Bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who currently holds the record for the fastest bowling speed in the world, has spoken about how he trained to improve his bowling speed to the point where he broke the 160 kph barrier at the ICC World Cup in 2003.
Shoaib Akhtar broke 160kph | How?
It’s unclear why Akhtar hasn’t been able to bowl at speeds exceeding 160 kilometres per hour; however, he did admit in an interview with Sportskeeda that he began training in order to do so. At first, he tried to bulk up by pulling himself along a tyre, but that didn’t work out too well because the tyre was too light. That’s according to The Rawalpindi Express.
It was also light training for me to tie myself to a small car and pull it later at night in Islamabad.He insisted that he intended to tie himself to a truck and pull it later on, saying that he had a plan to do so. As he went on to explain, this was actually a blessing in disguise because it allowed him to begin training and eventually pull a truck for nearly five miles.
Official Statements
“I doubled my weight training for sake of building muscles in the gym. This started changing my biomechanics.”
He also managed to change his training in the nets session. “I started bowling on 26 yards pitch rather than normal 22 yards pitch and aimed to bowl at 150kph on an extended pitch” he added.
“I later started bowling with an old and torn ball on a 26 yards pitch which gradually resulted in increasing my pace.”
While recalling ICC WorldCup 2002, he said: “My teammates during ICC WorldCup 2003 told me that I’m bowling quite quick and may injure batters during the mega event. I told my fellow teammates that I will break the record for the fastest delivery which later I did during ICC WorldCup 2003”
