Mystery of the missing wrist-spinners

Cricket in these countries is seen more as a craft and a science. A finger spinner who wears down the batsman by constantly hammering at his weakness is a natural choice. The greater reliability and predictability of the finger spinner allied with his greater destructive potential on a wearing wicket offers a package that is customised and therefore immediately embraced.

Wrist-spinners ride the chariots of rebellion. Their mental aggression belies their small frames and gentle image of a spinner. Their desire to make things happen, at times makes them profligate, an anathema to risk-averse captains. They are their own men and a coach’s nightmare, unless the coach is a patient and wise soul.

The game’s biggest oddities are wrist-spinners, Chandra (with a deformed hand), Paul Adams (frog-in-a-blender action), Ajantha Mendis (carrom-ball grip) to name a few. Formal coaching structures in conservative establishments prevalent in these countries are likely to frown upon such mavericks. Wristwork is often associated with oriental magic, a view accentuated by the plethora of wrist spinners emerging from the subcontinent as well as the artful hockey players.

Wrist-spinners are generally smaller in build, sloppier in the outfield and more likely to be genuine rabbits with the bat. There are notable exceptions like Kumble and Warne, but MacGill, Chandra, Hirwani, Qadir, Mendis, Bob Holland, Danish Kaneria do reinforce the stereotype. Thus the overall utility of a wrist-spinner when benchmarked against conventional yardsticks would be lower.

Cricket, like any other discipline, thrives on role models. The home-grown models like Denis Compton, Ken Barrington and Mike Atherton were peerless batsmen and used wrist spin as a pleasurable past time. Even Johnny Wardle, the most seasoned English purveyor of this art, bowled finger spin at home. The leading overseas practitioners were two Pakistani allrounders, Mushtaq Mohammad and Intikhab Alam apart from the peerless Garry Sobers. Thus a role model for a specialist wrist spinner did not exist in England.

Parallels can be drawn with the Indian experience where, till the emergence of Javagal Srinath, India’s new-ball bowlers were allrounders of varying genuineness. New Zealand and South Africa are profoundly impacted by the old art. Anil Kumble, Mushtaq Ahmed and Shane Warne have played county cricket in recent times and may be a revolution is taking place silently.

Many facets of wrist spin are counter-intuitive and are, unsurprisingly, shunned by orthodoxy. Wrist spin requires a mix of art and adventure sport. Zimbabwe could unearth a Paul Strang, grassroots cricket in India and Kapil Dev could help the country shed its aversion to pace. A venture capitalist is required in England, South Africa and New Zealand.

This seems to ignore the fact that the 'silent' hunt for a legspinner in England has taken place in a media hunt for anyone who turns it away and numerous campaigns to develop leggies. The ridiculous levels of expectation thrown at players like Schofield and Salisbury is a further sign that, actually, there is great respect and unrealistic hope for a leggie that breaks the humdrum of finger-spinners. Furthermore, the use of Jenner has seen numerous talented legspinners come into county cricket, these include Borthwick, Waller, Beer and, most notably, the highly talented Adil Rashid.

The author has expressed some views, conveniently ignoring the facts that go against the theory. None of those mentioned have ever had serious face-offs with the coach so labelling them a coach's nightmare is nonsense. Warne's rebellious nature i a totally different issue.

Moreover, a lot of finger-spinners are rabbits with the bat too. Panesar, for instance. The truth is, those 3 countries expect a spinner to hit a few balls too rather than just tweak it since tweaking the ball is just not as rewarding in those parts, thanks to the pitches.

And I can't even begin to imagine how the author generalised physique and agility in the field based on the way a spinner spins.

At last, bowlers like Verity and Laker played during an era where the scoring rate mattered little. So it's hard to believe that they were used to choke the opposition.

