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| Sunday, 2 October 2005 |
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Sports |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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How to spin them... by A. C. de Silva There is nothing to compare with spin bowling in the wonderful game of cricket. It is a difficult, often exasperating art to learn but like all difficult skills there is nothing quite so satisfying once you have acquired the ability to make the ball spin enough to beat the bat and mesmerise the man holding it into error. There are two basic types of spinners, the wrist spinner who relies on rolling and snapping the wrist to give the ball spin, and the finger spinner, who uses his fingers to impart spin to the ball. The wrist spinner is the supreme artist of all the bowling arts, for only he can produce so many different types of deliveries with a similar action, whether he is left-arm or right-arm. The finger spinner grips the ball with the tips of his first and second fingers, using the thumb to cradle the ball, spreading the two fingers as wide across the seam as possible. At the point of delivery, he has the wrist cocked well back as he lets go of the ball, he flicks the forefinger down and across the seam and simultaneously jerks the wrist towards the batsman. The same basic finger spinning action is used whether you are right-arm or orthodox left-arm and in these styles the index finger does most of the work. Only a handful of Australian slow bowlers have earned as much admiration throughout the cricket playing nations. Of the present-day lot, the most spoken about bowler of the day is Shane Warne who holds the world record for bowling with 623 wickets in 128 Tests. Finger spinners England's Jim Laker achieved great success with finger spin and more recently the West Indian Lance Gibbs got a Test match hat-trick with it. To-day most bowlers concentrate on finger spinning or wrist spinning, but such great bowlers as Australia's Bill O'Reilly and England's Douglas Wright showed that a combination of both is possible. Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan is a front runner to challenge Australian Shane Warne for the world bowling record and has his tally at 563 wickets from 95 Tests. The two Tests against Bangladesh brought Murali 14 wickets and kept him in line for the record. Murali's "Doosra" got him many wickets and had the Bangladesh batsmen "foxed". In years gone by, there was Indian Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, who even with a disability, stuck to his job of bowling effectively in Tests. He was striken by polio at the age of 5 years but turned the handicap to his advantage with an indomitable spirit and with a withered right arm, he became one of the great leg-break bowlers of all time - just when the arm itself, was withering away. At 17, he played for Mysore in the Ranji Trophy and a year later, took 4 for 67 in 40 overs on his Test debut against England. Regarded as either a phenomenon or a freak, he would hold the ball in both hands like a "bowls player", then trundle in some ten paces before sending down a potpourri of leggies, googlies and top spinners at around 'Underwood' pace. Although he bowled with his emaciated right-arm, he threw with his left. With the ball, this slim bearded South Indian was a master, totalling 242 wickets at 29.74 in 58 Tests. Although his finest hour was at the London Oval in 1971, his match figures of 12 for 104 runs in Melbourne bowled India to a first Test win on Australian soil in 1978. The West Indians had a champion bowler in Sonny Ramadhin. Born in Experance Village, Trinidad on May 1st 1929, Sonny Ramadhin brought the magic of the East to West Indian cricket. When chosen for the 1950 tour to England, he was as big a mystery to his teammates as he would be to Hutton, Compton and Co. An orphan, he had just played in two first-class matches before becoming the first East indian to play for the West Indies. Ramadhin and Valentine were probably the greatest gamble that any touring side had ever taken for a Test series in England. Just 5'4 inches tall, Ramadhin trotted in gently and bowled out of the back of his hand, his arms loose, while windmill of button-down sleeved his maroon cap often still on his head. Although he bowled more like a leg-spinner, he bowled mostly off-spinners, with leggies and quicker balls thrown in. Reading him was akin to discipering sankrit, with straight balls leaving even the most literate of campaigners baffled. Spin duo excel The finest Test that the West Indies spin duo came alive was against England at Lord's on June 24, 26, 27, 28 and 29 in 1950. E. W. Swanton observed: "Ramadhin bowled magnificently, using the art and subtleties of a spinner in a way extraordinary in one who had not a scrap of experience before this tour. The most fitting tribute was that