Murali attacks me

A recent cricinfo piece quotes Muttiah Muralitharan saying, due to the use of power plays, spinners will struggle in the World Cup.

"The rules have changed now with the 20-over power plays coming so the spinners go out of the game, you can't play two or three spinners any more," he said. "We have only one spinner at the moment so fast bowlers have more chance [of success] because they bowl in the power play."

Obviously, this is a defeatist point of view, and one that also could be characterised as “wrong”. Especially considering my own air-tight argument, made elsewhere.

Once you accept that spinners are easy slog-fodder for the batsman, then all is lost. In fact, spin bowling has many weapons against sloggers. Variety, spin and flight are key tools in the spinner’s arsenal to confuse pinch-hitters.

Moreover, unlike fast bowlers, batsmen actually have to generate their own pace onto the ball to hit big: they cannot deflect a spinner for six. Batsmen have to come after the bowler, immediately making him more vulnerable. 20-over power plays, therefore, are a key attacking opportunity for the spinner.

Spinners aren't clever

Looking at the recent report from the BBC’s account of England’s thumping victory over the mighty New Zealanders a phrase stuck in my mind:

“The scoring rate was strangled by spinners Patel and Vettori, who varied their flight intelligently, and the pressure they exerted paid off when Collingwood (10) was guilty of an ugly stroke off Patel which ended in Taylor's hands.”

There is another bog standard remark in the spinner’s lexicon: “a clever variation of pace”. Now obviously as a spinner in my youth, I was useless. I was also, we can say, thick. However, as a wee willy twelve-year old, trying my damndest for Twickenham under-13s, even I knew that mixing up the deliveries was probably a good idea.

There may be things such as the ‘unplayable googly’ but it is only unplayable because the batsman doesn’t expect it. If he knows that there a high, slow off-spinner coming, he will hit it for six. The same principle applies to a spinner’s standard ball: a consistent line, length and arch makes the bowling predictable, and therefore easier to slog. Thus, when I watched the ball whistle over my head as Teddington thrash as again, even to a ball of reasonable line and length, my young mind begins to tick. “Perhaps I should try something else?” In my head, there were other things, too: “I wonder if we can finish this match before The Avengers comes on.” And “I wonder what girls are.” This was not a sharp mind – it was stupid, and yet it occasionally produced balls that caused decent batsman problems.

Thus, surely, changing things up a bit is just part of the standard game of cricket. It is not an original act of genius to produce a ‘clever’ slower ball. It’s just what bowlers do. Perhaps captaincy can be clever, and even sitting down and mulling a specific line, or pace to a particular batsman. But I just feel the need to dispel the myth that unthinking variation means intelligence. We even knew that in Twickenham.

Spinning runs at eight

Right, well, I have another blog, but I never really post.

However, angrily reading the paper on the tube this morning got me thinking about this whole Giles-Monty issue. Apparently, Duncan Fletcher values runs at number eight above all else and attributes an Ozzy victory to Warne’s 100+ stand with Clarke. Contrary to over a hundred years of cricket strategy and common sense, Fletch is convinced that runs down the order are the key to winning tests matches. Never mind the fact that we have done without them over these last few series, number eights are the greatest champions in the world.

Warne’s recent form with the bat, South African’s consistent side of all-rounders, Vaas’s efforts early this summer all may have been the cause of the over-weight Zimbabwean’s fixation on this one stratagem. There are other approaches to winning, however, like getting your batsman to bat, for instance, but these crazy ideas have already been poured over by many. Also, the whole Monty for Prime Minister lobby group has now become over-whelming in its numbers – just this morning Cork, Botham, Nasser, Chapple pledged their undying support to the movement.

My concern is for the following: when we talk of runs at eight, we are always assuming that those runs will come from a spinner who bats a bit (a batter who spins a bit?). Why is this? I mean, there are other alternatives to this problem: for instance, we could drop Anderson (or even Harmy) and acquire some ordinary county all-rounder that bowls a bit of line-and-length. But this solution isn’t even being considered: the talk is centred on dropping Giles for Joyce or Dalrymple. I simple do not understand why. The side already has three good quickies, why not pick a proven spinner and chuck in a Mark Ealham-type character to hem-in one end, and chip in with handy runs at eight?

Yet, an English side would never do this. Because runs at eight always must come from a spinner. What got me angry this morning was the reasoning behind this principle: spinners are, on the whole, useless, and to earn your place in the side you have prove another dimension to your game. This assumption stands irrespective of your ability to win matches, it is simply based on the traditional English attitude which doesn’t take spinners seriously. Its quicks that win matches, and the more we have of them the better. For me, this is a rather old-fashioned view, especially in the light of unresponsive modern pitches, you need some one who get something out of nothing and a spinner automatically gets movement by the virtue of his trade.

I have nothing against Gilo (he has twirled his little heart out for the cause) he just doesn’t produce this movement. But, if your objective is just control, then pick a steady medium-pacer, who won’t go for much and can allow a proper spinner to at least try to win the match at the other end.

Anyway, the main source of my anger was the following scenario: assume an England where all the bowlers consisted of Mathew Hoggards. Up and down the land, mop-haired Hoggies plying their trade. There are two exceptions, in the West Country, two spinners have developed: from Bristol, young Muttiah Muralitharan and from Taunton talented Shane Warne. They have topped the county bowling tables for years, they have both destroyed county teams single-handedly, and what’s more, they’re English, too. Now, the question is in the first test, at Headingly, would England pick both of these spinners? Or would they pick three Hoggies and opt for one spinner? I fear the latter.