As an actual leggie (admittedly a club hack) I really can say that NZ mud and small grounds destroy any confidence you might have, beating a player with spin only to watch him rock back after the ball has passed the initial forward prod is just plain disturbing! At a junior and club level this really is the way of things, you'll have the occasional day when everything comes together but you know the captain is looking around for the Chris Gaylesque offie or the Gavin Larsen Dibbly Dobbly if you have one bad over. Those few that find their way on the chosen path through age group teams and directly into first class usually have the skill base but when they get there the support is minimal. The only knowledge out there is from a coach who has been to a Terry Jenner seminar, this is something that many a NZ leggie has discovered. I'm one of the many that made fun of Brooke Walker but when he hit the international brickwall who in NZ could he turn to for advice?

This not a well researched piece. Are you seriously trying to tell me that you believe there is a significant difference in both physical size and batting abillity between finger and wrist spinners. Monty Panesar, Phill Tufnell, etc, etc. Im not actually going to list all the finger spinners who couldn't bat or field. For your information Ajantha Mendis is predominantly a finger spinner, both his so called carrom ball( i say so called because this delivery has existed for decades and wasn't in need of a new term, doosra would suffice) and stock offspinner are bowled in an orthodox fashion. Mishra, Benaud, Salisbury, Schofield, Rashid, all more than capable with the bat an played at an international level. The fact that there has been a dearth of quality wrist spin in the countries you mentioned can be ascribed to the fact that these countries are not as profitable places to bowl spin.

I think Mr Giridharan probably needs to get some of his facts correct. Whilst the climate and pitches have an effect on whether players decide to bowl spin or seam and their success,he needs to understand that countries like England, NZ and South Africa are searching for spinners. South Africa have had a policy in junior representative cricket whereby spinners have to bowl a certain percentage of the overs. This has been in place for about 10 years. Pitches in South Africa especially inland tend not to turn a great deal. Remember Bryce McCain's test debut (he was given the thumbs up by Warne) in South Africa. I have also seen Murali and Warne taken to the sword in SA. Another point is that there were good spinners (wrist and finger) in South Africa up to and during sports isolation. I think you need to understand that possibly 20 years of no international cricket had an effect on how the game was played during this time eg. Lots of limited overs cricket, green pitches etc.

I would like to say where are the good spinners in India. Kumble was a good hardworking bowler, an overachiever of sorts. But after that Harbhajan Singh has certainly not been a great bowler and totally over-rated. He has been hyped up the media as a great bowler. He hardly even turns the bowler..even the Aussie bowler Nathan Hauritz is far more impressive. So if we are talking about good spinners then Pakistan, Australia and Sri Lanka are the ones who currently are the leaders. Let not India and its cricket followers think that we are on top. Maybe the fault lies with the so called corporate culture and a club mentality which lies with our indian team. Once u create a name for yourself then you become a permanent fixture in the Indian team.

It's a fine piece on an interesting topic. One could definitely argue with some of the facts/opinions (Qadir's batting abilities, Ajantha's finger spin) presented by the author, but it remains one of the great mysteries of the increasingly 'globalising' game that there are so few wrist-spinners on the horizon, in spite of the modern-day role-models like Shane Warne and Anil Kumble. With all the coaching systems and cricket academies around the cricket-playing world, the sight of a wrist spinner, backed fully by the captain, as an attacking option, is as rare as seeing a batsman 'walking' after a fine-edge to the keeper, without waiting for umpire's answer to the appeal! As for the 'knowledge' of the game claimed under some of the comments, some of the purists will not place Muralitharan under any category other than under 'elbow' spinners. However, that's a completely different debate. I liked the observations regarding the differences in the temperaments of finger /wrist spinners.

When I wrote the article, I was speculating at some of the possible reasons for the drought. I am a great fan of Murali, and his ommission is more of a slip than any intentions and very regettable. Qadir started as a rabbit but got transformed after the 40 against Aus at MCG in 83-84.On Mendes, the jury is out and it is digfficult to fully classify him.Sangakara treats him as neither wrist , nor finger, while Dhoni regards him as both. His stock ball, the offie is bowled with a lot of wrist and that is why I regarded him as a wrist spinner. I also fully appreciate the efforts made by ENg SA and Nz in promoting wrist spin, but this article focussed on the possible reasons behind the drought of wrist spinners in certain areas.These are probable reasons and by no means hard facts.I thank all of you for elightening me on various facets. Keep up the debate.