Kevin Shine replaces Troy Cooley as England bowling coach

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England have found their replacement for Troy Cooley as Kevin Shine has been appointed ECB fast bowling coach. Apparently Shine is one of the boffins that have been working in the biomechanics department of the England coaching staff. Frankly, I'm relieved. I'd read a rumour that Dennis Lillee was in line for the job - it was one of my "noooooooo" moments.

According to English cricket blog Reverse Swing, the eggheads in England are also working on a new type of delivery described as contrast swing. While reverse swing requires the bowler to suck mints while applying saliva to one side of the ball, this new type of swing requires chocolate. M & M's are said to be most effective in overcast conditions. Usually contrast swing only occurs after 40 overs although with a full bag of M & M's, the bowler can start to get some late away movement at the 25 over mark.

Australia are countering this with their own new types of bowling. Brett Lee is said to be working on "reverse-reverse-swing". While an old ball is expected to reverse swing towards the shiny side, "reverse-reverse-swing" actually swings the opposite way. He's rejected criticisms that this is conventional swing bowling, claiming to have invented a revolutionary new form of bowling. John Buchanan in turn has developed "gobbledegook-swing" which has the bowler spouting maxims from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" while he delivers the ball, confounding the batsman (and everyone else on the field).

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Posted by JC on Fri 24 Feb

11 comments

Sorry to disappoint you John but it's a;tready happened. In January Dennis Lillee was working with Simon Jones and the next crop of Engalnd fast bowlers at his academy in India.

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Posted by Rolla on 2006-02-24 03:16:26

I'd heard about Simon Jones. I guess it's one thing having Lillee as a free agent that bowlers all over the world can get guidance from - another to have him as a full time staff member off the England bowling staff. Still, ideally, he'd be in Australia as our bowling coach but that's never gonna happen. Lousy Cricket Australia!

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Posted by JC on 2006-02-24 14:00:56

While we are discussing here Bowlers use Mints,M&M..sh*t to swing & r-swing,f-swing and what not ..is this approved and the deliveries valid as per the ICC rule book :-? , I remember in last Indian Tour down under , Rahul dravid was singled out by Steve Bucknor for ball tampering (he was applying 'yellow' spit to bowl - habit he must have picked in previous English Summer)..so Is it official to tinker with the cherry (red/white) :-?

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Posted by Unsui on 2006-02-24 21:22:54

Dunno if it's legal or not but definitely frowned upon. What's this with Dravid and yellow spit? Doesn't the guy brush his teeth? :-)

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Posted by JC on 2006-02-25 01:10:14

Hey Ho ..this happened in VB Series last time India was down under...apparently Dravid used the lozenge trick on the ball, & Ump warned him for that if this was not bad ... Wort part of story was next time Dravid walked in to Bat Same umpire ( SteveB) apparently made some gestures to Dravid in context of the lozenge spit incident ( Its not just the players that need to be booked for conduct - in this case it was the ump violating the rule). Rgds,mmp

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Posted by Unsui on 2006-02-25 18:27:09

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