Ian Bishop believes coaches can refine a fast bowler’s skills, but they cannot create genuine pace. The former West Indies fast bowler, who took 161 Test wickets before injuries ended his career at 30, told The Super Over podcast that raw speed is something a bowler is either born with or not.
“You can’t take anybody off the street and teach them to bowl at 90 mph.”
Ian Bishop, The Super Over podcast, 2026
Bishop made the statement during a wide-ranging conversation on the podcast, hosted by Jemimah Rodrigues and Liam Flint, in an episode titled “Why Cricket Keeps Changing.” The comment is consistent with a position Bishop has held publicly for years, but it lands differently now, at a time when cricket boards worldwide are investing heavily in fast bowling programs, biomechanics labs, and specialist pace coaching roles.
Bishop’s authority on this subject is rooted in his own career. He debuted for West Indies in 1989 at the age of 21, bowling at genuine pace from the start. Nobody taught him to be fast. Andy Roberts, the former West Indies great, taught him wrist position and outswing technique. Malcolm Marshall showed him how to think about setting up batsmen. The speed was already there. Bishop became the fastest West Indian to reach 100 Test wickets, doing so in just 21 matches. Stress fractures in his vertebrae, first diagnosed in early 1991, derailed what many consider one of the most promising fast bowling careers of that era.
In a separate conversation with former India fast bowler Varun Aaron for The Cricket Monthly in July 2025, Bishop used a similar analogy. He compared fast bowling to sprinting, saying you cannot take someone off the street and teach them to run as fast as Usain Bolt. Fast-twitch fibre, he said, is something unique. Aaron agreed, adding that a fast bowler is born with the prerequisite muscle fibres and a mentality that cannot be taught. Bishop also told Aaron that young fast bowlers should prioritise bowling as fast as they can, because grooving an action comes later. Pace, he said, is not something you can go down to the supermarket and buy.
That philosophy does not dismiss coaching entirely. Bishop has acknowledged that science has widened the group of bowlers capable of reaching 140 kph and above. What it has not done, in his view, is increase the number bowling at 150-plus. Coaching can take a bowler from 135 to 145. It cannot take someone from 125 to 150. The distinction matters because modern cricket systems often blur the line between refining existing pace and attempting to manufacture it.
Bishop Questions Stokes’ Plan in the 2016 T20 World Cup Final
Bishop also revisited one of the most dramatic moments in T20 history during the podcast. He cited the final over of the 2016 T20 World Cup final at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, where Ben Stokes bowled to Carlos Brathwaite with West Indies needing 19 runs off six balls. Brathwaite hit four consecutive sixes to win the title. Bishop called the plan to attack the stumps a mistake.
The tactical context supports his argument. Chris Jordan had bowled the penultimate over with wide yorkers, forcing batsmen to target the longer boundary. Stokes took a different approach, bowling straight and targeting the stumps, which allowed Brathwaite to hit through the leg side, where the boundary was shorter.
“I had an idea of Stokes’ plan simply because of the dimensions of the ground. Chris Jordan was trying to bowl wide yorkers, forcing us to hit to the longer end. So obviously Stokes was trying to bowl straight and get us to hit leg side.”
Carlos Brathwaite, The Cricket Monthly, October 2021
Brathwaite himself confirmed he read the plan before the first ball was bowled. He knew the line would be straight. The only question was whether the deliveries would be yorkers or back of a length. After that, he said, it was all instinct.
Stokes later reflected that with more experience, he would have slowed things down between deliveries rather than rushing back to his mark. The haste, he admitted, affected his composure.
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Bishop did not make this critique from a commentary studio rewatching footage. He was in the commentary box at Eden Gardens calling that final over live. He is the voice behind “Carlos Brathwaite! Remember the name!” His assessment of Stokes’ plan is not hindsight analysis. It is professional pattern recognition from a fast bowler who spent a decade bowling in high-pressure situations at the highest level.
When a bowler attacks the stumps with pace against a power hitter at a ground where the leg side boundary is short, the margin for error disappears. A yorker on middle stump that misses by six inches becomes a full ball on leg stump, which is exactly where a batsman like Brathwaite wants it. Jordan’s wide yorker approach in the penultimate over had been more tactically sound because it forced Brathwaite to manufacture power towards the longer boundary. Stokes’ plan gave Brathwaite the angle he wanted. Bishop, having bowled in similar death-over situations across 43 Tests, recognised that in real time.
The broader point connects back to Bishop’s coaching philosophy. Plans that look logical on paper can fail because they do not account for what a batsman’s natural strengths will do to marginally missed deliveries. A fast bowler learns this through experience, not from a coaching manual.
Winning Over Branding, and the Problem With Bilateral T20s
Bishop used the podcast to address two other themes that reflect his broader view of modern cricket. He argued that winning should matter more than personal branding, and that players should actively avoid mediocrity.
The branding comment is pointed. In an era where cricketers build personal brands through social media, endorsements, and franchise league visibility, Bishop’s position is that results on the field should come first. The statement carries weight from someone whose own playing career was defined entirely by performance under pressure, not public profile. Bishop played in a West Indies dressing room alongside Ambrose, Walsh, and Marshall, where reputations were built on what happened between the first ball and the last.
Bishop also argued that bilateral T20 series lose value when full-strength teams do not play. This is a growing concern in world cricket. Major teams increasingly rest senior players for bilateral T20 fixtures, treating them as development opportunities rather than competitive contests. The trend has accelerated as franchise leagues like the IPL, SA20, and Big Bash compete for space in already crowded schedules. Bishop’s view is that this dilutes the product and undermines the format’s standing in international cricket.
The argument connects to his fast bowling philosophy. If top pace bowlers are managed so carefully that they skip bilateral series entirely, those series become contests without the most exciting facet of the game, which Bishop has always maintained is genuine fast bowling.
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