Clarke is a genuine spinner, if only he knew it
Roar Guru
By David Wiseman, 1 May 2009 David Wiseman is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Australian Cricket, Cricket, Michael Clarke, The Ashes
Australia's Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke discuss tactics during the One Day International, Australia v New Zealand match at the WACA in Perth, Sunday Feb. 1, 2009. (AAP Image/Tony McDonough)
When it comes to cricket, batsmen and bowlers are two completely different creatures, much like the backs and forwards in rugby or the goalkeepers and everyone else in soccer. Michael Clarke has been enjoying considerable success as a bowler, but I think he fears becoming “one of them.”
How else could you explain his adamant comments that he is definitely not a front-line bowler.
“In conditions that spin, I can do an okay job, that part-time job, I guess. But I’m certainly not a frontline spinner,” he said.
“For me, it was just about trying to put the ball in a half-decent area and hope for some spin. Fortunately, I had a little bit of luck.”
Pakistan were coasting at 2/107 when Clarke brought himself on. He took two wickets with his first two balls and swung the game Australia’s way.
Clarke bowled a solitary over in his first Test match. The next time he came on to bowl, he took 6/9 from 6.2 overs.
And obviously there was the Sydney Test when he took 3/5 from 11 balls.
Clearly Clarke can bowl and he has the ability to do so well. He is a consistent wicket taker, and with Australia’s spinning stocks as low as they are, I would have thought that he would be more seriously considered as a bowler.
Of late, the Australian Test side has seemed quite unbalanced. But if they had Clarke, Marcus North and Simon Katich to share the spinning duties, that would leave four spots for a well-rounded bowling line-up.
Everyone who is anyone has been tried and more or less failed.
There is a lot less downside using this trio to bowl spin as they aren’t being selected for their bowling.
Picking Nathan Hauritz, Bryce McGain, Cameron White or Jason Krejza takes up a spot, and then Australia is left to rely on a suspect bowler.
Clarke seems to suffer from the false modesty that Allan Border had when it came to his bowling. Border under-bowled himself and only gave himself a go when he was down to Plan Z.
The batsmen seemed to treat his bowling with a lot more respect than he did.
The sooner that Clarke comes to the understanding that he may in fact be “one of them,” the better off the Australian team will be.
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Reg said | May 1st 2009 @ 8:55am | Report comment
Always thought the same about Allan Border. He was a much better spinner than he gave himself credit for.
Brian said | May 1st 2009 @ 9:53am | Report comment
I think like S Waugh Clarke is worried about his back if he bowls too much. I agree he could be a good spinner but he rightly has his sights on captaincy and realises he cannot do it all. Once similar case in point is Bevan who once said that the more he practiced his bowling the worse he seemed to get so thus he went back to focus on his batting
Greg Russell said | May 1st 2009 @ 1:35pm | Report comment
Sorry David, but I have to disagree with you here. Yes, Clarke is a very handy part-time spinner. But the key ingredient with spin is flight. That is what it takes years to perfect, and that is what makes the spinning ball dangerous: that in addition to the turn, the batsmen has been lured into misjudging the length.
Ashley Mallett tells the story of being taken as a young man to see Clarrie Grimmett. The old man took the young spinner into his backyard, put a stump into the ground, and told him to bowl. After one ball Grimmett told him to stop, and explained to him that flight is everything for a spinner, and that he had to go away and work on his flight if he ever wanted to amount to anything.
On this website there has been a lot of support for Jason Krejza. While I admit he spins the ball a lot, my problem with him is that he doesn’t have flight. Thus I don’t see him as any sort of answer for Australia.
Reg commented on Allan Border. He was much like Clarke as a bowler. If he had greater success, it was purely because he was bowling in an era when, under the sway of West Indian fast bowlers, the playing of spin had largely fallen into abeyance. With the proliferation of good spinners since then, a development sparked by the emergence of Shane Warne, batsmen are now much better at playing spin (except for Australians?!).
Maybe Clarke is the best of Australia’s currently bad lot, but that doesn’t mean he’s a genuine spinner. And with his delicate back restricting his ability to practice, he’s not going to be able to do the thousands of hours of work that would be necessary for him to develop good flight.
So let’s just leave Clarke to work on his batting and his captaincy. He has enough on his plate in those respects!