can bowl fast and he hits the ball well. I was surpris

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois insists his scary bloodshot eye is by no means hampering his performances. The Belgium number one sat on the bench for his countrys 1-1 friendly draw with the Netherlands on Wednesday after recovering from an illness that made him burst a blood vessel in his left eye.Courtois is expected to feature in their World Cup Qualifier against Estonia on Sunday and has described all the gory details of his Halloween ordeal exclusively to Sky Sports News HQ. After the Manchester United game I came home and got sick, he said. Courtois says he wants to win the Premier League title with Chelsea I had to vomit a few times and you force yourself, and it was just a vein that popped in my eye.It looks scary. It was the Halloween period so then it was okay but now its not going away. They said 10 days and its already been two and a half weeks but it doesnt affect me in the game. Courtois believs Chelsea can win the league if they avoid the complacency that affected them last season Some pictures look worse than it is. Theres nothing to do about it.Courtois has kept seven successive clean sheets for Chelsea and Belgium, failing to concede since the defeat to Liverpool in September, which has helped propel the Blues into the Premier League top four.His manager at Stamford Bridge, Antonio Conte, has recently played down talk of his side being in title contention but Courtois hopes they can be there or thereabouts come May.We could be title contenders but after last season we have to be careful about everything, he said. Courtois has been in superb form for Chelsea this season We cannot relax because maybe last year we went too easy into the season because we were champions the year before. We have to keep the focus, ambition and hunger to win and, if we keep that, then maybe in May we can lift that trophy.The clean sheets are nice but, apart from against Leicester and Manchester United, I didnt have too much work to do. Thats part of the teamwork. If you defend well you keep clean sheets and thats whats happening with Belgium and Chelsea. Also See: Kompany, Dembele out for Belgium Martinez: No Kompany injury Belgium held by Netherlands Sky Live: Sunday qualifiers Cheap Authentic Jordans . -- Arizona knocked off some quality opponents, rolled over a few overmatched ones and grinded out victories even when things didnt go so well. Cheap Air Jordan Free Shipping . In the lead up - which seemed to begin the moment Mike Geiger blew the whistle in Houston last Thursday night - the Impact rumour mill went into overdrive. The speculation went into meltdown mode, of the golden nugget variety. http://www.wholesaleairjordan.us/ . The incident occurred at 19:56 of the second period of the Kings 4-2 road win over Edmonton on Sunday. Nolan punched Oilers forward Jesse Joensuu in the jaw in front of the Kings goal during a scrum. Wholesale Jordans Fast Shipping . LUCIE, Fla. Wholesale Retro Jordans Shoes . Numbers Game looks into the Canadiens securing the services of Thomas Vanek in a trade with the New York Islanders. The Canadiens Get: LW Thomas Vanek and a conditional fifth-round pick. Vincent Barnes, a tearaway quick, played for Western Province in the Howa Bowl competition during the apartheid era, and briefly in the Currie Cup after the end of isolation. He has been coaching fast bowlers for Cricket South Africa for the last 14 years.Are you surprised by how well the South African quicks bowled in Australia? When conditions suit our fast bowlers, as they do in Australia, they are lethal. South African bowlers have always been fairly good overseas. We adapt to conditions well and that has been a massive strength of the South African side for years. Whether we are playing in Dubai, New Zealand, at Lords, or at home at the Wanderers, we have fast bowlers who can take wickets.Each of the fast bowlers brings different variants to the attack. Vernon Philander is always accurate and if there is anything in the wicket, he will exploit it. He also gets a bit of swing. Kyle Abbott is the same, only he is a bit quicker. He is highly skilled and bowls a strong ball. And then you have the pace of Kagiso Rabada. Among them, they give nothing away. They keep coming and coming, and bowl to a fantastic plan.What does a pace-bowling attack need to be successful all over the world? It needs to be multi-dimensional. The unit needs to have different skills. If you add Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel to the group above, you have two more fast bowlers with different styles and skills. It doesnt always work. On the tour of India last year, we needed more pace on the slower wickets.Is there anything missing from this South African attack? We could do with a left-arm quick. Wayne Parnell is part of the squad, but he is injured at the moment. There are also some younger bowlers around with pace.How do you help develop young fast bowlers so they reach their potential? The first thing you have to think about is injury prevention. Someone using that amount and type of energy at the crease is always going to be prone to injury, particularly in their lower back. As a coach you work with them to get their action fluent. Analyse the action, see if theres any chance of an injury. Do they have a mixed action? Are they putting stress on a particular part of their body? If there is a risk, you work with them to get them more upright when they deliver, get their forces moving in the right direction, down the wicket before, during and after they release the ball.Should young fast bowlers take it easy then, bowl