Origin of the term "Heavy Ball"?

Question

I have often heard commentators describe particular bowlers as having a "heavy ball". By context, this seems to refer to a fast bowler being able to bowl a delivery that seems to impact the bat with greater force that would be expected given their pace. In other words, they aren't a particularly fast bowler, but the ball travels with greater force than is suggested by its pace. For example, see the description in cricinfo's glossary of terms (use find 'heavy ball').

This is absolute nonsense in terms of physics, but it is a pervasive concept that seems to be held true by cricketing people, so there must be a sensible explanation that accords with sensible physics that is being miscommunicated or misunderstood by the use of the phrase 'heavy ball'. I would perhaps make a parallel to the notion in Basketball that good jumpers seem to 'hang in the air' longer than bad ones. Again, this seems to make no sense physically until you realise that good jumpers have learned to use similar tricks to ballerinas to keep parts of their body elevated for longer by changing their centre of mass (see for instance here and compare with Michael Jordan's iconic split leg dunking pose). Is there is similar explanation for the origin of this confusing term in cricket?

Answer 1

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This is only the term which is used as a "Heavy Ball", but there is no heavy or light. Only the effort of bowler makes this.

Bowlers who bowl the heavy ball hit the deck lot harder than average bowlers. Michael Kasprowicz, Andrew Flintoff, and Andrew Caddick are good examples of such bowlers. While there are bowlers who skid the bowl through quicker than others. Lasith Malinga is one such bowler. Some bowlers are quicker through the air and these are ones who are mostly called tearaway or genuine fast bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee and Waqar Younis.

Answer 2

In contrast to a lot that has been said above, the heavy ball could possibly have a physical reason behind it.

Two balls, despite having the same 'bowling speed' and despite pitching at the same location could still rear up differently. Hence the two seemingly-identical balls bowled could still seem different to the batsman.

In my opinion, a heavy ball could be delivered by a tall bowler by releasing the ball from a higher height than normal. Also, by varying the ball release, seam position, release height and release distance, the bowler can extract more bounce from the pitch. This leads to the feeling of a 'heavy ball' to the batsman.

The case in point is not a simple 2-D linear mechanics situation, but one that is complicated by the presence of different pitch restitutions (due to seam positions) and can hence have different apparent ball speeds.

As for the basketball analogy, it is certainly incorrect for this case. While the height to which your centre of mass can travel is dictated by your jumping ability, you can indeed change your hangtime by moving your legs and hands. (Note that the height to which your centre of mass rises still remains the same)

Good jumpers tend to use these small ideas to extend their hang time. Their body position also gives an onlooker the apparent notion of an extended hang time.