I suspect I am not the only person who has noticed that finger spinners are taking over the world.
Daniel Vettori has annex New Zealand. Shakib Al-Hasan is turning himself into a minnow Keith Miller. Graeme Swann was struggling to fill the dodgy back bar of dodgy pubs 2 years ago, now he can fill stadiums. Paul Harris is perhaps the freakiest freak ever, and he takes wickets. Nathan Hauritz is Nathan Hauritz, and no one can take that away from him. And now even the ICC is being handed to a rubbish offspinner.
This is a plague of finger spin.
I’ve never truly trusted finger spinners as a breed. It seems to be the skill everyone thinks they can do, even without any real talent. I can’t see why anyone would choose finger spin knowing that wrist spin exists.
But, finger spin has its use.
It may bring us Harris and Hauritz, but there are no other cricket skills that someone like Ray Price could excel at.
And cricket needs its Ray Prices.
If the game was too sterile to have a middle-aged maniac who bowls little more than Darren Lehmann doorknobs, but with more natural aggression than Shaun Tait, then I want none of it. .
Price has that special gift that makes what he does look so easy that you could do the same. It is easy to say, “If I wasn’t some lazy fat bastard with three children and two ex wives I could be bowling rubbish off spin and taking wickets.”
Maybe in your heart you’d know it wasn’t true, but Ray’s genius seems genuinely within your grasp, if only you could get off the couch.
There is something in him, some weird burning passion, some mental disturbance, some chemical imbalance, that means he strangles a cricket game until he gets out of it everything he wants.
Rubbish off spinners aren’t supposed to sledge when they are bowling, they aren’t supposed to mock opposition batsmen or get in their face. They are supposed to go about their job in the least assuming way there is. No strutting, no cockiness, no posturing, no words. Just get through their overs as quick as their hairless bodies will allow while trying not to fuck up the match for the real bowlers.
Not Price.
He is a spitting angry barbarian with the ball in his hand; even if the balls come out like fairy floss. It is almost like no one has told him he bowls off spin.
And Price isn’t some young buck pissing vinegar; according to cricinfo he is 33. I wouldn’t want to doubt Price’s age, but his face has that lived in aesthetic, as if a tiny family of 12 have been there since he was 5.
When you put this altogether you have the angry sweary minnow grandfather of offspin bowling.
One day, when he is too old to be the world’s second best ODI bowler, I hope he just travels the world visiting local cricket nets and hustling young whipper snappers out of their hard earned by saying, “I’ll give you 5 to 1 that you can’t hit me back over my head”.
Wait. What? He is 33? He is a year younger than me? He is five years younger than Bryce McGain?
I need to see more matches first before i make my opinion of him. if aussies or indians carted him all over the park , he might look silly like sreesanth.
There is a reason finger spinner are quiet mostly. There is no magic like wrist spinner or card trick with finger spinner. Just spin and spin more.
Ray price style may work in some situation , i want to see when gayle go after him. Then i will see he can be predator or not.
At present my fingers crossed. Neverthelss interesting character to watch zimbabwe to see how he reacts in pressure situation
I’ve never been able to teach myself finger-spin. Just doesn’t happen.
Legspin is sexy.
.-= Rishabh´s last blog ..IPL Preview # 3 – Deccan Chargers =-.
Hear Hear! Just loved the way Ray Price walked up to the puny Barath in the T20 and gave him some ‘food for thought’! XD
.-= Thiru Cumaran´s last blog ..Some absolute peaches from ‘When Freddie Became Jesus’ =-.
why do you call him an off spinner…is he not left arm orthodox
The man had visited India in 2002 when Zimbabwe was competitive. Caused trouble to a lot of Indians with his bowling and not talking…he was quite silent then. Maybe the years of wilderness has made the serial killer in him come out of the woods.
By the way, he is not an offie. Shouldn’t he be called a left arm slow bowler. Or is it that you think all deranged non fast bowlers are offies (Harbhajan, Swann)
.-= Dhananjay Mhatre´s last blog ..Short Story – A ride through the hinterland. =-.
Left arm orthodox is technically left-arm off-spin. Left-arm chinaman is left-arm leg-spin. Paul Harris is left-arm crap.
.-= Rishabh´s last blog ..IPL Preview # 3 – Deccan Chargers =-.
I knew you were a fat lazy bastard but the three children and two ex-wives does come as a bit of a shock!
Oh wait, that’s meant to be me speaking….
LOL Rishabh Harris is indeed left-arm crap. I remember Ray Price gettn Ton-dulkar!! hahaha..
.-= Mock Wah´s last blog ..IPL 3.0 Behold the Knights =-.
The man troubled Tendulkar a lot. In fact the dude got a fiver in theIndia series. Alas, his best years have been taken away from him.
.-= Dhananjay Mhatre´s last blog ..Short Story – A ride through the hinterland. =-.
Ha! Rishabh, that was awesome.
.-= reina´s last blog ..Games Boys Play =-.
If you’d been butt raped by Mugabe and his henchmen, you’d be pissed too. It seems that I was wrong about Price as I’d always thought that John Howard was a much better spinner.
Price is also unique in that he could be the main reason for Chris Gayle to finally lose his cool http://bit.ly/corlXw – apparently he has given Pollard’s, Smith’s and Ramdin’s addresses to Mugabe’s boys. Could be interesting.
.-= The Reverse Sweep´s last blog ..Finally, Chris Gayle loses his cool =-.
@Reverse’
Gayle lost his cool once before. In the Champions Trophy in India some 4 years ago. The man who made him lose it – Micheal Clarke. Gayle went and bumped shoulders with him after whispering some abuses in his ears. Clarke’s expresions were all “Do not rape me please”. Do not ask why I remember all these things.
But nevertheless Gayle losing his cool requires something monumental. Which West Indies’s ineptitude was. How the hell do you lose to a team which does not have one decent medium pacer?
.-= Dhananjay Mhatre´s last blog ..Short Story – A ride through the hinterland. =-.
He he. Rape. It’s funny because it’s true.
Thanks, Mock Wah and reina. Like the Beggy Groin says, it’s funny ’cause it’s true.
.-= Rishabh´s last blog ..IPL Preview # 3 – Deccan Chargers =-.
“Legspin is sexy.”
Rishabh is a docile young man. But he still needs to work on that IPL thing.
It was nice to see that Vettori can still bat. Why NZ lost though:
.-= Wes´s last blog ..∙°º○. The Birth Of The Venus .○º°∙ =-.
Ray is one mean dude. Just imagine if he joined forces with Big Bad Benn? It would be carnage and batsmen all over the World would be quaking in their boots – this post probably shows that you shouldn’t combine blogging, brandy and a fertile imagination http://bit.ly/ailh25.
.-= The Reverse Sweep´s last blog ..Spinners With Attitude (S.W.A) announce debut album =-.