thousands of West Indians burst on to the hallowed turf and brought a touch of the Caribbean to S. John's Wood with the immortal calypso: West Indies made 326 and 425 for 6 wickets dec. England made 151 (Valentine 45-28-48-4; Ramadhin 43-27-66-5) and 274 (Valentine 71-47-79-3, Ramadhin 72-43-86-6). Result: West Indies won by 326 runs. In all, Ramadhin took 158 Test wickets but was never the same force after May and Cowdrey had blunted him with an epic stand of 411 at Edgbaston in 1957. After years in the Lancashire Leagues, he represented the county with some success in the 1960s. India was not to be outdone in the art of spin bowling. Besides Chandrasekhar, there was much earlier in 1952 or so Ghulam Ahmed who looked to be a world-beating off break bowler. He came off with a fine effort on the first day of England's innings in the opening Test of the series at Leeds. Classic became the struggle between the batsmen of England and the very cunning slow bowler from India. The odds were heavily stacked against the bowler. Yet he completed 46 overs of which 17 were maidens, and took 4 for 75. No slow bowler in the world could have done better in the double and heavy task of first containing batsmen of the class of Hutton, May, Graveney and Simpson, and second, luring them to destruction. Ghulam Ahmed's control, turn and flight on that day represents one of the greatest bowling performances the famous Yorkshire ground has seen in this or any other age. It was asking too much of a mortal man to continue to hold England, then emerging as the best of the international teams, but at the end of the four-Test series, Ghulam Ahmed had 15 of the 39 English wickets to fall at the very moderate cost of 24.73 each. To understand the value and quality of his bowling it is necessary to breakdown those 15 wickets. This is what was found: He dismissed Graveney 3 times, May twice, Evans twice, Simposon twice, and Hutton, Compton, Watkins, Ikin, Bedser and Trueman once each. As Evans scored a century in the second Test at Lord's he could hardly be entered as a non-batsman. Therefore of the 15 wickets only Trueman and Bedser (both of whom have scored first-class centuries) were in the lower order. World class And on that first day at Leeds his five wickets were out of the first six. Only May, who was bowled by Shinde, did not fall to Ghulam Ahmed. What stronger proof can be offered in support of the belief that Ghulam Ahmed was not only the best off-break bowler from India, but was one of the leaders of his type in the world. England's batsman, not unnaturally, had the highest respect for his well-tried ability to keep going for hours - he once bowled 92.3 overs in an innings for Hyderabad against Holkar - and the standard he was able to maintain. His length was a model of consistency, he could turn his off-break sharply, and an intelligent and active brain devised teasing flights and changes of pace. Marathon spell On another occasion he completed 85 overs against Bombay, and it is wondered if too much was asked of him. Such marathon spells are exhausting both to the body and mind, and in England in 1952 he could have profited by longer rests. Sometimes, there was an unexplained lack of bite and penetration in his bowling, which suggested a tired mind and limbs. To bowl day after day, as the tourist does in England, needs considerable physical resources, and the English professional soon learns to "pace" his day. Perhaps this essential art was new to Ghulam Ahmed, and it would have been interesting to watch his tactics had he made a second tour. But he did not. For all that, he left the finest of impressions. All told he took 80 wickets, at the small cost of 21.92 each, and his value to India's cost is shown in the fact that the next highest aggregate was Ramchand's 64 wickets at 25.85 each. On the topic of spin bowling finger spinning is much easier to control, and is more economical than wrist spin and a bowler reaches maturity earlier in his cricketing career using finger spin. For a start a wrist spinner will find that control of length and direction are a difficulty, so much so that a few deliveries an over are severely punished. The only remedy to overcome this is practice and more practice, so that after a night of constant bowling at the nets, fatigue will be felt a great deal more than after a match. There are many widely used grips for the wrist spinner, all successfully used by top men in the past, and dependent entirely on the type and shape of the hands. This allows a young bowler to experiment for himself to find the grip most suited to his own structure. Basically the index, second and third fingers are forced around the ball, with the tips on the seam, with fingers widely spaced, and the thumb directly opposite the second finger. I found that more control and greater spin could be obtained in my case by leaving the thumb off the ball, and placing it against