By LeggieLefty Way back in time, at the turn of the last century, Jim Phillips single handedly started the first crusade against the Bendy Arm Brigade. This group of bowlers was breaking the rules by bending their arms at the elbow when bowling. Phillips, himself a medium-pacer with 355 First Class wickets at…
I've just been reading about the England vs Pakistan series and the exciting sight of a leg spinner on each side. Yes, an English leg spinner! A sight as rare as a Posh Spice smile. Of all the countries that play cricket only three really understand it. All three have had legendary legspinners.…
http://http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/4860720062-1 to India and an overseas series win after a long time. Does it partially take away the horror of the 4-0 England trip and the equally horrible Australian trip?
The England trip I was lenient about. There were loads of injuries to key players and it’s England where India hasn’t done particularly well. ( Summer of 42, anyone?) Of course, Rahul Dravid made it look easy and I like him, so it was painful, but not a disaster. Australia was. Even Dravid struggled and retired. Tendulkar should have (more…)
So that’s it then. The Great White Hype is over.
This must rank as the worst Ashes series over. With both teams vying for underwhelming batting performances the not particularly brilliant bowling looked much better than it actually was.
This series will, (more…)
Back in the day, growing up in India at the tail end of the Great Spin Quartet, I had to endure the ignominy of the Summer of 42. A classic tale of loss, heartache and the end of a dream. The Summer of ’42 was a (more…)
It’s a brave man or a cricket journalist who would dare to offer any predictions at all on the #Ashes2015 at this, the so-called midpoint of this edition of the age-old rivalry. I’m neither. I’m just a watcher eating rye. With marmalade.
The first Test went to England emphatically. Everywhere in the cricket news ( is there any other (more…)
Prosper Utseya, the Zimbabwean pie-chucker offspinner, has laid a claim of racial discrimination against Zimbabwe Cricket. This news was reported on Cricinfo. Strangely, it has been ignored completely by every Cricinfo reader. The article has no comments at all, which is strange , given how readers there are quick to (more…)
What an entertaining past few months we’ve seen in England! I’d love to have been a fly on the wall, a fly capable of listening to and understanding the doublespeak and management gobbledygook (more…)
I was reading about Sunil Narine's in/out story about his trouble with the arm that bends more than it should and I remembered this post that I wrote for Dipesh - at CricketWise, just as the #CWC15 The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 was starting. http://cricketwise.blogspot.in/2015/02/the-menace-of-bendy-arm-brigade.html That arm in that picture is quite…
It's no secret that Richie Benaud was my first cricket idol. In fact, probably the last idol I ever had of any kind. For as I grew older, I stopped having idols altogether. Richie, thus, remains my first and only idol. I took up legspin becauseof the tales of his exploits, read in…