What Made You Decide To Be A Spin-bowler?

Top Contributors
someblokecalleddave said:
No it's not a daft question at all. Have a look at this image here. The smaller square-ish circle is our backyard, you can see from the cars just above how big a car is. My garden isn't much bigger than 20x 20. Have a look at this link here http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/english-suburban-gardens-can-you-play.html Yeah there are school yards, but often there are restrictions about what you can and can't do in them (H&S) and cricket just isn't encouraged. Parks, yeah there's a load of them for the most part. But rarely with free to use cricket facilities and there is this working class/footballer kind of thing where people that don't have any contact with cricket assume it's a middle class thing.
English%2Btown%2Bsuburban.jpg
Click to expand...
Thanks Dave, thought it might be a bit like that, at least you and your boys have quite a nice spot at the end of the street to have a hit though.

Backyard cricket is a massive part of Australian culture. Growing up I reckon we would have spent at least an hour a day in summer either playing at home on a 1/4 acre bloke where we lived in the country, the school oval with nets at lunch time and on occasion with pads, gloves and a proper cricket ball down at the sports oval nets. Only started playing 'proper' games on Saturdays at age 14, but pretty much went as good as anyone else almost straight away having picked up most of the basics of just mucking around mates. Only really wrong or bad habit it gave us was kind of bowling off the wrong foot..

I think though that the compact type of living you have in the UK needs to really start happening a lot more over in our cities, new outer Perth suburban blocks at a guess are probably something like only 1/8th of an acre now, but even at that size imo urban 'sprawl' is getting out of hand and will cause a lot of problems in the future.

edit - at 16 we also one summer built a sort of mini set of nets in the backyard with a strip of old carpet for a pitch, usually just playing with indoor balls we had a lot of fun practicing with that.
 
boogiespinner said:
I think the danger with youngsters and spin bowling is the pressure that comes with net practice against batsmen. No-one suggested to me that I do anything else, but it is a dangerous way to kindle a developing talent. When young I could rip the ball but do little else. After bowling tennis balls as a child to Brearley and doubtless impressing him, spinning both ways, he invited me to a net with his son. A great honour, but I could not repeat the feat with a cricket ball over 22 yards. I was embarrassed, and felt I couldn't do the thing. If only someone had said, there's potential there, here's how you bowl seam up, meanwhile practice your spin over short distances.
Click to expand...
I always tell the young spinners, don't worry about the bad balls, try and make the batsman (usually their mate) look like a dick and get him out...that's usually enough to get them interested in spin.
 
Kram81 said:
Thanks Dave, thought it might be a bit like that, at least you and your boys have quite a nice spot at the end of the street to have a hit though.

Backyard cricket is a massive part of Australian culture. Growing up I reckon we would have spent at least an hour a day in summer either playing at home on a 1/4 acre bloke where we lived in the country, the school oval with nets at lunch time and on occasion with pads, gloves and a proper cricket ball down at the sports oval nets. Only started playing 'proper' games on Saturdays at age 14, but pretty much went as good as anyone else almost straight away having picked up most of the basics of just mucking around mates. Only really wrong or bad habit it gave us was kind of bowling off the wrong foot..

I think though that the compact type of living you have in the UK needs to really start happening a lot more over in our cities, new outer Perth suburban blocks at a guess are probably something like only 1/8th of an acre now, but even at that size imo urban 'sprawl' is getting out of hand and will cause a lot of problems in the future.

edit - at 16 we also one summer built a sort of mini set of nets in the backyard with a strip of old carpet for a pitch, usually just playing with indoor balls we had a lot of fun practicing with that.
Click to expand...
I'm going to look at Merridin now! I think I've looked before, as I recall it's fairly near the mining areas in WA? I think the only place in the UK that looks like some places in Australia would be Dungeness in Kent, which I think is described as our only desert. Still couldn't get a game of cricket going there though, unless it was on the beach further up the coast at Camber Sands.
 
Last edited:
someblokecalleddave said:
I'm going to look at Merridin now! I think I've looked before, as I recall it's fairly near the mining areas in WA? I think the only place in the UK that looks like some places in Australia would be Dungeness in Kent, which I think is described as our only desert. Still couldn't get a game of cricket going there though, unless it was on the beach further up the coast at Camber Sands.
Click to expand...
It's mainly wheat farming, mining starts about 50+ km east. It's a bit of a dump really but having lots of space and freedom to muck around in as a kid was one of the few good things. On BY cricket, it was when I was living in Perth but a few years back but some Merredin kids fortunate to live right next to a vacant lot made themselves a little cricket setup on it. They actually won a competition as being one of the best with the prize of Adam Gilchrist coming out for the afternoon and playing a few games with them, not bad!
 
