Huw Richards points out in the International Herald Tribune that Zaheer Khan is only the fourth left-arm fast bowler (excluding Garry Sobers) to take 150 Test wickets. He is surprised that the sport has not seen more of Zaheer’s ilk.
It is hard to see why the left-arm quick bowler should be such a rarity. In any adversarial sport there are advantages to being a minority. Southpaw boxers, left-arm baseball pitchers like Tom Glavine of the New York Mets - who is seeking his 300th victory - and left-handed tennis players like John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova all present their opponents distinctive problems. For a cricket team rotating four or five bowlers, there are great advantages to having one or two who test batsmen from a different angle.
With Zaheer, RP Singh, and till recently Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra, India have had a fair share of southpaws in their bowling attack. Richards explains:
They were at the perfect, impressionable age to admire and wish to emulate another left-handed cricketer. Wasim's final legacy to cricket may be across a disputed border in another country.
