different strokes for different folks

Ameya makes a good point regarding footwork in this post. According to him, a batsman can extend his Cricketing life by developing good footwork. In the early stages of ones career when ones eye-hand coordination is good enough to compensate for the lack of footwork, footwork may not seem that important. But with age, as ones reflexes diminish, good footwork can help in compensating for the reduced eye-hand coordination. However, I have another spin on this topic. According to me, the main purpose of footwork is to get oneself into the best position to play the most percentage shot (the shot with the least likelihood to fail) on that particular ball. Now, getting into the best position to play the most percentage shot need not necessarily entail a great deal of footwork. And of course, as with most things in life, we can’t use a ‘one size fits all’ rule here. So the criticality of footwork differs in different conditions. From personal experience, I can tell you about the different footwork (or lack of it) that we needed to adopt for ‘natural turf’ and ‘matting’ pitches. For artificial matting pitches, minimal straight footwork is required. What is important there is sideways footwork because the ball bounces a lot more on matting pitches. So even if one plays half-cock, there is no real danger of getting caught L.B.W. but one needs to remember to get behind the line of the ball. On natural turf pitches, especially in India where there isn’t too much bounce, it is important to move forward to minimize the chances of L.B.W. however, it is not as important to get behind the line of the ball because of the lack of sideways movements in Indian conditions.