Becoming A Spinner

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BowlDaPies

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Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum and hopefully can get some good advice from you leggies out there, I currently play cricket for U14's, I am an aspiring pace bowler, although I am also very good at spin, but I just can't decide wether to be a spinner or pace bowler, so I need your help, wich one should i go for.

Pace bowling.
Pros: Fastest in the team,Can swing the ball alot both ways, have taken 2 wickets in 2 matches
Cons: Constantly get 4 byes due to keeper can't handle the pace, alot of pressure from team from me to bowl as fast as possible wich leads to me spraying the ball.

Leg Spin Bowling:
Pros: Can turn the ball ALOT, have good variety in bowls, I think about my bowling more, I enjoy sucking the batsmen in to what I want him to do.

Cons:Team get's dissapointed that I don't bowl pace, have to work on new action and whatnot, have to work on more deliveries, have to bowl smarter.

Hopefully some of you leggies can help me out here :D
 
You have to decide what you really want to do. And whatever that is, your coach and teammates cant stop you and in the end wont stop you.

Pretty sure your coach and team mates would be supportive if you became a spinner. They would probably give you some stick to start with. But it depends on if you are any good.

Lets be blunt. If you were a good pace bowler but a less than good, perhaps hopeless spinner, the more competitive team members, etc would soon tell you to give up spin and you would just have to prove them wrong.
 
As Macca says it's up to you. I haven't looked but in a way I'd assume that you've also posted on the seam bowling thread asking them what you should do? If you haven't then that would suggest that a bigger part of your wants to be a spin bowler. If you're going to be a wrist spinner you've also got to realise its likely to take you some time to get the whole thing together unless of course you're a complete natural. If you do come over from the Dark side you may go on to be be the most successful wicket taker in your club in the longer run - have a look at your clubs records you'll probably find the most successful bowlers are the spinners, so that's worth thinking about.
 
Bear in mind that whatever you choose, just because you pick to bowl one style in matches doesn't mean you can't keep working on the other skills. I grew up bowling swing, switched to chinaman when I was 14 and then to orthodox left arm when I was 17. I still bowl a bit of all of them in the nets.
 
SLA said:
Bear in mind that whatever you choose, just because you pick to bowl one style in matches doesn't mean you can't keep working on the other skills. I grew up bowling swing, switched to chinaman when I was 14 and then to orthodox left arm when I was 17. I still bowl a bit of all of them in the nets.
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Peter Philpott wouldn't agree with that, becoming a wrist spinner is like becoming a Bhuddist monk, you should dedicate your life to it!:D
 
Thanks for the advice guys, I've made up my mind and decided to be a leggie :D, I really enjoy bowling spin, rather then running in bowling a nice quick one, and have the keeper miss it for 4 byes >.<, I'll try and get some video up of me bowling some spin for some advice, I think that spin is the better way to go aswell, our leading wicket taker is a spinner and has 8 wickets of 2 matches :D.
 
SLA said:
Bear in mind that whatever you choose, just because you pick to bowl one style in matches doesn't mean you can't keep working on the other skills. I grew up bowling swing, switched to chinaman when I was 14 and then to orthodox left arm when I was 17. I still bowl a bit of all of them in the nets.
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Yes I totally agree. Gary sobers bowled medium pace, wrist and finger spin all at the highest level.

We have this allrounder in my sons team that bowls pace/wrist/ finger spin all in the same over sometimes and he goes really well. Reserve keeper and can bat anywhere.
 
BowlDaPies said:
, I think that spin is the better way to go aswell, our leading wicket taker is a spinner and has 8 wickets of 2 matches :D.
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Is he a legspinner?
Sounds like he is going pretty good. 8 wickets in 2 matches in u/14 is excellent. Does he go for many runs, no-balls or wides?

He mightn't like you moving in on his territory.:D
 
I'm going to play Devil's advocate and say that if you have GENUINE pace you may want to consider sticking to that. Spin is a skill that is learnt (after a lot of practise) but pace has much more to do with physical attributes that some have and most never will. I don't know where you're from but in some spin-friendly parts of the world like India they tend to be overrun with decent spin but lacking in pace, while the batsmen again are well-versed in playing spin but a bit more suspect against a fast ball. If you can accurately bowl fast enough to beat a batsman's reflexes you can take wickets on any surface, so a really fast bowler is an attribute to any side. I wouldn't worry about the keeper's problems, byes don't count in your bowling analysis and "my wicket keeper can't cope with it" sounds a pretty silly reason to change your entire bowling style if you ask me - it's the team's problem not yours.

You also need to think about what is most likely to get you a place in the team long term, and unless you play on very spin-friendly pitches and/or with a spin-friendly captain there's usually only 1 or possibly 2 places for spinners in the team, while there's 3 or quite often 4 places for seamers, and seamers tend to create more openings as spinners rarely break down through injury. If there's already a high quality spinner in the team then you'll probably have to take his place away to get a game, and that won't be easy.

Add to that, the big problem with spin is that it's very easily misunderstood. A seamer can bowl an over of rubbish, go for 2 singles and get clapped, while a spinner can bowl 6 amazing balls, entice the batsman into a very risky aerial shot that just manages to clear the boundary fielder and everyone goes quiet. Spinners may have better strike-rates but to the untrained eye (and there are plenty of those where I play) we often look a very risky option. With the wrong captain you can find yourself having a pretty miserable time of it.

All that said, if you REALLY want to be a spinner then, provided you are prepared to work extremely hard on it, it is a very rewarding skill to have. It's very complicated and you never stop learning new things, and there's a satisfaction that comes from thinking a batsman out that I imagine runs a little deeper than taking wickets by simple brute force. Two other big advantages over seam are that you get injured less and you can bowl at your peak for a much longer span over your lifetime. I'd advise against thinking you can be a seamer who bowls a bit of spin, as half-baked spin is a bit of a liability and I think you'd need to practise in a ratio of 1 part seam to 5 parts spin to maintain the same level of progress in both.

Anyway, best of luck in whatever you decide, especially if you decide to be a spinner... :)
 
Spiders 'Captain factor' is a really important one to consider, if you've got a captain or coach that hasn't got a clue about using spinners as a strategy in the game you might find yourself in the wilderness a bit. Two wrist spinners in the same team might be seen as too much as well, unless of course the captain is or has been a spinner himself. I had a finger spinner as a captain and that was so instrumental in my development as a spinner, I played in matches on occasions where there'd be 5 spinners!
 
Thanks for the advice guys, seems abit silly, but I've decided to go back to pace, In the long run it'll help the team out more, and as you said, pace bowling is a very unique ability to have, especially if I'm the fastest in the team, and there's the fact that we already have a spinner who is doing well for us, and macca, he usually doesn't spin the ball alot but if he does he usually does leggies, he mainly puts lots of topspin on the ball and get's really good flight, most of the batsman come running out of the crease to smack him round the park, and they get stumped or bowled, and he often slips a quicker one through wich they usually edge through to slips, and he hardly bowls no-balls sometimes he'll get a wide, and if he get's hit it's usually just for a single, because we set the field so they can only run singles when he bowls.
 
Don't give it up altogether. You (probably) won't be at this team your whole life, but once you have taught yourself to bowl spin you will always have it. It's always a good idea to be as multi-facetted a cricketer as you can be, you never know which skill will prove useful from one year to the next.
 
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