Speaking of run-ups it seems opportune to mention Kasprowicz. He is a master of the short run. I don’t say any of this to suggest Shoaib should shorten, only to say that each bowler finds the run that suits them the most. If anything I think Shoaib should lengthen his run, hurdle the fence even. I just need to point out that Kasprowicz is a bowler who has attained absolute perfection in his run-up. It is short and explosive, he accelerates rapidly and keeps accelerating until he reaches the delivery stride, at which point there is nothing else his body can do, nowhere else for the acceleration to go, except to enter the delivery stride. It is a perfect physical logic. The whole thing lasts a second or two and its just this pureness of delivery from the start of the run to the ball meeting the batsman. His perfect run and stride is absorbed into the ball and it continues the stream and the acceleration, and it continues to leap about appropriately. There is never anything else that could possibly be happening when Kasprowicz bowls than Kasprowicz bowling – cricket and its strange actions becomes suddenly inevitable and absolutely necessary, there is no hint that this creature could exist for any other reason or to attend to any other task. A fittingness that Shoaib could find by lengthening his run.