Simon Hughes
Spin bowling is one of the most intriguing aspects of the game – the variations a good spinner can input on a ball defy explanation. Googlies, flippers, and chinamen are all part of the spin-bowler's armoury, and their names are as difficult to fathom as the balls are to play. It may be called slow bowling but this is not a gentle art – the great spinners bowl with aggression, cunning and surprising speed.
Reviving an Old Art
You don't have to be long at a cricket ground to hear someone mourning the dying art of spin bowling. They're usually the type of cricket fancier who also believe that helmets should be banned, as should any team that doesn't bowl 25 overs an hour. In fact, in world terms, spin is not dying at all, it is experiencing a renaissance. The English spin cupboard may be a little understocked at present, it is true, but elsewhere batsmen are regularly getting caught up in the sticky webs of Shane Warne, Anil Kumble, Muttiah Muralitharan and Saqlain Mushtaq, to name but four.
 Full on
Shane Warne brought new passion to the appeal, almost ordering umpires to give batsmen out.
England rarely take to the field without at least one spinner, and the twirlers always have an influence towards the end of a home Test series. They are not there just for an exploratory over before tea. These days you will even see quick bowlers trying the odd spinner.
It is a fallacy to think that spinners prefer to bowl late in the day with a ragged, old ball you wouldn't give your dog. They like to get into the action with something hard that will bounce just as much as the pacemen do. And, like the pacemen, they are often aggressive in words and deeds. Bringing on a spinner early is actually quite a bright idea, because top-order batsmen are not so used to slow bowling and, with a new ball, some spinning deliveries might grip and turn and others, pitching on the shiny part of the ball, might skid straight on.
If the seamers are finding assistance from dampness in the pitch then the spinners may benefit as well. Having a quick bowler at one end and a
spinner at the other is also a good ploy, although, as a spinner gets through his overs in two minutes flat, it can start to leave his huffing, puffing partner rather short of breath.
Copyright material reproduced under license from Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London, England
Copyright © Simon Hughes 2001
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