BRILLIANT BROAD CAN JOIN THAT 600 CLUB

Derek Pringle on what makes Stuart Broad such a special bowler for Engand

Watching Stuart Broad being interviewed after England’s victory in the final Test against West Indies, a match in which he took his 500th Test wicket, was to marvel at an illusion. Here he was, just minutes after taking the final wicket, fresh-faced and cheery with scarcely a feather ruffled, an image which suggested fast bowling was a breeze and not very much like hard work at all.

Fast bowlers can be a disagreeable bunch, but one thing they are united upon is that doing what they do, for any length of time, is ‘effing hard work’ and anyone who says different is either a liar or a trundler.

Broad, of course, is neither of those things but he has made the incredible feat of 500 wickets, the entry pass to bowling’s Mt Olympus, look easier than most. Not for him the anguish of months out of the game with injury or having to deal with scar tissue left by the surgeon’s knife.

Even a loss of form has not affected him for more than a game or two. In fact his journey from beanpole tyro to lanky veteran has been about as seamless as it could be for a bowler who has propelled a cricket ball pretty quickly for 13 years at the highest level.

But that is the thing about making things look easy: it takes a lot of hard work, graft that the public, the Press and even team mates don’t always see. Unlike James Anderson, right, his new ball partner this past decade and the only England bowler with more Test wickets than him, Broad is a tinkerer.

For Anderson, a honed, efficient and repeatable action is the thing he seeks, those being the foundations for achieving his calling cards – swing and consistency.