Usually I help legspinners, but I’m in a good mood, so I thought I’d help out the lesser spinners.
If you’re a young kid with aspirations of playing for your country and tweaking the ball a bit, here is the 5 step plan on how to be an International offspinner.
Step 1:
Learn off spin, you don’t need to spin it sideways, but make sure you spin it enough that when it doesn’t spin it’s more noticeable than when it does.
Step 2:
Practice hitting the same spot outside off for hours on end. Learn flight, guile, drift, and all those other things Bishen Bedi likes.
Step 3:
Obtain a physical deformity in your arm. Get your older brother, that old dude you met from my space, or any school yard bully to beat your arm until you can’t straighten it. Under no circumstances should you ever be able to straighten your bowling arm. Ever.
Step 4:
Learn the Doosra, with your newly bent arm that should be pretty easy.
Step 5:
Now you know how to bowl off spin, you’ll need a thick skin for when you make the top level, so when you are practising your deliveries employ local kids to yell out chucker, cheating cunt, fucking poofter and no ball.
That should be enough.
You are now ready to be an international off spinner.
Good luck.
Basically, in the 80′s when the WI bowlers were benefitting from their ability to bowl bouncers, a rule was introduced to limit bouncers per over. Who was behind it? Tell me, tell me. Which bunch of cowards and playground bullies who cannot face real heat, went to mama and cried and got the rules changed? Everyone knows the answer. So, basically, if something gives advantage to anyone other than certain 2 countries, then ICC will illegalise it. This is Cricket history. The funny thing is even now, when Asia is supposed to be dominating ICC, this still happens. Hats off to Aussie and English Cricket admins for wielding power even when Asia has the financial dominance. Thats really some cunning and guile.
yeah asad rauf and billy bowden…and their outstanding records of standing up to aussie players and not bowing under pressure.
@Raj – Regarding skill wrt to bowling doosra, what you argue is another point. Right now anything which looks like a chuck “visually” is reported and then the protractor bought out to see the amount of flex. As per law, Ajmal has been reported. If he is cleared, he will be allowed to play. What is the problem with that? Last I saw, Harbhajan is still bowling his doosra. At the same time, the “white” Botha has been reported again. James Kirtley was earlier not selected due to his action.
About the WI fast bowler, one must remember that Aussies also had psychos in the form of Lillee, Thompson, Pascoe, etc. The WI bowling had become too intimidatory and negative. My father tells me of days spent watching cricket when you could count the deliveries bowled at a full length on your fingers.
I am not saying that Australia and England have been very unbiased in the past. They must have behaved just like how the BCCI is behaving right now.
Mhatre, when the bouncer rule was introduced, Aussie pace attack was emaciated. Lillee and Thompson were gone. Let’s not make excuses. A & E are schoolground bullies. When the opponent is weak, the will steamroll over them. When the opposition is strong, they will withdraw from face-to-face front-on fighting, They will work in some backdoor cunning and guile, and attack from the behind.
Mhatre, actually no problem with reporting Ajmal as you say. But the cynical way in which Watson and co. played the game, and the continuing inability of ICC officials and umpires to stand up to Aussie pressure is nauseating. Rules are not made so that you can cynically look for loopholes to use it to your advantage. There is something called spirit. If Aussie cricketers claim they play in the spirit of the game, then I can only laugh at them. Always looking to eliminate strong opponents by somehow provoking them into saying or doing something intemperate – this is the behaviour of a coward who cannot compete with skills. In the end, Warne’s skill is loved, not his theatrics. Skill is what brings repute for a game, not such cynical tactics, even though people might like to argue mental pressure etc. Anyone who undermines cricketing skill by resorting to such underhand tactics should be condemned.
That said, the indian team under Dhoni with such stalwarts as Yuvraj and Harbhajan is equally unlikeable. Dhoni is a decent man. But the likes of Yuvraj and Harbhajan – they belong to the Ponting/Hayden/Clarke school of lack of sportsmanship.
Gee Raj, anything you forgot to mention?
I mean, tell us what you really think, don’t hold back now…
jamie64, let’s park that for a moment. What is the point behind your post? Do you have anything to discuss on the point being discussed? Or you are interested only in making personal comments?
Raj, several people have commented on Kamran’s action. Most of us Aussies aren’t watching the IPL though (I haven’t seen any of Kamran), so we’ll comment more if he makes the Indian team.
It is not the case that Australian off-spinners can’t throw doosras. They can, and they do so in practice, they just choose not to use it in matches because they know they’re chucking.
We can fix the bat/ball balance by ways that don’t destroy the nature of cricket (ie, bowling to a batsman) – the obvious one being pitches that aren’t so flat.
DB, so why you are you fixated only in specific ways of fixing the ball-bat balance? What makes you guys so passionate against a technique which only gives certain bowlers an advantage? If Aussie bowlers can chuck doosras, what is the problem? Encourage them, and we’ll all be even, wont we? Why perpetuate this divide? Afterall, sports is for entertainment and fun and appreciation of skills. Why be so fixated on rules as though they were biblical commandments(oh ofcourse atheists wont respect it but I am using bible here in a generic sense)? Rules define the game or the game defines the rules?
