By Spiro Zavos
June 18th 2008 @ 5:53am
Does Beau Casson have the real wrist-spin stuff?
Beau Casson has a great name for someone who bowls wrist-spin, the most beautiful and most difficult of the cricketing arts.
He made a good start to his Test career, taking wickets on the last day of the third Test against a resurgent West Indies side, something that Ricky Ponting suggested was the role of an Australian spinner.
My reading of the history of cricket suggests that the great wrist-spin bowlers, with one notable exception, have been colourful, larger than life players with eccentricities in their behaviour both on and off the field.
Think of the cliche of the temperamental artist and this gives you a sense of the character of the best of Australian wrist-spinners: Arthur Mailey who offered batsmen a cigar if they could hit him for a six; Bill O’Reilly, a spinner with the mentality and aggressiveness of a fast bowler; Richie Benaud, so fluid and so artistic in his method with his unbuttoned shirt giving the appearance of a sophisticated bohemian; Shane Warne, say no more; and Stuart MacGill, moody, truculent and given to outbursts that would do a prima donna proud.
The exception to this list was Clarrie Grimmett, the New Zealander (does that explain his smaller than life demeanour?) who wasn’t selected to play for Australia until he was in his 30s.
Grimmett, who bowled tight, round-arm leg-spin with accuracy rather than spin being his trump card, calculated that he took a wicket every 50 or so balls, so he tried to bowl them as inexpensively as possible.
He never bowled a no-ball in his long first-class cricket career. Nothing of the artistic largesse here.
Beau Casson is a left-arm wrist-spinner.
I was intrigued to read an article by Alex Brown in the Sydney Morning Herald stating that only two left-arm wrist-spinners (in pre-PC days, this form of deliveries was called a ‘Chinamen’) had achieved 100 Test wickets: Paul Adams, the South African who had an action of a frog going into a toilet bowl was one, and Johnny Wardle, the opinionated and talented Yorkshire bowler of the 1950s.
The most successful Australian left-arm wrist-spinner was Chuck Fleetwood-Smith with 42 wickets in 10 Tests.
Fleetwood-Smith, as handsome as Clarke Gable and a great ladies man, often made ‘cooeee’ calls on the field.
This lack of success of left-arm wrist-spinners is due essentially to the fact that it is relatively easy for a left-hander to bowl the ball that spins away from the right-hand batsman (the most difficult spin to face) with the use of finger spin.
A right-hander bowling wrist-spin also gets the ball to spin away, but gets the advantage of being able to impart top-spin (Bill O’Reilly’s main delivery) and wrong’uns (a speciality of Arthur Mailey and Clarrie Grimmett).
The left-arm wrist spinner spins the ball back into the right-hand batsman, generally a less dangerous ball.
He does have the chance to bowl top-spin, and a couple of Beau Casson’s wickets came from from this delivery.
His wrong’un, too, has the merit of spinning away from the right-hand batsman, an advantage exploited by Brad Hogg, particularly in one day matches.
I played grade cricket in Wellington with a left-arm wrist-spinner who bowled wrong’uns as his stock ball and ordinary wrist-spin and top-spin as the variety.
I’ve often wondered why left-arm wrist spinners, like Brad Hogg and Beau Casson, don’t adopt this method.
Watching Casson on television during his first Test, what struck me most about his method is that he is a roller rather than a spinner of the ball. Even on the last day of the Test he seldom made the ball fizz and pop, as Warne or MacGill did.
The thing about the wrist-spinners who give the ball a great tweak is that the more vicious spin that is put on the ball, the less control the bowler tends to have (Shane Warne is an exception, which made him the greatest wrist-spinner in the history of cricket).
This brings us to temperament.
The control-freak wrist-spinners, like Grimmett, prefer to accrue their wickets. They bowl like misers and generally have a cautious temperament.
The tweaker-freak wrist-spinners, like Mailey, Benaud when he was so inclined, and MacGill, ‘buy’ their wickets. They have the instincts of the gambler.
The history of cricket suggests that the gambling instinct is best for wrist-spinners. All three of the most successful left-arm wrist-spinners have this instinct.
But Beau Casson is clearly not in this category. He seems to me to have a cautious temperament. He may become more assertive in his method as he grows in confidence.
