Ever since Shane Warne revolutionised the art of leg-spin bowling, tens of thousands of budding young cricketers have attempted to pick up the fragile bowling style in an attempt to replicate their hero.
And tens of thousands will drop the bowling style in favour of non-spinning off breaks, or slow swinging mediums, or wicket-keeping opportunities for one simple reason.
It is so bloody hard.
Leg spin is a thing of beauty within cricketing circles. It is an art form, and such a rare one that only the very best can master it.
Imagine trying to replicate the paintings of Picasso, or the musical talent of the Beatles. It is almost impossible, and it is the exact same with Shane Warne.
Since Warne’s retirement, there has only been one leg spinner to even come close to the genius of the master himself, and that is Stuart MacGill, and as good as he was, he still had 500 fewer wickets than Warne, and an average of 29.09.
Bowling leg spin takes a ridiculous amount of talent, and enormous time and effort to even become consistent.
How many leg spinners do you see down at your local cricket club? Very few, and that is being generous.
Yes, you may get some that can put a ball on a good length, and bowl with decent flight and speed, but those are not leg spin bowlers, they are simply medium pacers with flight variation.
And that is what world cricket has started to produce.
From the rise of T20 cricket, most leg spinners you see are bowlers who vary their flight and speed, but just cannot get the ball to spin.
Look no further than Imran Tahir. A quality one-day cricketer, who in the recent series against Zimbabwe and Australia produced some fine cricket, but as much as he may star in the short format of the game, he will never achieve massive success at Test level.
It is perfectly fine to bowl like the South African does in ODIs and T20s, but transitioning that to the Test arena is another story. To be successful at a Test level as any spinner, let alone a ‘leggie’, you must spin the ball.
Everything else comes secondary to that. Spin the ball. It is the most important thing.
But how can those who do give the ball a rip – like Fawad Ahmed, James Muirhead, Adam Zampa and Cameron Boyce – actually thrive at Test level when they are liable to get smashed?
It all comes back to Shane Warne. You will never find another leg spinner like him. Never. Not in a million years, but we will always keep looking.
And that is one reason why Australian cricket has not prospered in the spin department for various years. Cricket has developed so far since the earliest days of the sport, but it must go back to the pre-Warne period.
The 1930s through 90s was a time when leg spinners would collect wickets, but would also get hit. They were not going to bowl 20 overs and takes figures of 1/40, but they would take 4/80 or so.
Would a captain not rather this from his spinner instead of economical statistics?
Leg spin is a beautiful, majestic thing for a cricket tragic. But it is slowly dying out, being replaced by its brother, off-spin, and the version of quick and non-spinning leg breaks.
We must harbour the future of leg spin bowling, and nurture and develop the young batch of spinners who are coming through the ranks of Australian cricket. If we don’t, the demon of the quick and flighted leg break that doesn’t actually spin will take over, and the art of leg spin itself may be lost.
Brendon Clarke
Guest
Excellent article, but the new Pakistani leggie, Yasir Shah, seems like a decent bowler (no way near Warne yet).
Michael
Roar Rookie
I totally agree. My son is a leggie who has just come back from the Qld State Championships U14. While up there he ripped it up, took the most number of wickets for a spin bowler in his side but bowled less than half the overs of the other spin bowler (slow bowler) for half the wickets that my son took. To see the flight, drift, dip & rip was something to watch. When a leggie comes on everyone stops. I was watching my son bowl from behind the keeper & between balls I scanned the oval & noticed that about 20 people had stopped & were watching. It is truly something to watch. So as you said in your article, why is it a dieing craft. Why is it so hard to get help. In regional QLD there is very little to no help available. Trying to find expert help is also just as hard. Many of the coaches want the leggies to dart them in & lose the flight. As a father, coach and cricket tragic we need people like Warnie, Macgill and others to step up to the plate for the future of Wrist Spin Bowling.
Rellum
Roar Guru
The tour of Sri Lanka was definitely Warnie's announcement to the world.
Evan Askew
Guest
Interesting that you mention the Windies test at Melbourne in 1992-93. When talking about Warne most people mention that Gatting ball as his first announcement on the world stage. That to my mind is simply not true. He destroyed New Zealand in a three test series prior to those ashes, and the 7-52 in the second test put us one up in the home series against west indies in 92-93. We were one run from winning that series against a still powerfull West Indies and that series along with 81-82 were the closest we went to beating that might cricket colossus. (though if the 81-82 series had being 5 tests instead of 3 tests we could have very easily lost 3-1 rather than drawing 1-1) But for me the moment that broke Warne was the first test against Sri Lanka. He got belted in the first innings and we went into the second innings 300 runs down. Contributions by almost all the batsmen including Warne got us to 480, a 180 run lead. Sri Lanka were 2-126, 8 wickets in hand with 55 runs to get, Warne at this stage has a bowling average of 300. He comes on and take 3-11 fro 5 overs and with Greg Mathews rips out the middle and lower order to win the test. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63580.html
Con
Guest
Interesting comments on this article. Warne was simply the best legspin bowler in history bar none. He had it all. Don't forget Border and the Australian Cricket hierarchy fast tracked Warne into the test side even after Victoria were not convinced of his talent. I think at times he would play a test for Australia then get dropped to twelfth man for Victoria. Border wanted to counter the West Indian dominance. Off spin wasn't going to cut it, so Warne was plucked from absolute obscurity. After a dodgy beginning against India and Sri Lanka (master players of spin bowling) he won a test against the Windies and the rest is history. Border saw the need for a leggie, took a punt and Australian cricket was rewarded with Warne.