I dont really understand, you are saying Aussie spinners can chuck doosras. Well, what the rest of the world can see is Aussie spinners are not even able to turn the ball one way or other. Certainly, spin bowling is not the strength of the Aussies now. Spin bowling strength is with otehr countries. So, isnt it advantageous for Australia to negate any advantages spinners get and not allow rules be flexed to allow that advantage?
So, you keep on arguing that switch hit can be allowed(even though it offers undue advantage to the batsman employing it and complicates fielding rules) but a skill-based advantage to a bowler cannot be allowed. I am fine with the switch hit because that also involves skill but I cant understand why a skill-based Doosra advantage cannot be allowed.
Like I said, when Lillee and Thomson were there, Australia didnt think up the idea of limiting bouncers per over. Only when WI took over that mantle did they think of it. Similarly, tomorrow, if a genuine Aussie spinner emerges who can actually use the Doosra to his advantage, I am sure you guys will change your tune. Basically, that is fine. Use your influence to keep the rules to your advantage but why the hypocritical “We are perfect, we are rule abiding, others are cheaters ” stand. Why sanctimony?
You can be absolutely certain, raj, that those of us who hate chucking will not “change our tune” if Australia starts picking a chucker. We will want him either dropped, reported and banned, or no-balled. Or just to bowl, rather than chuck. I sincerely hope that Australia never picks another chucker. It may happen – as Jrod pointed out on this blog a few months ago, the most powerful cricketing state in Australia put their support behind Aaron Bird, despite him having an atrocious action. If the worst does happen, you can accuse the Australian team and administrators of being hypocrites, and I will actually agree with you about it.
Your argument that the doosra is a skill is completely beside the point (and wrong). It takes a great deal of skill to be a Major League pitcher, but that does not mean that we should turn cricket into baseball. I’m sure open slather on chucking would lead to an interesting sport, but it wouldn’t be cricket. I am absolutely opposed to allowing a chuck for one particular type of delivery. It would be a stupid law if it came in. What if an attempted doosra doesn’t turn, is it a no-ball? Would the law allow any amount of chucking if it’s a doosra, or just (say) 25 degrees?
Your argument that it would help the Australian team to encourage chucking emphasises our philosophy – this is not about us being better than other teams. We love cricket and we don’t want to see it degraded by turning the sport into something else.
“we love cricket and we don’t want to see it degraded by turning the sport into something else.”
does that include sledging? or is that an art?
David Barry, so is your point that ALL or a MAJORITY of Aussies are honourable, unhypocritical, honest blokes whoc annot cheat but the rest of the world is? What sort of an argument is that? Maybe you can say David BArry will not change his opinion? But what makes you say, in the face of contrary evidence, that most Aussies are like that. How many instances of hypocrisy among Aussie Cricket folk do you want or are you so ignorant that you dont know about it. In the other thread, reverse swing came up for discussion. Is that not an example of a major part of Aussie Cricket establishment and its fans downplaying English reverse swing and rejecting allegations fo English cheating? So, how is that tampering is acceptable skill for you?
(Please do understand that I am not personally targetting you here – I am talking about the hypocrisy which is fairly well exhibhited by Aussie Cricket establishment on these matters.)
What about Reverse Hit? Is it a game-enhancing skill? So, how come it happens that predominantly Asian skills change Cricket into another game, but a skill that can be mastered by anyone and is pioneered by a non-Asian is a game-enhancing skill?
David, don’t mention Bird! His case destroys Raj’s myth that the Australian establishment claims Aussies don’t chuck!
More seriously, Raj has a serious problem with the idea of using rules. He believes that a game can exist without rules, and that it defines the rules rather than vice versa. To give him credit, he is very consistent in this belief and he has a bit of a point – from time to time, rules are used in inconsistent ways to justify unfairness. However, he misses the point that unless the rules are agreed to define the game, it’s actually impossible to be consistently fair. Such an approach is just asking for claims of bias to be thrown in every direction.
Raj, just wondering who these aussies that you refer to are? Not sure how many aussies have commented on this thread, but at least 2, Jrod and DavidBarry are not spouting racisits agendas and are against all chucking, no matter the colour of the chucker, you can now add my name to those as someone that wants all chucking outlawed.
You are right that bowling the Doosra does require skill, and it is something Aussies are not very good at. The key point there being that it is able to be bowled without chucking it. If you can bowl it, then great, if not, it is not a legal delivery. The rules are in place that allow a cricketer to continue playing until such time they have had the biomechanical tests. The nakes eye can make mistakes as to the degree of flex, which is why further tests are required before a bowler (or a particular delivery of said bowler) is banned.
Raj, do you seriously not agree that Australian cricket culture has consistently targetted “chuckers” of many shapes and colours in a way that apparently doesn’t happen in other places? I think that’s all David is getting at.
Noone has outlawed either the doosra or the reverse hit. No change needs to be made to allow the reverse hit. You seem to be suggesting that the doosra be allowed even if this does involve law changes. The situation is somewhat different.
