NEW DELHI: “Yeah, I don’t like watching myself in slow motion, that’s for sure,” laughs Lockie Ferguson. At first thought, one might wonder why. However, if you had watched the New Zealand pacer steam in, you’d understand why he feels so.
Ferguson, holding the ball in his right hand, runs in smoothly towards the crease. As he nears it, comes the load up behind his right shoulder. Then, his right foot touches the ground ever so slightly to shift momentum. That's before the entire stress of his body and action lands on his left foot. His body bends to his left, bowling arm upright — his legs and upper body are in almost perpendicular positions — before the ball comes out of his hand.
In slow-motion, you’d feel ‘how does he do that?’. In real-time, it’s the sheer exuberance of watching a fast bowler. Blink and you’d miss the delivery. That is how fast Ferguson is. He takes the conditions out of the equation. The tearaway quick’s mean yorker and bouncer could topple teams in Chepauk as well as Lord’s. In fact, at the ongoing World Cup, he is among the handful of pacers who can intimidate batters with pace; who can clock 150 kph with ease. Mitchell Starc, Haris Rauf, Mark Wood, Gerald Coetzee and the list ends there.
Even between them, Starc is the only new-ball bowler. The rest are largely first-change. Where their pace comes from is also different too. Ferguson explains: “I generate a lot of pace at the crease. I'm running in pretty quickly, but a lot of my pace comes from a big jump and snapping really quickly through the crease. I lock my front leg and try to pivot over the top of that and have a bit of a delayed bowling arm from my left-arm pull-down. Technically, it is different to Starc’s. He's got lovely long levers, and generates a lot of pace on those long levers. Then you got someone like Woody. In a lot of ways, he's just so quick through the crease. He's probably quicker than me while running in. There's always different ways to bowl quick.”
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Just like the method is different for each of these fast bowlers, their stories are too. For Ferguson, what began as a quest to be quicker than his elder brother Mitch, ended up as an “epic dream” of representing New Zealand for years. From the fast bowling competition with James Neesham on the sidelines of the Basin Reserve Test between New Zealand and England in 2008 (Neesham beat Ferguson by 1KPH), he has come a long way. And so has his bowling.
When Ferguson was in school, he used to load up way behind his shoulder, almost like a throw, but since his Black Caps debut, the pacer has just ensured that his action is getting efficient every step of the way. “I’ve tightened up,” says the 32-year-old. “I think within world cricket, there's probably been a bit more understanding now that there isn't like a perfect way to bowl. I've just tried to become more efficient with how I bowl, which means I'm creating more pace going towards the target. And then, within that, it becomes a bit more repeatable. Therefore, hopefully, my body gets used to bowling the same action and then it's a bit easier to manage. Obviously, if your action is different every time you bowl, then it's putting stress on different parts of your body. So, I think through my career, it's just trying to become more efficient with how I'm bowling and work back the loads from there.”
Over the years, one of the questions that kept coming back to Ferguson was, ‘do you think about compromising pace for swing’. His answer is simple. For someone who is coming in as a first-change in white-ball cricket, there is not much sideways movement on offer. Ferguson without pace is like “Boulty (Trent Boult) or Tim (Southee) without swing.” And with the way the game has tilted in favour of the batters, he has developed the slow bouncers and yorkers to compete at the highest level. ”We're constantly trying to find ways so that we can have some success.
And, certainly, bowling quick is a great skill but I've said it before, 'the quicker you bowl, sometimes the quicker it goes to the boundary, especially in a country like India with small boundaries'. Even the top edges tend to fly. So you have to build your arsenal a little bit more with slower balls and it's something I'm just working on. Sometimes it comes out as you want it to and sometimes it doesn't. That's probably what keeps it exciting for us as well. If I had all the answers, then it would probably be boring, wouldn't it? So the fact that all the players are constantly striving for perfection keeps us very much involved in wanting to get better and that makes it exciting.”
Fast bowlers and lively personalities often go hand in hand and Ferguson is no different. He is aggressive on the field, doesn’t give an edge to the batters and is often the go-to bowler for New Zealand in the big moments. The sight of Ferguson running in with a mean moustache is one to remember. In fact, it is hard to recall a game where Ferguson was bowling without a moustache. Ask him if there is a superstition involved, Ferguson laughs. “I kind of had it starting out and it's just stuck. I've always had facial hair on my top lip,” he says. “I don't know, it kind of started with Movember in New Zealand and then, it sort of stuck from there.
“When I play cricket, I try to think of what 15-year-old Lockie would think. Of course, I take it (cricket) very seriously, but at the same time, this is a pretty epic dream to be living out. I never thought I'd probably get this far. Obviously, every time I play, I'm stoked to be there. So I don't take it too seriously, remember to have fun along the way. When I see my face on the big screen with a big ‘Tash, it's funny to me. So, it puts a smile on my face. Hopefully, it does for a few other fans as well.”
As with most elite athletes, Ferguson has had his share of struggles with injuries. In 2021, a calf injury ruled him out of the T20 World Cup. He counts his luck to have a career that has lasted over a decade. At 20, he did not even imagine playing till 32. And yet, he is here in India, playing his second World Cup. He has six wickets in three games and will be a threat to India in Dharamshala on Sunday. “Look, the World Cup is something special for sure. I felt the pain in 2021 when I got injured the night before. Injuries obviously suck. But, when you push your body to the limit, try to bowl as fast as you can, and try to be up there with the fastest in the world, you're pushing your body to its absolute limit. So when you do that along the line, it's gonna break at points.
“There's a lot of experience and a lot of learnings I've had through the time of trying to sort my recovery out. I think across the board certainly talking to guys who bowl 150KPH, we do love it, and we wouldn't change it for anything. And if it helps the team in some way or another to win the game, then, that's what we play for. Obviously, very privileged to be in this position and, and be able to bowl quickly and hopefully can do it as long as I can.”
