“I would say that he (Akhtar) impressed with his fitness in the tests we conducted last week,”
Abul Qadir
You wont get many bigger fans of the wonderous Adbul Qadir than me.
But in all his life he has never imparted as much spin on a cricket ball as he does in this one sentence.
No one believes Shoaib is fit.
Most of us have never seen him fit.
And if there was a day he was fit, we probably think there were drugs involved.
Of one kind or another.
Abdul Qadir . His action is still the sexiest thing you have ever seen on a cricket field. Part Ballerina, part Saber Toothed Tiger, he single handedly kept the art alive in the 1980’s. Big angry fast bowlers tried to kill it and batsmen in general, but Abdul just kept whipping himself into the crease and confusing the batsman with his magical deliveries. Statistically he had no real impact on cricket, but anyone who saw him bowl will never forget him.
Richie Benaud. On the field Richie’s contribution to leg spinning was moderate as he came after two greats in Tiger Bill and Clarrie. But in the commentary box Richie has done as much for leg spinning as any one human could. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be Richie? The man sold leg spinning like a magic potion that could fix what ails ya.
Shane Warne. Abdul may have kept the artform alive, but Shane Warne shoved it down the world’s throat with such force it would be hard to see it ever leave us again. The man, who looks more like a plumber than an artist, had such an effect on leg spin that children may be excused for thinking he invented it. He transformed leg spinning from an on field mystery to a tabloid grabbing media whore.
Clarrie Grimmet. The New Zealand born Australian leg break bowler took 20 years to make it to international cricket. When he did so he did so with a click of his fingers, and the flipper was born. Remained the hardest ball to bowl in cricket until Saqlain Mushtaq invented the doosra. Also is the quickest bowler to 200 wickets, and he got there with just a click… No, I won’t go there, again.
Bernard James Tindal Bosanquet. A surprising choice on this list as he is English, and we all know that the English have almost no leg spinners of any acclaim. But Bosanquet invented the goodly, wrong’un or bosie playing with a tennis ball on a table. Now a staple of almost all leg spinners, but back then it was so shocking he was lucky he didn’t get burnt at the stake.
A small boy entered the Pizza shop today and said
“Hey Unkie J, I want to be a leg spinner just like you”.
And I said
“Well I am hybrid Bubby/club legspinner”.
The little boy ran out confused.
That left me worried about the state of education in our schools.
Are kiddies not taught about the variants of leg spinning.
Maybe some on my blog are confused also.
Leg Spinning types and brief descriptions, by Unkie J.
The Aussie ripper leg spinner
Practised by Peter McIntyre, Sutart MacGill, and Shane Warne.
The main art of this leg spinner is the actual side spin imparted on the ball, which is done with a slightly rounder arm action and wrists made of steel. The objective is to spin the ball sideways on glass whilst maintaining a fairly consistent length and line. In a lesser hands it can go horribly wrong, in the hands of a master, can be combined with subtler straighter balls and gentle over spin to keep the batsman guessing. Mostly a leg stump line, can be less effective against a cack hander.
Signature move, the ball the spins past the outside edge.
The Bubbly Pakistani leg spinner
Practised by Mushtaq Ahmed and Abdul Qadir.
This is legspin with a touch of aerobics. It requires lots of hopping, arm whipping and an offstump line. This is the one form of leg spin that best encapsulates everything there is about legspinning, as all delivery’s are available from a straighter arm action whilst still spinning the ball. The objective is to trick the batsmen with a variant of balls so devishly devised that he regulary plays for a ball that spins one way whilst it spins the other way. Because the ball spins both ways it is effective against all batsmen, but the offstump line means a good length is every important.
Signature move, the wrong’un that cuts the batsman in two halves.
The Absurdist straight breaker
Practised By Tiger Bill O’Reilly, Anil Kumble, Shahid Afridi, Chris Harris, Cameron White and Piyush Chawla.