Ball-tampering, chucking are breaking the rules (I haven’t spoken to any Aussies who are happy with English tampering). Changing the rules to allow commonly accepted practice might be a good idea, if there is anything that is actually commonly accepted. The change to 15 degrees is a rare example of this, but there is room for more work on that.
Reverse hits and doosras without straightening are within the rules. The rules are not being changed to outlaw them. Examples of rules changed to remove tactics are bodyline, bouncers and underarm bowling. Two different categories…
Raj,
you are full of shit. We have chuckers here, but they get rubbed out quickly.
That’s my point. Simple hey? But you are are to full of your Asian v Aussie cheaters to even think about it. Go back and read what I wrote previously you idiot.
Chucking should be outlawed. In Australia you get no balled at junior level for chucking. As a level 2 coach I know this because I have worked for many, many years on things like this.
Pull your head in pal. Chuckers are chuckers. End of story. Do you have a problem with that are all Australians just racists?
@jamie64 – oh yeah…aussie cricketers…from a tender age such paragons of honesty and decency. so in your coaching manual, does the chapter on sledging come before chucking? nice work stamping out chuckers and cheats…that’s why we still see haddin playing intl cricket? where would the game be without brave aussie cricketers holding it to a high standard?!
Say what you want about Australians, but we have managed to bring Pakistan and India together right here on this thread. Way more than Lalit has in the IPL.
Watching the SAPL I am beginning to think that fielding and running between wickets, if valued as skills, could be considered game-enhancing if done properly
jonathan, you got me right there about rules. Rules are sometimes used to unfairly bias the chances towards one particular country.
On reverse hit, do you seriously not realise that it screws up the fielding rules? That is why there was a controversy. But it was hastily approved. Seriously, you guys are not getting my point at all. Let’s say I grant that Aussies crack down on chucking consistently. Still, are you guys claiming that Aussies are paragons of virtue, as Sunny put it? You are not guilty of hypocrisy at all? Especially when you consider Ponting, Sutherland etc? Not to mention the reaction to Tresco’s book? Where was the rage then against tampering? You guys still passionately argue against the Doosra. Did you catch yourself passionately berating the british for tampering and reverse swing? So, there, doesnt it prove something to you? I am just saying recoginse your biases.
Will you also say that Australia and England did not cynically use the veto to further their selfish interests and ruthlessly dominate and humiliate India, Pak, NZ etc? I mean, again, where from this sanctinmoniousness comes to you guys?
Secondly, who told you Murali is chucking beyond 15 degrees for the Doosra? Per the current rules, since he is below 15 degrees for the doosra, he isnt chucking it , is he?
So, why dont you accept ICC rules, which I believe you guys worship like Bible?
Sorry I am getting confused, who has the moral high ground in this argument again?
@poopsie – don’t know abt the moral high ground but going by this picture, the morale high ground belongs to kallis’ sister.
Memories, like the chorus of my mind…this comments section takes me back to happy times…Australia v. India ’07-08…bhajji…symo…monkeys…etc
Sunny – perhaps that is another way for an offie to attain that physical deformity in his arm
jrod, nice try. You are not part of the ‘Aussie’ group that we berate. No a mount of effort from you will convince us that you are the same as the rest of your countrymen, You are a statesman, jrod, high priest of sehwagology. We’ll not bunch you with the specific group of Aussies that we are berating.
Raj, I think you’ll find the very aussies you berate don’t read this site, they read foxsports. I’ve never been overly loved at home, crikey aside.
Sunny,
from my recolection Haddin doesn’t bowl so what are you on about?
@jamie64 – oh that’s right claiming a bowled while dislodging the bails with your gloves is within the rules. that’s definitely not cheating.
Um, sorry to point this out, but we are talking about chucking.
Just in case you failed to notice.
Um sorry to point this out, but we are talking about cheating.
Just in case you failed to notice.
Oh right…aussie players don’t cheat.
Err, no dickhead. it’s about chucking. read the original post.
You seriously can’t be that stupid.
Raj, sure the reverse hit has implications for the fielding rules, but there wasn’t a rule stopping it. It wasn’t hastily “approved”, it was hastily decided that there wsa no need to disallow it. The difference is significant unless you don’t believe in rules to start with.
As for missing the point, noone here has even remotely suggested that “Aussies are paragons of virtue”, or that CA is any less self-interested than everyone else. I spent 4 years avoiding aussies, since aussies in london are generally some of the most annoying people on the planet (why do i read this blog???), but i still think you’re being ridiculous. You keep telling us jrod isn’t typical, and you’re talking about other Aussies, but you keep coming back to the doosra, saying Murali’s is fine. Jrod is the only Aussie here who has said all doosra is always a chuck! The funny thing is that most of the foxsports-reader-types you are upset with sound just like you, with a habit of playing the man not the ball.
As for tampering, I find myself berating the English about that and anything else I can find. I suspect you’ll find that most people you were happy with Tresco do similar things themselves. Do you want them to be hyprocrites or not?
@jamie64 – ah nice…calling ppl names. nah, i can’t be that stupid since you keep hogging all the stupidity around here. fuckface.
Err, the original post? What is it about? Simple question really.