All-round Spinner

In 2002, in a talk in Melbourne, I had predicted that one of the most important ways for spin bowling to survive would be to do away with the largely unnecessary classifications of leg spin and off spin. After all, a fast bowler isn’t expected to stick to only out-swing or in-swing. In fact, he is required to develop and use a much wider repertoire of pace and length variations, swing, seam, cut and anything else that he may be able to conjure up. Then why this artificial limitation on spinners? I had argued that a spinner should be able to develop and bowl all kinds of spin and that doing so will not dilute his art but will enhance all aspects of it. I had taken the example of Sachin Tendulkar – in my opinion, the best spinner that India never had – bowling all kinds of spin and doing so quite effectively.
The arguments against this were three-fold. One, that off-spin is finger spin and leg-spin is wrist spin, both requiring very different physiological manipulations. Two, that the doosra and the googly obviate the need for an all-round spinner, and three, that setting a field to multiple spin is extremely challenging. I don’t buy any of these arguments. Firstly, the ‘physiological manipulations’ that one speaks of aren’t that many. Appropriate practice at the junior level will allow for easier assimilation of both disciplines. I suppose, control is essentially what one is talking about and I firmly believe that, through practice, control can be brought to all flavours of spin. Secondly, having variations within off-spin or leg-spin does not mean that an all-round spinner cannot develop all these variations. Thirdly, with modern inventions like the reverse-sweep, traditional fields for defensive and attacking spin bowling are in any case changing. Dual spin will help evolve an entirely new set of field placement logic.

I also argued that over-reliance on a particular set of muscles causes stress injuries over the long run. Distribution of work-load across a wider musculature, as in the case of an all-round spinner would also reduce injury risk and lengthen careers.

Any opinions on this?

Left-Handers facing up to bouncers

Discerning viewers will have noticed that the three batsmen who had real trouble with the short ball were all left-handers – Abhinav Mukund, Suresh Raina, and Yuvraj Singh. As a left-hander myself, I feel certain that it is much tougher for lefties to negotiate bouncers from right arm fast bowlers than it is for righties. The angle itself is such that more often than not, the short ball heads for the body. In such a scenario, it is difficult to sway backwards out of the way of squat to let the ball pass over. The only way I have found which works for all seasons is to bend from the waist under the ball. Since this technique is not classical and is never taught, it is up to the batsman himself to work this out and then to implement it.