CRAIG McDermott's advice to James Pattinson, that he should abandon the shorter length practised by Victoria's bowlers, worked like a charm for the Test debutant, but Bushrangers' coach Greg Shipperd has rejected the assertion his quicks are taught to bowl the wrong lengths for Test cricket.
''I think that is rubbish,'' Shipperd said yesterday. ''If you look at the bowleds and lbws for Victoria over the last six or seven years, you will probably find that we lead the competition in terms of hitting those particular spots.
''Our mantra is not to bowl back of a length, it is certainly to hit the wicket aggressively, but the length [is] knee roll and top of off stump. If you look at the statistics those comments would be proved incorrect.
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''Then if you actually look at the people we have had coaching our bowlers in Damien Wright, swing bowler, David Saker, swing bowler, [the bowling coaches for New Zealand and England, respectively] they are not the type of people who are going to say just bash it back of a length, they were teaching bowlers to move it in the air, present the seam correctly and bowl the right length for that to occur. Probably the only bowler who would have bowled at a different length was our attack dog, Shane Harwood, who wasn't a swinger of the ball, but his go was pace and targeting bodies.''
Pattinson learnt to ''smash'' a fuller length under the guidance of McDermott as a squad member in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa and was unleashed with stunning results at the Gabba, where he captured 5-27 in the second innings with fast, late away swing.
''He [McDermott] has said to me the length that I bowl with Victoria, that back of a length, doesn't work in Test cricket, it's hard to get wickets with that, you've got more chance of getting wickets if you pitch the ball up there and give [yourself] a chance to get some caught behindPattinson said on Fox Sports' Inside Cricket this week.
''I had to get a lot fuller with my lengths and all that work I have done in Sri Lanka and South Africa has proved really good for me.''
Peter Siddle has also been urged to bowl fuller by McDermott and captain Michael Clarke.
Shipperd supports the ''pitch it up and swing it'' mantra, which is likely to be promoted around the country in a consistent approach to coaching, but does not accept that Victorian quicks bowl too short to thrive at Test level.
''I don't know whose interpretation of our bowling plan was to bash back of a length. Whoever has been saying that has not been watching closely enough.''
