Comment: The Johnson juggernaut

What Johnson has is nothing less than a fairytale for the Australian fans and a scary novel for the opposition.

The modern batsman is well equipped in every sense, the bat can thrash the ball like never before and the protective gear is nothing less than an armoured suit.

Yet one man has single-handedly produced the fear of God in Australia’s last six Test matches, five against the battered Englishmen and the first Test against the ‘best’ team in the longest format, South Africa.

Mitchell Johnson that enigma of a man, has pulverised the leading batsmen from these two teams with ferocious assaults, resulting in an astonishing tally of 49 wickets at 13 runs per wicket.

Over the years, experts and former greats have bemoaned the deteriorating quality of cricket, especially fast bowling.

The West Indian quicks of yore, Australia’s Lillee and Thompson duo, the Pakistani mavericks and the odd English, New Zealand and South African fire breathers seem like a distant memory.

Not anymore though, Johnson has hurried, rattled and tormented two powerful batting line-ups in sustained spells of sizzling speed and venom.

The batsmen have been left scared and scarred; Jonathan Trott lasted only one Test, Kevin Pietersen is done, the South African all-rounder Ryan McLaren is suffering from a concussion and we don’t know for sure the mental state of Proteas top order after the Centurion devastation.

Michael Holding, the integral part of the West Indian pace battery of the 70’s and early 80’s is now forced to compare Johnson with his compatriots.

“At various times we had that effect on the opposition. You go out as a fast bowler and you see the body language of the opposition players. Proper fast bowling adds a different dimension, if you are bowling fast and you see people hopping around. It stays in the mind, and it affects the person who is hopping around as well.”

But Mr Holding, in your era the batsmen were helpless targets! No restrictions on bouncers, faster wickets and above all no protection to speak off.

The helmets were nonexistent, thigh, chest, leg and elbow padding was perhaps as thick as an expensive towel.

It was far easier to scare batsmen, what Johnson has achieved after being declared a ‘has been’ by cricketing pundits is nothing less than a fairytale for the Australian fans and a scary novel for the opposition.

At the moment the world of cricket is caught in a power struggle outside the boundary ropes, the focus is primarily on money and the ‘razzmatazz’ of Twenty20 has put Test cricket at the back burner.

But one hopes that fans of this great game are watching what is unfolding, the Johnson juggernaut might halt soon, or might have already lost some sting but let us be assured that the sustained hostility that we have witnessed in the last two months from that whippy immensely strong left-arm is set go down in the annals of the game as perhaps the best ever. Certainly, he is the poster boy of cricket, not the likes of N.Srinivasan, Giles Clarke and Wally Edwards.

The writer is In charge Sports  at The Express Tribune

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2014.

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