Oldies but goodies

The wily old swinger, Chris Martin turned the first test against South Africa on its head today with three wickets in four balls. A well set Graeme Smith for 53 and then none other than Jaques Kallis and AB de Villiers in consecutive balls. Someone piped up - that Chris Martin just gets better with age, and that's when I thought about this post.

So ... has he? Let's look at the numbers. I decided to use 35 as the marker for "old" in the context of a test quick bowler.

The answer is ... yes he really has got better with age. Martin (as at stumps on day one) has 221 career wickets at 33.04. Since turning 35, he's taken 47 at 32.00. His 174 wickets before turning 35 cost 33.32 a piece. So while not a vast improvement, an improvement nonetheless.

Those 47 wickets mean Marto is now poised to join an illustrious club. Pace bowlers who have taken 50 or more test scalps after the age of 35 are a rare breed indeed. Only eight players have ever done it, including our very own Paddles and Chats. The names on that list really are some of the greatest bowlers of all-time so it really is some company Marto will be in once he bags those three extra scalps.

Player	Span	Mat	Runs	Wkts	Ave
CA Walsh (WI)	1997-2001	39	3890	180	21.61
SF Barnes (Eng)	1909-1914	18	2058	139	14.8
Sir RJ Hadlee (NZ)	1986-1990	23	2482	116	21.39
GD McGrath (Aus)	2005-2007	18	1877	82	22.89
CEL Ambrose (WI)	1998-2000	18	1368	68	20.11
EJ Chatfield (NZ)	1985-1989	20	1750	53	33.01
Imran Khan (Pak)	1988-1992	18	1355	51	26.56
KR Miller (Aus)	1954-1956	14	1360	51	26.66
CS Martin (NZ)	2009-2012	14	1504	47	32

Knowing the club Martin is surely about to join now gives us a chance to put his post-35 career in perspective. Among his aged fast bowling peers, how do his post-35 numbers stack up?

Player	Career average	Average post 35	Difference
CA Walsh (WI)	24.44	21.61	-2.83
SF Barnes (Eng)	16.43	14.8	-1.63
CS Martin (NZ)	33.04	32	-1.04
Sir RJ Hadlee (NZ)	22.29	21.39	-0.9
CEL Ambrose (WI)	20.99	20.11	-0.88
EJ Chatfield (NZ)	32.17	33.01	0.84
GD McGrath (Aus)	21.64	22.89	1.25
KR Miller (Aus)	22.97	26.66	3.69
Imran Khan (Pak)	22.81	26.56	3.75

Martin's differential of just over one run less per wicket after 35 places him third on the leader board of the fast bowlers who really did get better with age.

Most surprising for me is Courtney Walsh. I have recollections of him limping his way to the (then) record number of test wickets, but going by this analysis he must have stormed his way to it. Oh and Syd Barnes was obviously some kind of freak - the bowling equivalent of Bradman. 189 career wickets at under 16.43. Just wow.