This is leg spin without the legspin. It is deception of the highest order. It is also almost impossible to make a living on. You must have the ability to sell the spin, whilst delivering the straight one. You can bowl any delivery you want with this style, but it doesn’t really matter, because you won’t be spinning the ball anyway, but if you are good at it, you will be aggressively accurate and steady like a train. The objective is to penetrate the mind of the batsmen through repetition and absurdity.
Signature move, the straight one.
The club leg spinner
Practised by Richie Benaud, Bryce McGain, & every West Indian Legspinner ever.
Not a huge spinner of the ball, has variation but mostly works on the fact that if they can land every leg spinner in the same place for a day wickets will come. The arm action is usually somewhere between straight arm and round arm, and this particular style comes in many wonderfully different actions. The objective is to beat you with subtle flight, spin and speed changes.
Signature move, the batsman losing patience and swinging across the line, but hitting it straight up in the air.
The Paul Adams leg spinner
Practised by Paul Adams, and me in the backyard, until I hurt my back.
Was once described as a frog in a blender. I like to think of it as a midget, wearing a bunny suit, trying to fling its head at you with a shoulder jerk so savage that it could kill the average ostrich. The objective seems to be not to fling your head at the batsman, but to make him think you are while you get him with your badly disguised wrong one.
Signature move, unknown.
I was born into a cricketing family. I played my first game of cricket at 7.
I didn’t bat or bowl in that game, they were scared I’d get hurt, as it was under 12’s.
The next year I started batting and bowling. I started with a golden duck and a wicket in my first over.
By the time I was 9 my father had decided that since I was only average at wicket keeping and bowled slower than any other kid my age he’d make me into a spin bowler.
My father had been in love with leg spinners all his life (which is odd for a quick bowler who grew up in the 60’s), and I actually started as an off spinner, until I realised you could do more tricks as a leg spinner.
He was forever going on about these hacks that no one had ever heard of Peter Sleep, Terry Jenner, Ray Bright, Trevor Hohns and Ashley Mallet.
I took to it straight away, I could deceive batsmen after walking in, brilliant. It was if spin bowling was designed with me in mind, I get to walk in throw the ball up and laugh when people miss it, that’s my kind of caper.
My leg spinning got better and better, I had a handy wrong’un, great flight and an awesome top spinner (also when I was 14 I had a surprisingly accurate bouncer)
When I got to fifteen I got picked by North Melbourne for the Dowling shield (same year as Michael Klinger) and even though they hardly bowled me (1-1-1-0 I shit you not), my dad was excited enough to tell me he’d pay for spin bowling lessons.
So I rang a number in some cricket magazine that advertised spin bowling lessons. The phone was answered by a dude in a factory office (I think), eventually I was passed to a guy named Ray Bright.
I shat myself.
He asked what kind of spinner I was, leg, asked about my run up, I told him it was like Mushtaq Ahmed’s, he asked about my line, I told him middle to off, he asked about my wrong un, I said I had one, he asked about my flipper, I said no. He asked if I spun the ball a lot, I said not really use variation and flight mostly.
He said ok, I think we can work with this, first we need to slow your run up down, make it a brisk walk, then we need to get you bowling at leg or outside, we need to you to spin the ball more, we need you to forget about the wrong un and learn the flipper.
I said, won’t that make me exactly like Warne.
He said, yeah that’s what I’m trying to do.
Oh, but I don’t bowl like warne, I bowl like mushtaq ahmed.
But warne is better.
I can’t spin the ball a long way. I don’t have strong wrists or big hands.
That doesn’t matter, we teach you ways to be like him.
I don’t want to be like Warne, I want to be like Qadir or Ahmed.
They are both good bowlers, but warne is better. So when can I book you in.
I told him I’d have to see when my dad could take me. I never did call him back. He was nice though.
That is one of about 25 stories I have about growing up as a leg spinner under Shane Warne. I was 11 and had just got good when he played his first test.
One day I will tell you all the stupid things I was told by coaches, captains, teammates and selectors on my long trip to the middle.
Ray Bright 25 tests, 53 wickets, avg 41, best bowling 7/87.