within themselves? A lot of coaches will talk about line and length. For me, a fast bowler actually has to bowl fast. Control of line and length is easy to coach. Its not easy to teach someone to bowl 5kph faster.Who was the fastest young fast bowler youve ever worked with? Dale Steyn. He came down to play against the South African Academy as a young tearaway. He impressed me so much that I asked him to come back and play some more matches, against us and for us. When you see a really raw fast bowler like Steyn, Brett Lee or Shoahib Akhtar, that really excites me. Its such a great skill to be able to bowl really fast.How important is mental resilience, particularly when things are tough? Fast bowling is an emotive art. Fast bowlers expend a lot of emotion and spend a lot of time working really hard. They usually have to bowl a lot more overs than other bowlers, sometimes 25 overs in a day, so they have to learn how to put in the time and effort in training to be able to do that. Sometimes theyll be in all-out attack mode, other times theyll need to just slow down the run rate. There will be a lot more tough days than successful days in a fast-bowling career. Not everyone is prepared to do it when its tough.What about learning to go through the pain barrier? Some will, others wont. Its just about the nature of the individual, their outlook on life. As a coach, you cant do much to change that. Some will keep going for the team when they have a niggle, others will walk straight off the field as soon as they feel something.Should a bowlers approach change depending on whether conditions are in their favour or not? If its a greentop or a flat track, either way its all about pressure and patience. A fast bowler shouldnt get too carried away when conditions are in their favour, trying to bowl big swinging, seaming, bouncing deliveries. That looks good, but theyll want the batsman to actually nick off to the keeper and the slips, not just to miss the ball, or, worse still, leave it. When its slow and low, a fast bowler needs a different type of patience. They must build pressure over time, with accurate bowling that makes it difficult for the batsman to score, gets the batsman frustrated and makes them more likely to take risks.Do fast bowlers always know before the game whether conditions will be in their favour? They have to assess conditions early on. Within the first few balls theyll have an idea of the pace, bounce and whether there is any movement off the pitch or in the air. If theres not much, theyll need to bowl fuller and straighter at off stump. Anything short sits up to be hit and if theyre too wide, its too easy for the batter to score.If there is quite a bit of help in the pitch, then bowl a fourth-stump line to bring the keeper and slips into play. Dont listen too much to the slips and keeper, though. When batsmen fielding in the slips see a greentop, they start worrying about chasing too big a total and will put bowlers under pressure to take wickets. Remember to be patient. Bowl a full length and take advantage of the conditions.So control your aggression? Dont get too carried away? No, even on the most docile pitch, a fast bowler should be aggressive. The bouncer is still a potent weapon, even if a bowler has to pitch it a lot shorter. The bouncer itself might not take a wicket, but it might get the batsman playing more tentatively at the next few fuller balls. On a faster, more helpful track, the bouncer becomes a real wicket-taking option.A fast bowler shouldnt overdo the bouncer, but instead stick to their stock delivery and bowl that ball consistently. Cutters and slower balls are useful on easy-paced pitches, but a fast bowler mustnt forget that they are still a fast bowler.Do you need those variations, even when the pitch is in your favour? On a greentop, if a fast bowler can make the ball go both ways, then yes, do it. All the best quicks can do this. It keeps the batsman guessing, and eventually someone will play at a wide one they should have left because theyll be worried about the ball coming back at them. Use this to your advantage, though not too often. Youll need that consistency of line and length to make the most of your skills and the conditions.So pitch it up on a greentop? Ideally, yes. But a fast bowler is only human. Sometimes on a green top, a certain bowler will be reluctant to pitch the ball up, not because they are being arrogant, or because they have no control, but because they are worried about going for a few runns.dddddddddddd Maybe they are struggling for rhythm or they have just had a bad game and are low on confidence. If so, or if the batter gets away to a flyer, the best thing to do is for the fast bowler to go back to bowling just a bit wider and shorter. Just for a few overs, bowl to the keeper. Then, when the bowler has their rhythm back or the score has slowed a bit, they can go back onto the offensive, refocus their attack on off stump and just outside.Are international cricket grounds too batsman-friendly? I walked out onto the pitch at the Wanderers not long ago, just before a T20 match. I looked down at the wicket. There was no grass and not likely to be much bounce. Its at moments like these that you realise just how tough it is for fast bowlers these days. You can go for eight or nine an over in a T20 without bowling badly. Countries that dont have really quick bowlers of their own prepare flat pitches to counteract those who have them. It was good to see a green wicket for the first New Zealand-Pakistan Test in November.Do you feel sorry for young bowlers these days, trying to learn their trade with so much T20 cricket around? In