the outside of the index finger for support. However, practice and experiment will show the grip most suitable for each individual. The wrist is tucked back along the inside of the forearm, and the ball released by snapping the wrist out with the palm of the hand facing the onside, at the same time the fingers assisting to rotate the ball in an anti-clockwise direction. Ideal direction It is impossible to lay too much importance on the need to ensure, at all times, that the wrist must be "snapped". It is not uncommon for a wrist spinner to bowl particularly well at the start of a day, and to taper off towards close of play. This is brought about by wrist fatigue, and failure of the wrist to snap as it did earlier in the day. The anti-clockwise spin will make the ball turn from leg to off; however, if the ball is spun square to the line of flight, it will be unable to grip the turf or matting, and will consequently go straight through, or spin very little. The ideal direction of spin is at 45 degrees to the line of flight, that is, halfway between a square and overspin. When the bowler uses his full height in bowling right from the top, together with his spin, the ball not only dips in the flight, but tends to jump and spin, which is much more dangerous for the batsman. Former Test players ("Tiger") Bill O'Reilly and Richie Benaud, were both very good examples of how the ball should be made to bounce. Wrist spinners need very strong fingers to obtain maximum efficiency, as they must be able to bowl for long periods without losing any punch. This places a strain on the fingers and wrist, and in the past I found that a piece of plasticine, the size of a squash ball, assisted me greatly. I moulded it with the fingers over and over again to strengthen them for the season ahead. The googly The googly, or "bosie" as it is called after the originator, J. W. T. Bosanquet, is in reality an off-spinner, bowled with a near leg-break action. The grip is the same as that used for the stock delivery, and in the final action, the wrist is turned further so that the back of the hand faces the batsman on delivery. Instead of the ball being released from the inside of the third finger, the snap of the wrist, and the additional turn of the hand, allow the outside of the third finger to impart off-spin. Needless to say, this was quite a difficult ball to control, but once again the snap of the wrist not only imparts the major portion of the spin, but assists in disguising the additional turn of the hand needed, making detection harder. The top spinner, or overspinner as it should be called, is bowled nearly in the same manner as the bosie, except that the hand does not turn as far, and at the moment of delivery is midway between that used for the leg-break and googly. This allows overspin to be imparted, and usually a great deal of bounce is obtained together with a pronounced dip in flight. It is used more for deception of trajectory, and a possible catch through dip and bounce. Another good variation in flight is a leg-break spun square to the line of flight, with the wrist snapping upwards and the palm of the hand finishing up facing the batsman. This has a very flat trajectory, and tends to float up to the bat more than the higher looping leg spin and tends to float up to the bat more than the higher looping leg spin and bosie. Also on a good wicket the square spin will not allow the ball to grip, and consequently it skids straight through. The advantage of being able to master this delivery is that on a soft wicket, when the normal leg-break comes off the wicket too slowly, it is possible with practice to use this ball as a leg-cutter very effectively. The palm of the hand being behind the ball on delivery gives the added impetus, allowing the additional speed through the air and giving the control needed. There is another type of delivery at the call of a wrist spinner, one that should only be tried and persevered with after control has been learned and you have mastered the stock deliveries. This ball took me at least five years of constant practice before I attempted to use it in a match. It is very effective when bowled properly, combining the bosie and skidding top-spinner, together with a rather flat trajectory, floating it further up to the batsman than any other delivery. The flipper It has been called the "flipper", as the ball is flipped by the thumb and second finger, much the same as clicking these fingers together, imparting an off spin, which turns backward to the line of flight. The great advantage of this delivery is that although acting like a bosie-topspinner, unlike the bosie, the ball comes from the front of the hand like a leg-break, and is harder to detect than a googly. Once again as in all deliveries by a wrist spinner, the wrist plays a very important part, and must be snapped out straight. |
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