Cricket: Marketing men have a need for speed but the guns fire blanks

You won't catch the Black Caps clock-watching this season.

A chat with the Australian pace bowlers following the Adelaide test in November convinced the New Zealand bowlers that there was no value in the speed guns.

Coach John Bracewell went as far to suggest they were a cynical marketing ploy aimed at selling tickets, rather than providing an accurate analysis of a bowler's actual pace.

"What you get from the speedball radar is what they decide to show you," Bracewell said, neglecting to mention who "they" were.

The Black Caps coach said his bowlers had learnt that putting faith in the radars was misguided.

"The speed radars are pretty inaccurate. That's something I'm pleased to say the Australian team put to bed for our guys in terms of understanding them.

"The Australian pace bowlers take absolutely no notice of it at all."

Glenn McGrath had long been the butt of jokes about his inability to tip the gun much past 130km/h, but with more than 460 test wickets his days of insecurity are long gone.

But for some the speed radar had become a preoccupation.

Ian Butler, for one, was invariably seen glancing towards the clock on his way back to his mark after each delivery.

"It's a trend we've looked to, but we know that from tour to tour and from ground to ground they vary quite considerably," Bracewell said.

"There was actually a 10km differential between the one-day internationals and the test matches played in England.

"I think it had something to do with the fact ticket sales were down for the West Indies vs England game and it was important for them to show that [West Indies pace bowler] Tino Best was quick.

"All our bowlers that happened to be in that tournament, suddenly their pace increased although they hadn't changed their technique or anything."

On the subject of speedsters, Bracewell said Butler's selection had everything to do with New Zealand conditions and nothing to do with speculation about a fall-out between player and management.

"They're not issues at all. They were raised externally from the team.

"It's about balanced options," Bracewell said. "One of the options available to us has been taken away with Chris Harris' injury, [that of] two slow bowlers with the skills to be able to deal with international one-day cricket.

"Ian has shown he has some gifted one-day skills with his death bowling in particular and his development of his change of pace is something we've been really pleased about.

"We want to have that option up our sleeves should overhead conditions be similar to what is going around the country at the moment."

While Chris Cairns has been instrumental in working with Butler, the coaching staff have decided with Butler's front-on action it is better to pursue the Ian Harvey-like back-of-hand slower ball, rather than Cairns' off-spinning slow ball.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY