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Clark pleased by depth of NSW pace attack

Ten high-quality fast bowlers in one squad seems a bit excessive for a state team, but it looks like New South Wales will need the full list this summer

Peter English
Peter English
21-Sep-2010
Stuart Clark is looking forward to more time on the field with New South Wales this summer  •  Getty Images

Stuart Clark is looking forward to more time on the field with New South Wales this summer  •  Getty Images

Ten high-quality fast bowlers in one squad seems a bit excessive for a state team, but it looks like New South Wales will need the full list this summer. The Blues' first game is still almost three weeks away and already half the contingent is either on Australian duty or injured.
Josh Hazlewood's back stress fracture forced his exit from the India tour on Saturday and allowed a standby call up for his team-mate Mitchell Starc. Doug Bollinger and Shane Watson are also on that trip while Nathan Bracken is recovering from knee surgery and hoping for a December return.
The wise Stuart Clark, the part-time captain and attack mentor at 34, has seen this sort of situation before. "It's always the issue, you start off with 10, and by about November 10 you're struggling to find three, due to injury, attrition and playing for Australia," he said. "There could be a situation where we have too many, but there's every chance, as per usual, that bowlers are hard to come by."
When the season starts with a one-day game against South Australia on October 9, Clark will probably line up beside a couple of Brett Lee, Trent Copeland, Burt Cockley and Moises Henriques. Life will become more complicated in November when the Test players should be available for two Sheffield Shield fixtures before the Ashes.
Copeland, a 24-year-old right-armer, raced to 35 wickets in his first five Shield games for New South Wales last year during an amazing streak that began with 8 for 92 on debut against Queensland. He is in his first full season as a contracted player and said state training had been a who's who of Australian cricket over the past couple of weeks.
He thinks the overall depth in bowling spurs on the players. "It's good for the competition and competitiveness at training," he said at the pre-season camp on the Sunshine Coast. "It's no surprise New South Wales cricket is so strong, because there is competition for places, and it pushes guys to improve their skills."
However, there will still be times during the summer when the fast men are pigeon-holed as first-class or limited-overs players. Brett Lee has made that decision already following his retirement from white clothes last season, while Bracken could also head that way depending on how well his knee recovers from its latest operation.
"There are some guys who are probably more suited to certain forms," Clark said. "But I guarantee it will be all hands on deck for first of the game of the year, due to guys being with Australia and guys with injury. We'll make these great predictions and they'll be all useless by the start of the season."
Clark remains enthusiastic about being back on the domestic scene full-time following a disrupted summer last year, which followed the Ashes tour. He gained 12 wickets in five Sheffield Shield matches but missed a chunk of the season with a back injury.
"I'm excited about playing cricket," he said. "I still really want to play, still like going out to bat, bowl, field, run around, and play with the younger guys. There are no dramas there."
For the first time since he was elevated to the Australian squad in 2005 he has completed a proper pre-season. Most importantly for New South Wales, Clark is fit and available, unlike half of his fast bowling team-mates.

Peter English is the Australasia editor of Cricinfo