The man who says he can give England their own Brett Lee

'I can make them all quicker,' claims Pont. Stephen Brenkley speaks to him

Nothing after all these years has more allure in Test cricket than sheer pace. As thrilling events in Perth have already shown, it still has that potent combination of sending tingles down the spine of spectators and giving batsmen the heebie-jeebies in other parts of the body.

Pace was, a light year or so ago, the strategy on which England were to base their campaign to reclaim the Ashes. It all went horribly wrong at around the time Simon Jones slid along the Brisbane turf and severely damaged an anterior cruciate ligament. It was as crucial as it was cruciate.

But the point about the glory of pace has only been reinforced, and just before Brett Lee made the velocity gauge earn its corn at the Waca any Englishmen would have been at least mildly encouraged to hear some talk about speed, and how it can be increased.

"Take a few men out of the equation and there isn't a bowler in the world today that I can't make bowl quicker," said Ian Pont. "Our problem is that we don't think sufficiently about the mechanics of the body, but if you took someone who can bowl at 70 mph, in theory you can make them bowl at 75 at least, and if you've got someone who's coming in at 88 you can make them 93. Take someone like Simon Jones, I think I could give him an extra seven miles an hour."

These are the sort of bald, bold statements which could get Pont dismissed as a crackpot and in some quarters they almost certainly have. But he is not without credentials and whatever the unquestionable merit of his suggestions his point that too few people are prepared to listen is equally worthy.

Pont, a former bowler who played infrequently for Nottinghamshire, Essex and Natal, aims not to change bowling actions but to alter slightly the position of various bodily parts. At the point of delivery, he advocates that bowlers are fully stretched with their body shaped almost like a boomerang, the bowling arm back and chest and hip pushed forward. The timing of the movement, particularly the thrust of the hip, is the most significant part of the movement. The further the chest is forward, the tighter the stretch, the faster the ball.

If this sounds as though it needs the talent of a contortionist, Pont claims it should come easily and eventually naturally. The bowler has to be chest on when he releases the ball. He began putting his theories into practice six years ago, but his highest profile client so far is Ronnie Irani, whose entire career as an all-rounder has been blighted by a lack of pace.

Irani was so taken with Pont's methods that he sought permission for him to attend the England one-day nets last summer. If the Essex captain is duly selected for the World Cup he wants Pont in South Africa. But that merely amplifies how willing Irani is to try new ideas. Andrew McGarry, the 21-year-old Essex bowler who agreed to pose for the photograph on the right, listened intently as Pont espoused his hypothesis. He was eager to know if it could make him quicker. Maybe others will do likewise.

"In terms of the way we play and coach our cricket, it's pretty well indoctrinated," said Pont. "We're not very flexible. Bio-mechanics is about how the body moves, it's not to do specifically with cricket or baseball, it's to do with the body and if you can generate more speed by getting into a certain position for one sport you can do it for another.

"Speed is what I'm all about and if your body's right you won't sacrifice accuracy. It's relevant today, perhaps particularly at international level, where if you haven't got an extra yard you get found out, unless you are Glenn McGrath. Of course, England would now give their right arm for someone who could bowl at 83mph perpetually on the right spot but genuine fast bowlers have an edge."

'Twas ever thus, which is why the quest for fast bowlers is never-ending. From time to time competitions to find them have been held in England. Pont first began to develop his idea when he went to the United States for trials as a baseball pitcher in the Eighties as a result of his phenomenal throwing arm, which itself was developed from constantly skimming pebbles into the sea as a kid.

Perhaps his finest single moment as a cricketer came in the 1985 NatWest Trophy Final when the Nottinghamshire opening pair had put on 143. Chris Broad was run out, astonished by the power and accuracy of Pont's throw from deep mid-wicket. While the baseball trials did not lead to a pro career he learned about biomechanics.

"It's been proven in other sports like baseball and javelin throwing, which are both bent arm sports rather than straight arm, that it's how the body moves that's important. The principle is exactly the same. One thing you learn quickly is that if the positioning is right the arm is the last thing that comes through. The run-up isn't completely irrelevant but the crease is the office, the business area. The talk has always been about cricket being a sideways-on game but that's absolute rubbish. It's where cricket loses the plot."

Pont, whose brother Keith is the England and Wales Cricket Board's director of development, is clearly frustrated that he has not had a wider audience. But he produced sheets to show how his method increased the speed of club players, aged from 11 to 30, by up to 15mph.

He genuinely believes that it could work for professional bowlers with tinkering, not remodelling. "As with any coaching, you've got to be with me mentally. If you think I'm an idiot then it won't work, whether I'm right or not and I'll go home, but do it, see that it works I'll come back next week.

"There are wickets all over the world where the ball doesn't do that much against international batsmen. If you aren't swinging it or seaming it and you're bowling at 38mph you're history. At 95mph you can actually make things happen." Pont himself craves the opportunity to do the same.