that same T20 game [at the Wanderers], an 18-year-old fast bowler, in one of his first games, went for 41 runs in his four overs. And he didnt bowl that badly. You could see him walk down to fine leg looking despondent, maybe worrying about whether he would be picked for the next game. Thats the time when it is important for an experienced player or a coach to speak to the young bowler and help them understand that they havent failed. Maybe the batsman has played some unbelievable shots. Maybe the wicket was an easy one to bat on. Sometimes even the worlds best bowlers get smashed around in T20. Its important that young bowlers understand this, so that they are not too hard on themselves. Yes, the bowler may have had a bad day today, or bowled a bad over, or even just bowled a bad ball. But it could be a good day tomorrow. Their next over might be a good over. Or even the next ball. They always have another chance.Should young bowlers workloads be restricted? Thats debatable. Yes, young bowlers workloads have to be managed properly, but you can go too far with that. In the recent series between South Africa A and Australia A, Australia would pick one attack, they would do well in a four-day game, and then for the next game Australia would change their whole attack. If it were down to me, I would rotate the bowlers between matches, maybe, but only one at a time. I wouldnt change the entire attack. Bowlers need to bowl regularly to become their best, develop the muscle memory and their bowling skills. But with kids today, you know that some days they will need to rest. Coaches need to understand that even if a young quick is their star bowler and they need to win a game, they wont be able to use the bowler all the time, not without risking injury.You were a pretty decent quick bowler yourself. Tell us a bit about your own bowling. I joined a cricket club aged 13 and just wanted to bowl fast. Before that, my passion was football. By the time I got into the first team, I realised that you needed more than just speed. At first I wanted to be the fastest. Later I also wanted to be the best.What type of bowler were you? I was an out-and-out quick bowler, although there were days when Id bowl at medium pace because it was too much to charge in and try and bowl at your fastest all the time. My hero, growing up, was Michael Holding. I tried to model myself on him, although I didnt have the sort of beautiful action he had. I was more of a slinger.Did you have any coaching when you were a kid? Not like there is now. We just had senior players who would advise us, help us stay focused.Was it frustrating not being able to play international cricket because of apartheid? A long time ago I made my peace that I would never play for my country. Apartheid was all over our life. I played a few games for Western Province at the end of my career, including the Benson and Hedges final in 1992. I decided that I would make my mark on South African and international cricket as a coach instead. I did my cricket and football coaching qualifications in Scotland when I was over there playing club cricket.Ive been fortunate working with so many great fast bowlers who not only have the talent but work so hard for the team too. How much does it help young fast bowlers to have experienced quicks around when they first come into the side? What could be better for a young paceman than having Dale Steyn at mid-on and Vernon Philander at mid-off? Having that sort of experience around you is invaluable whether youre a bowler or a batsman. I remember JP Duminys debut for Western Province. He walked out to the wicket after Herschelle Gibbs was out. Out there waiting for him was Gary Kirsten.Does it take the pressure off a young bowler if experienced, quality team-mates are leading the attack? Say the difference between Kagiso Rabada, who had Steyn and Philander in the team when he started, and Kemar Roach, who came into the West Indies side as a young bowler and was pretty soon expected to be the teams main strike weapon. The youngster can bowl around the more experienced bowlers, yes. Make a contribution while developing their skills, decision-making and experience. Then, if the young bowler has an off day - as all young bowlers are prone to do - other bowlers will still be taking wickets and making it tough for the opposition batsman. The teams performance will not suffer and the young bowler has more time to develop.Andile Phehlukwayo looks a decent prospect. What can you tell us about him? Hes a decent allrounder, actually. He can bowl fast and he hits the ball well. I was surprised he was picked in the one-day team and not the Test side, because he is actually a better four-day bowler than he is a one-day bowler. He impressed me a lot during the A tour to Australia. Hes definitely one for the future. I would like to see him now putting in some more good games for his franchise.Who is the fastest bowler you have ever worked with? Dale Steyn, definitely. Whereas Morne Morkel will bowl 140kph-plus all the time, Dale will go between 125kph and over 150kph depending on the wicket, the situation and whether the batsman has just hit him for a couple of fours.Which South African fast bowler would you least like to face in the nets? Definitely Morne Morkel. He has the bounce as well as the pace. During the Proteas practice sessions, youd always hear batsmen complaining if they had to face Morkel too much. When Jacques Kallis first faced him in the nets, when Morne was just a young net bowler, Jacques was so impressed he wanted Morkel in the team right away. I am not enjoying facing him at all, Jacques told everyone. ' ' '