Left hand cricketers contribute lavishly

By A.C. De Silva

Garfield Sobers - West Indies	Clive Lloyd - West Indies	Arjuna Ranatuna - Sri Lanka

‘LEFT’ CRICKET: Lefthanded batsmen at times are left behind. The world makes ‘left’ sound almost like a bad word, Southpaw.

They are different these lefthanders. In a right-handed world they must be different. That world hardly gives them a chance to survive. This is all the more reason why they are so rare and are getting rarer.

Everything in this world is made for righthanders. For years, society has discriminated against those who were in a minority. Some parents would go out of their way to change their children’s habits. Even natural lefthanders would be forced to write with their right hand. The tendency to be lefthand would be killed.

This is perhaps one reason why lefthanders have been such a rarity.

Nowadays, the attitude is, however, not so unscientific - Lefthanders’ instincts are not killed as they used to be.

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Allan Border - Australia

David Gower - England

Asanka Gurusinha - Sri Lanka

Sanath Jayasuriya - Sri Lanka

Wasim Akram - Pakistan

The number of top level lefthanded sportsmen is more in this era than in earlier ones.

There was a time when lefthanders could not even get equipment to suit their style. All this has changed over the years though the fact remains that as a group, lefthanders still are a distict minority.

Until the position changes, the position will contribute to be the same.

There is a thought that lefthanded batsmen in cricket are precious material. While it is certainly true that lefthanded batsmen do make a difference, the fact is that only good once can do what is expected of them. Quantity is perhaps what is needed by way of lefthanders. Quality-wise, there has not been such a shortage. A number of bowlers have been there but only a few of them have been genuine allrounders of the true southpaw variety (in the sense that they batted and threw lefthanded too.)

A real destroyer

Take India for example. There was Salim Durrani who was a very good player. He was such a good player that he could have been a far greater player if only he did not suffer from grave shortcomings in attitude to international cricket. On his day, Durrani could destroy the opposition as a bowler and as a batsman belt the bowling around as he wished. Durrani was certaintly India’s finest lefthand allrounder.

Then there was Bapu Nadkarni - he was one of the sticky variety, both as a batsman and a bowler. Then there was Eknath Solkar who was a modern version of Nadkarni in his batting methods. He was a sticky player too at the crease and he was able to bowl more than usefully. He was the third of the fully-fledged lefthanders to have made a Test century, the other two being Durrani and Nadkarni.

The Indians had four specialist lefthanded batsmen who scored Test centuries - ‘Deepak’ Shodhan, Nari Contractor, Ajit Wadekar - a good leader and Surinder Amarnath.

Needless to say, Wadekar was the most prominent in the handful of topflight batsmen who kept proving how useful they could be towards breaking up the line of attack and disturbing the field placement plans of opposing captains. There was also Surinder Amarnath - a specialist lefthand batsman.

Top trio

The West Indies had three top flight lefthanders - Garfield Sobers, Clive Lloyd and Larry Gomes. There is no real replacement for Clive Lloyd nor will the world see another Garfield Sobers again. Nevertheless, the virtues of a lefthander are not to be underestimated.

So, the southpaws have contributed their might.

Australia had Allan Border - a fighting lefthanded batsman who led a battery of lefthanders.

England had David Gower and Chris Broad, though not possessing the liquid grace of Gower, was able to pull England through with his tall upright stance as a lefthander.

Then there was Pakistan’s Wasim Akram, who with his lefthand batting had many runs for the Pakistanis. He was a champion left-arm paceman too. Then there was also Iqbal Qasim, a known lefthanded bowler who also helped Pakistan with the bat.

Coming to Sri Lanka, there was World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga and Asanka Gurusinha. There was also Ravi Ratnayake who proved how batsmen of ‘the different kind’ could play easily on turning tracks. There was also Sanath Jayasuriya - the lefthander who was responsible for many fine knocks. He was also a useful bowler too.

So, there you are - the lefthanders have been able to show the world that lefthanders have contributed their might towards their countries and to the game in general.