Kram81 said:
It's mainly wheat farming, mining starts about 50+ km east. It's a bit of a dump really but having lots of space and freedom to muck around in as a kid was one of the few good things. On BY cricket, it was when I was living in Perth but a few years back but some Merredin kids fortunate to live right next to a vacant lot made themselves a little cricket setup on it. They actually won a competition as being one of the best with the prize of Adam Gilchrist coming out for the afternoon and playing a few games with them, not bad!
Click to expand...

Nothing like that here, I just looked at this... http://users.tpg.com.au/dandsc/op/op35.htm it kind of encapsulates the whole Australian cricket ethos. I love those Youtube vids with the backyard cricket, some of my favourite youtube vids and the inspiration for me to go out with my mower and start cutting wickets all over the local area! and Trav Keys backyard cricket vids with all his mates, mainly because they're that much older and still loving it... The idea that any of the England players or even Essex players would come along and have a look at my set up and have a knock about like the Gilchrist story, is as likely as someone finding an settlement of advanced beings on Mars! Instead I have locals abusing me for doing it for the most part! There's a very different perspective on cricket here in the UK, but it's probably got a regional aspect to it, from my limited experience it does seem as though cricket is seen and approached in a different way in the Midlands. There may also be a rural v suburban aspect to it? I had a look at the Manly cricket club website a few weeks ago in Sydney and noticed the extent that they try and be part of the local community. That idea with the regards to the clubs I've played with and play against would appear to be a no-goer. I guess the weather works against us too?
 
  1. (a). Always bowled spin from the moment you picked the ball up.
    i bowl with both arms wrist spin. and my natural ball from both arms was googly. so i started as a leg spinner
 
I used to be a medium pacer but when my mum gave me a book on bowling with all the different types of bowling I tried all of them and leg spin worked, in my first match with leg spin I got 2 wickets and I often get loads of wickets.
 
Robert Walker said:
I used to be a medium pacer but when my mum gave me a book on bowling with all the different types of bowling I tried all of them and leg spin worked, in my first match with leg spin I got 2 wickets and I often get loads of wickets.
Click to expand...
Nice one, where are you in the world, it doesn't say on your profile?
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Nice one, keep us informed as to how you do. With the drift as CP says pitch it outside of off, try and get your captain to set an good field on the off-side for the ones that don't drift and spin it hard.
Click to expand...
Will do, I'll take the advice into account, if a high quality batsman is playing me with ease what should I do?
 
Robert Walker said:
Will do, I'll take the advice into account, if a high quality batsman is playing me with ease what should I do?
Click to expand...
There's a number of things, probably the best advice which assumes that you're able to pitch balls fairly accurately is to bowl on different positions on the crease when you first come to the crease. There's a sky/Shane Warne video on youtube, have a look at it here...
 
I grew up in SL and India for the first 10 years of my life. I was only batting then, i was very good for my age, i was playing tennis and tape ball cricket with guys who were 13 to 28 since the age of 7. I never bowled because I never had the strength to bowl. I was chucking off spin in my house with a plastic ball and I used to get very good turn in my living room. I moved to Canada at the age of 10, and cricket was cut of from my life till I was 15. By this time, I have had puberty, and when I tried getting back into batting I felt like I was doing 3-4 things with my body just to play one shot. I was hopeless, started bowling leg spin with AJantha Mendis action with no googly. Got decent turn with little revs, i was primary an indoor bowler. In Indoor matches, we'd use the entire gymnasium, using Kookaburra Indoor ball(Yellow). I always picked up good wickets but then i'd get chosen for the outdoors and all I'll i did was field and bat number 11. I never understood the talent I had (turning big), no one told me i was good, no one helped me. About two years ago, i started doing research on spin bowling and I have improved my bowling. Last August I got my hands on Peter Philpott's The Art of Wrist Spin bowling. The book made me understand spin bowling and leg spin bowling in general. Sadly the season came to an end before i finished the book. I never got practice by myself in the winter since every indoor cricket net averages about 10 person. THe temperature here in Canada can get cold as hell so there was no way I could have practiced outside. It was just me ripping hard the ball hard as i can over hours after hours. The weather now is getting better, there is a concrete pitch about 10 mins from my place and things are coming together.
 
(a) for me. Left arm wrist spin, left arm because I always threw with my left arm and wrist spin because it just feels the most natural way for me to spin it. Took me a good year or so of bowling tennis ball on concrete for me to figure out finger spin. I don't play cricket for a club yet, but I am planning to join one next season (I live in Australia btw). I am 13 years old so I still have time to develop my skills thankfully. I have very odd grips with finger spin and wrist spin, here are some pictures:

Wrist spin:
ezoys1S.jpg


Finger spin:
39ewigZ.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top