"In this technological age it should be possible for a computer programmer to sit at a screen and digitally devise the ultimate bowler for the ultimate end at the ultimate Test ground.
The specifications might be thus: tall, with long arms to obtain bounce and exacerbate variations in such; a straight run to counter the gravitational pull of the slope from left to right; delivery from close to the stumps so that movement off the slope does not angle down the leg side and a straight ball offers a challenge; pace but not so much that a batsman cannot spot a modicum of movement and be drawn into following it; Job's patience; Nelson's strategical acumen; the ruthlessness of Vlad the Impaler. Press "enter". Bugger, it's Glenn McGrath."
Then of course that which is digital, automated, computerised has to be under human control - some human should be and will be able to conquer it - all that it needs is -
"England, though, can draw on that in their plans to counter him. They will not encounter him in such conditions again but they do need to formulate a strategy. This could take several forms.
The first is to test his patience as much as he does that of the batsmen. His off-stump line will not be so perilous to ignore because no other Test ground in England has such a slope. If he continues just to plug away - he is, by his own admission, a defensive bowler in that he induces error through the long-term application of pressure - then it becomes a waiting game. Who will crack first?"
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