for everyone.Some of our injuries come from overbowling or high workloads, but it is more to me the fact that we need an off-season. Fast bowlers need an off-season because bowling and running deplete our strength.

"So as the season goes, our strength falls off and if we don't have an off-season to build it back up sooner or later, we are going to be injured."

A medium-pacer who took 563 wickets in 124 Tests, the most by a seamer in the history of the game, McGrath is currently in Chennai, India, helping the MRF Pace Foundation.