Managing fast bowlers across a season

I have worked with fast bowlers in national, county, state and franchise teams. The programs that managed them well did not have the most data. Their staff talked to each other, treated each bowler as an individual, planned the season before it started, and judged it on performance and availability together.

Communication: one plan, one language

• Keep one written plan per bowler, shared by the physio, the strength and conditioning coach, the bowling coach and the head coach.
• Meet once a week, at the same time, to agree who is building, who is holding and who is resting, and why.
• Use the same words for the same things. "Modified" and "full" should mean the same to everyone in the room.
• Share bad news early. A coach who hears on Tuesday that a bowler is limited for Saturday plans around it. A coach who hears on Saturday morning does not.
• Keep the bowler in the conversation, rather than telling them the outcome afterwards.

Individualisation: no squad number fits every bowler

• Age and growth, previous injury, role, action and current capacity all change what a bowler tolerates. A new-ball bowler in a multi-day match and a first-change bowler in a T20 have different weeks.
• Set each bowler's weekly range from their own history, not from a number borrowed from someone else.
• Judge progress by how the bowler responds the next day, not by whether they hit a target.
• If two bowlers are on the same plan, it should be a coincidence, not a policy.

Strategic planning: map the season first

• Put every fixture, tour, travel day and change of format on one page before pre-season starts.
• Mark the matches that matter most, and plan each bowler's build towards them.
• Build lower weeks in on purpose. A long gap followed by a big week is a pattern worth avoiding.
• Plan depth: who covers which matches, so one injury does not force a rushed return.
• Revisit the plan each month. Selection, weather and injury change it, and the plan should expect that.

Performance management: availability and performance together

• Track what matters for performance as well as injury: capacity in the gym, pace and accuracy where you measure them, and availability for selection.
• Review each bowler on a regular cycle against their own baseline, not against the squad average.
• Build gym, skills and bowling loads in the same direction, rather than three people adding load separately.
• Treat a return from injury as a performance plan, not only a clinical one. It finishes at match demands, not when the pain stops.

What to record

A record supports all four. Keep it small enough to last a season:

• Balls bowled per bowler per day, matches and nets, with a simple intensity tag: below match intensity, or at it.
• A next-morning soreness score for the back and side.
• The next fortnight's fixtures and training days.

The free Bowling Workload Tool records the first two. Add a measure only when you know which decision it will change.

For junior programs

Cricket Australia publishes junior pace bowling workload guidelines with limits by age. Treat them as a ceiling, not a target. Count net balls against them, and tell parents what the plan is.

What the evidence does and does not say

Rapid rises in bowling load, and bowling after a long gap, have both been linked with injury in fast bowlers. Ratio rules such as the acute to chronic workload ratio have been widely used and widely criticised. No system gives a safe weekly number that transfers from one bowler to another. That is why the plan is individual, and why the record starts a conversation rather than predicting injury.

Where I fit

I work with a program's own staff on communication, individual bowler plans, season planning and return-to-play oversight, and I work as a contracted team physiotherapist or lead. The scope starts with your question, and your existing medical and performance staff stay part of the work.

Teams and organisations

Further reading