Ken
Guest
Correct and great comment. Border nurtured him beautifully.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
"the fragile bowling style" -- anyone who has tried to might disagree with this description. It is very physically demanding, as it is an un-natural movement. Richie Benaud required surgery during his career because of the stress and strain on his body. Shane Warne was a brilliant bowler because he could bowl a variety of deliveries with a leg-spin action, had enormous physical strength in his arm and hand, and because he bowled slowly enough to allow the spin on the ball to create movement through the air and off the pitch. Equally as important, he had more self-belief than any cricketer I have seen, about equal with Ian Botham and Viv Richards. He also controlled the tempo of a game in a way that most spinners don't. He waited until he could see a potential lapse in the batsman's concentration before delivering, and was prepared to wait quite a while after the umpire signalled that the batsman was ready. As long as low-level cricket in Australia is played on matting over concrete, you will see leg-spinners. This surface encourages a leg-spinner, and anyone who can bowl legspin will continue to pick up wickets -- poor batsmen (such as myself) cannot cope with a ball that appears to gain speed off the pitch, fizzing up at the gloves and shoulders, whilst flying off the pitch at bizarre angles. Offspinners have little hope on these pitches, and will be hammered mercilessly because the surface is too consistent.
Wasim Ranamadroota
Roar Pro
Ripping!! I love it!!
JGK
Roar Guru
He didn't start that way. If he had been mishandled by Border he may not have been given another chance for a long time.
ChrisB
Guest
McGain is a great example of the problem with wrist spin in general, there are so few that have the control, spin, variations and fortitude to thrive in tests. There are usually a few decent ones kicking around most countries at first class level, but I reckon you would struggle to find 20 you could consider regular match winners at test level in the history of test cricket - even 12 might be a stretch
Targa
Guest
www.espncricinfo.com/champions-league-twenty20-2014/content/player/559066.html
Gareth Kidd
Roar Guru
Ripping point. That would be a good side-effect. However, if they can't master it, it will probably result in the old school 'dibbly dobbler' trundlers. Nothing like some good old, seam-up pacers at 110kph!
Trenno
Guest
Kumble was a great Leg spinner that hardly moved the ball. It's more about the flight and dip that dictates how good a Leggie is. Turn helps but it only takes a ball to move a couple of degrees to catch the edge of the bat.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I also wonder if the ICC crackdown on illegal actions will see a change in how many leggies we see. Legspinners don't chuck, in fact, if you tried to chuck bowling a legspinning delivery it would reduce the revolutions on the ball rather than increase them as it does with finger spin. As so many of these spinners coming up with all their mystery balls spinning in different directions basically are able to do it only because they have an illegal action, cracking down on that may result in legspinners coming to the fore more simply because all these chuckers who were getting selected ahead of them no longer can be.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I have to agree, if you look at the history of cricket, you have only ever had really good legspinners around periodically. In fact, if you look at Australian cricket, you only have a few spinners of any varietty here and there through the history of Australian cricket with any sort of longevity. Most spinners have come and gone without ever getting more than 20-30 tests max. There's never been the same sort of production line for leg-spinners as there has been for pace bowlers. Prior to Shane Warne, nobody ever considered playing leggie's in short-form cricket. He was just so good that he was able to change that.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I don't know about that, I think for most of his career Warne knew exactly what he wanted in the field and basically told the captain, and the captains part was largely to allow him to have the field he wanted.
jammel
Guest
I wouldn't say the art of leg spin is dying. Prior to Warne, especially in Australia, there hadn't been much by way of quality legspin for a while. Leg spinners will emerge again if and when they are good enough. I.e. you cannot just create a quality leg spinner out of a mould. People will remember Warne's record/legacy and when a player who is even half as good emerges again (say another MacGill) they'll make their way into the Test team. I think a quality leg spinner who has control would still flourish in ODI and T20 cricket. The ability to knock over two or three batsmen quickly in the middle overs will always remain desirable!
Quitwhinging
Guest
his name says it all, he's one-eyed and I have no idea why Boyce was picked ahead of Muirhead for the Pakistan t20
JGK
Roar Guru
Very good point. On top of his ludicrous talent and competitiveness, Warne was very fortunate to play in a golden era of captaincy for Australia.
Trenno
Guest
I think everyone tends to forget that as good as Warney was he still got belted now and then. He might have the second most ever wickets, most out of those who bowled with a straight arm; but he also was hit for the most 6's in test history. The reason we will never find another 'Warney' is everyone expects a leg spinner to awesome as soon as they come into the team. If a young leg spinner in today's game were hit for 1/150 in there first outing in test match cricket as Shane was they wouldn't get another chance. I remember when I was playing under Dermot Reeve for Queenstown, NZ in 2007 he singled me out and said to the team that I had picked the hardest art to master in all of cricket. He also said what made it even harder for Leg spinners like myself to advance was the fact that most captains had no idea how to set a field for us and for that reason they generally preferred to put on a part time medium pacer instead as the 4th or 5th option. I may have had a good run under him in the Central Otago comp that year, but I believe there would be plenty of guys with real talent, representative level leg spinners that will never get a chance to show there wares because captains dont know how to set the correct fields. I think this would be something the Warney could pass on to our state and national captains so we dont see this beautiful art form die.