I would think that he needs to make this change if he wants to have a long and successful Test career rather than the shorter Test career of the likes of Lindsay Kline and Brad Hogg.
Former Test cricketers, Geoff Lawson and Stuart MacGill, write exclusively for The Roar Mondays and Wednesdays respectively.
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We were talking about the important things in life, mainly sport.
Greg Russell said | June 18th 2008 @ 11:30am | Report comment
Much as one dislikes the principle of having to dismiss someone on the basis of their personality, I have to agree with Spiro’s analysis. History very clearly says that you need to be a larger-than-life personality to be successful as a wrist-spinner, and Casson simply doesn’t have such a personality. It is impossible for him to change his personality (as Spiro for some reason suggests), so it is hard to escape the conclusion that his future is limited.
The argument against this might be that while most fast bowlers are similar to spinners in having large, aggressive personalities, there have been some cold-blooded assassins amongst the ranks of top fast bowlers - think McGrath and Hadlee. Could this model not work with wrist spinners? I doubt it. Hadlee and McGrath could let their bowling do their talking when fire and brimstone were needed, but for spinners this isn’t possible.
A technical point on the suitability of left-arm wrist spin is that there are a lot more left-handed batsmen these days, in fact probably about 50% of the top batsmen in international cricket are lefties. This trend is historically recent, and what it means is that the stock ball of a chinaman bowler - spinning away from a left-hander - is now a far more useful weapon than it has traditionally been.
Finally, Bryce McGain sounds remarkably close to Clarrie Grimmett in style, i.e., “accuracy rather than spin being his trump card”. I believe McGain is now Australia’s premier spinner, and if any spinner is played in India later this year, I believe it should be him. The evidence of last summer is that Casson will only pose a threat to India’s lefties, and probably at most one of Ganguly (Hogg’s bunny from last summer), Yuvraj and Gambhir will be in the Indian side. I’m not saying McGain will work, but he’s a better chance of succeeding than Casson. For example, S Clark from one end and McGain from the other would at least build pressure.
Spiro Zavos said | June 18th 2008 @ 12:31pm | Report comment
Greg has covered the argument very well, and I agree with him that Bryce McGain, who has had a career remarkably like that of Clarrie Grimmett, except for the Test match elevation, would probably be a better bet in India than Beau Casson. I think, though, that McGain’s age will tell against him.
I would argue, as well, that McGrath and Hadlee (with the exception of his early Test years) were never fire and brimstone bowlers. They rarely bowled bouncers, although they could do this effectively when their mood or the circumstances of the match dictated to it. They both bowled fast-medium in the most productive years of their careers. In method, in terms of not giving the batsman anything to score from, uncanny accuracy and the ability to put the ball on the particular spot the batsman found most uncomfortable to play both McGrath and Hadlee more closely resembled Grimmett, say, than Lillee.
I acknowledge Greg’s valid point, too, that there is an element of the unprovable predictive in aligning a particular personality with success in a particular method of bowling. For great players tend to break the moulds that constrict the performances of lesser players. They often are, as the cliche says, a law unto themselves.
Whether Beau Casson is this type of player will be a fascinating story over the next few years.
Nixon Gill said | June 18th 2008 @ 12:38pm | Report comment
Interesting article there Spiro, but I think its a tad early to be judging the boy, If I showed a non cricketing person a replay of S.K.Warne’s first game and told them he was the greatest bowler of all time so one would buy it, he got smashed. Casson took wickets when required and crucial ones at that took a screaming catch (sure dropped one) and looked comfortable at the crease while batting at times. Everyone is allowed a first test to find his feet, the poor bugger now has to go to India to be judged there, a place where the greatest spin bowler never took wickets to say he dominated. I say good luck to him he’s shown enough early to prove he’s worth developing, for all the who-har about the South Australian spin bowlers being the next big thing all we’re left with there is a waste of money and a guy who should worry about his form at the crease rather than his blonde hair style.
A story on Grimmett, My Grandfather (Merv Gill playing for NSW Country) played against Grimmett as parts of Bradman’s South Australian side. Batting at 3 with the opener – from memory Jimmy De-Cormack - Grimmett put on a blowing display that mesmerised the opening bat. Jimmy quietly said heading to drinks “this Grimmett isn’t much”. Post drinks and in an 8 ball over Jimmy didn’t see the first 6 then got bowled on the 7th. I’m not too sure what this has to say about his temperament but I dare say the 1424 wicket @ 22.28 in first class cricket say that he was a person who loved taking them.
