Bowling 150 clicks ain’t easy. Brett Lee had one surgery a year for his international career spanning from 1999 to 2012. Lee was actually the most capped one; his contemporaries played much less than him. Shoaib Akhtar, the ‘fastest ever bowler’, played about 220 matches, while Shane Bond played just 120. Injuries have cut short careers of pacers for decades, and it happens even more with ‘fast’ bowlers like Mark Wood.
Wood is 34. In two years, he’ll be the same age as when Lee retired in 2012. Right now, he’s out injured once again. In his 9-year career, he’s played just 137 matches. So many niggles and injuries that one can’t even count. In August, he injured his right elbow and won’t play a game until February ( likely ICC Champions Trophy 2025). Woold will be 35 by then. It feels like the time is running out for him.
“There is nothing I can really do on my right side. “I have been told to stop picking my kids up with my right arm. I have to do everything with my left,” Wood told BBC’s Test Match Special. The pacer can’t enjoy the game he’s given his all to for three decades and can’t even have the simplest and most precious joy of playing with his kids.
ECB contract over franchise leagues
Wood is losing quite a bit, especially financially. Playing till 40 as a fast bowler isn’t common unless you are James Anderson. What’s keeping him afloat right now is a 3-year contract with the ECB, which was signed in November last year. The contract was England’s bid to try and save his fragile body for international cricket.
The target for him and the ECB is the Ashes. Going to Australia’s shore at the end of 2025, all the focus of English cricket is to win the urn for the first time since 2015. “The ECB had mentioned that, if I could keep up my standards and my pace, the Ashes away was the tour that they wanted me to get to,” Wood had said after earning himself the contract. But the road won’t be easy, and it would lead to sacrifices.
Given his injury time frame, he’ll miss the SA20 and ILT20. Both will be played simultaneously from early January to early February, and Wood won’t be fit for them most likely. Let’s assume that he played in the ICC Champions Trophy, which ends in early March. If it manages to remain unscathed, then the IPL 2025 season starts in mid-March. But his wish to participate in the league might not come true.
IPL exile?
Wood skipped the last season without a good reason. He was one of many Englishmen who pulled out for one or another reason. This angered some IPL franchises, and they told the BCCI that players who skip the league after getting picked up in the auction should be banned for a couple of years.
But even before that, some teams might be apprehensive about bidding for Wood in the auction despite his speed and effectiveness. The thought that he might skip at any point doesn’t breed confidence. Even if he gets picked, the price tag might now be high. Especially considering that high-quality pacers like Wood go for Rs 10 crores with ease.
The ECB might pull him out of the IPL 2025 to prepare for one of the biggest Test years for England, with India coming to visit and they later going to tour Australia for the Ashes. Wood could be questioning himself for accepting a 3-year contract that doesn’t allow him to play in lucrative franchise leagues, and with him nearing 35, age and fitness aren’t already on his side.
