Does it matter whether one is tall, short, small, a midget or a pigmy? I suppose it does when it comes to shaping up with things in practical life.

In sports it surely makes a huge difference when coping and competing at international level. Tall figures are known to be the best in basketball for America as well as those who play fully-padded American brand of football, the NFL, which is sometimes also known as grid-iron.

A great majority of these players are often six feet and over, and they certainly dominate when they are playing against those who lack in height because they fail to compete with the taller ones at equal level.

In athletics and field sports, I am sure, it has its own advantages. But in soccer, golf, tennis, squash or hockey or even in cricket — unless you are an aspiring tearaway fast bowler — height or the lack of it surely is seldom in question or has any significant disadvantages.

In cricket short men make great batsmen. Sir Don Bradman, Niel Harvey, Hanif Mohammad, Sunil Gavaskar, Everton Weekes, Rohan Kanhai, Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, John Edrich, Javed Miandad, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar are among the many short players who have dominated the game and their names are enough to prove my point.

Spinners usually are known to be of medium-height, short, slim or stocky as were Sony Ramadhin, Subash Gupte, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Bishen Bedi, Abdul Qadir, Muttiah Muralitharan or Shane Warne.

The first of the great Australian leg-spinners ‘Tiger’ Bill O’Rielly or the West Indian off-spinner from Guyana, Lance Gibbs who became the first spinner to take hundred wickets in Tests, or England’s Jim Laker who once took 19 wickets in an Ashes Test at Old Trafford in 1956 against Australia were obviously the exceptions because they were over six feet tall.

Amongst the giant size fast bowlers, Mohammad Irfan hailing from Gaggu Mandi in Pakistan towers above everyone else with a frame of seven feet one inch who made his debut in this second Test at Newlands this week.

There was some talk whether he will last the pressure and demands of a five-day Test but he, in fact, justified his inclusion by picking up three important wickets when it was needed. Barring his initial spell, he bowled with venom and made incisive inroads to help Pakistan take a first innings lead against the South African batting powerhouse which in this match appeared to be struggling as Saeed Ajmal weaved his web around them to bag the first six wickets to fall.

Irfan, if used in short bursts by any intelligent captain, can prove to be a handful on a surface which shows any sign of lift and bounce. Some of his deliveries did really fly between the ears of the Proteas batsmen as he angled his deliveries past them and bounced a few which whistled disconcertingly high over their shoulders.

He obviously reminded me of Joel Garner, famously known as ‘The Big Bird’ and Colin Croft of the West Indian sides of the seventies and the eighties who destroyed Pakistan batting in the Caribbean in their debut series in 1976-77. Garner from Barbados was six feet eight inches tall and wore size 15 shoes as does Irfan. Not forgetting, of course, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh from the village of Sweet in Antigua and from Kingston in Jamaica respectively who were fine bowlers and shared 421 wickets while bowling in tandem.

The tallest Australian fast bowler was, of course, Bruce Reid from Perth in Western Australia in the eighties and early nineties. Six feet eight inches tall, he was slim and pencil-like figure but did generate pace and bounce to play 27 Tests and take over hundred wickets.

And the tallest for India was one Abey Kuruvilla from Kerala in the south who was six feet six inches and in 1996-97 took five for 68 at Barbados against the West Indies but India let him down by falling short of a small victory target of 120. His career, however, was cut short through injuries.

Irfan though now in limelight remains the tallest amongst the cricketers to have played Test cricket and if he manages to come up in the second innings with any credit after Pakistan is able to repair the damage done in the second innings by the South African bowlers, he may emerge even taller in the eyes of his colleagues at least.