Grimmett’s Stats = http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/australia/content/player/5443.html
Spiro Zavos said | June 18th 2008 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
Nixon
Loved the Clarrie Grimmett story.And on Beau Casson, of course you are right and it is early days. I actually was at the SCG when Shastri kept on hitting novice Shane Warne into the Noble Stand. The point was that Warne actually bowled quite well that day. His method then was to bowl reasonably flat with a lot of spin which dragged the ball into the right-handed batsman’s pad quite acutely. The problem for Warne was that Shastri was a left-hander and the ball swerving away from him before spinning it gave him the chance to ‘free his arms’ and belt it over mid-off.
A short time later NSW played Victoria at the SCG. Warne engaged in a tense and intriquing battle with Mark Waugh before he dismissed him, I think in the 70s. It was clear to me on this day that Bill O’Reilly’s dream of another great leg-spinner in the baggy green cap was about to be fulfilled.
Greg Russell said | June 18th 2008 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
Mark Taylor always had fantastic instinct. For example, when the Waugh twins were making their record partnership against West Australia, the next man in was Greg Mathews. Taylor said to him at tea “Take the pads off mate.” Mathews looked at him and said, “What do you mean, there’s 2 hours to go”. Taylor replied “They won’t be getting out today.” Indeed, they didn’t.
Relevance? Taylor led an Australian development team to Zimbabwe around 1990. Warne was in it, despite having essentially no first-class experience. Taylor had never seen Warne before, but he relates that as soon as he saw him bowl, he knew he was something special, and that he was exactly what was needed to take the Australian team to the next level.
Tell me anyone who has one look at Casson and thinks “This guy is something out of the box”. I’m not saying Casson is a mug, but he’s not going to be anything special.
Nixon Gill said | June 18th 2008 @ 2:05pm | Report comment
Fair Point on Casson Greg, but with the lack of a better offer, I say take it!
We’ve been spoilt with the Gilchrist’s, Warne’s, Ponting’s and McGraths of the last decade, MacGill got bagged at times for not being like Warne, but If Warne didn’t exist MacGill would have been our best since Beneud.
Out of interest, did G.Matthews take more wickets this district season than the S.A. spinners? Not the same comp but Sydney districts would be tougher than Adelaide?
Nixon Gill said | June 18th 2008 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
Ravi was right handed spiro….
http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/india/content/player/33975.html
Spiro Zavos said | June 18th 2008 @ 3:09pm | Report comment
Nixon, Quite right.
Archie H said | June 19th 2008 @ 12:24am | Report comment
Aaah, Spiro. Such a delight, as always. The piece on spin bowlers left me dreaming. Spin bowlers are the real characters of the game… you can analyse their personalities through their bowling. A bit like goalkeepers, perhaps
sheek said | June 19th 2008 @ 11:47am | Report comment
Interesting that in his book, ‘The 100 Greatest Cricketers’, author Geoff Armstrong cut against the grain of accepted lore, by claiming Arthur Mailey was a superior spinner to Grimmett, if only just.
Grimmett bowled an almighty lot of overs for his wickets, which nevertheless was stupendous. Grimmett was a miserly leg-spinner, rarely conceding runs, while Mailey was a spend-thrift, willing to concede runs for wickets.
Armstrong’s support for Mailey over Grimmett is primarily based on a comparison of their bowling against England, then the benchmark for Australian teams. Mailey apparently averaged a wicket every 60.48 balls, which was superior to Grimmett, Jack Gregory & Ted McDonald.
Further, according to Armstrong, Jack Hobbs in his autobiography in 1935, suggested that Mailey was arguably the best leg-spinner to play the game up to that time.
Armstrong also argues that Mailey lost out in the promotional stakes. Although a journalist, Mailey was self-deprecating, often down-playing his achievements. Grimmett, on the other hand, was continually championed by O’Reilly & Bradman.
With respect to Beau Casson, how you start is less important than how you finish. He now has the opportunity to build on this promising start. Will Beau Casson’s career approach something nearer to to Shane Warne, or will he unfortunately go the way of Nathan Hauritz???