Spin Bowling Magics

Sri Lanka’s Muthayya Muralitharan is the world’s best off spinner today and Pakistan’s Wasim Akram is a fine left arm fast medium bowler. Akram has taken more than 500 wikcets in one day cricket while Muralitharan has taken more than 700 wickets in test matches. Spin bowling has been tha secret of asian players. India forced other countries to learn the magics in spin bowling. India harvested lots of wickets by this technique. India produced many great spin bowlers who were later considered as masters in spin bowling.

Harbhajan sing is the current Indian spin bowler for India. He is taking wickets on a regular basis. His ability to reduce the run rate has been used by India to win matches. Pakistan also produced some spin bowlers. Other foreign nations were not able to master this skill well until recently. They were forced to learn this bowling trick to survive in Asian pitches. 

Some Major Contributions To World

India forced the other countries to understand the spin bowling and Sri Lanka started the trend of opening innings with an explosive batsman like Jayasurya which inspired other countries to do the same. The variety in Pakistan’s bowling forced other countries to take a note.

Reverse swing is also said to be the contribution of Pakistan. In this, the bowler maintains the shine on one side of the bowl by rubbing the leather on his trousers and allows the shine on the other part of the bowl to wear off. It is their effort to pitch the worn off section of the ball on to the pitch so that the ball turns the was\y they want it to. The movement of the ball is influenced because one half of the ball has shine on it and the other has worn off and the bowler tries to move the bowl as he has practiced. Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram were regarded adapt at bowling reverse swing and it is said that Imran Khan had taught them the trick. The art has now reached other countries as well. Their fast bowling added beauty to it.

Characteristics of Indian Sub Continent

The Americans wonder over the Britisher's love for cricket but they are even more surprised over the passion the inspires cricket in India. India is the only country in the world where more than one lakh spectators come to watch a match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata even if India is not one of the players;and a half of whom get disappointed on not getting an entry but still keep hovering around in the hope of gaining entry in the stadium. The situation is more or less the same at other places like Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. Now the popularity of one-day cricket has broken all spectator records. Even counterfeit tickets get sold and people are willing to buy the ticket at double or thrice its normal price. Some people, through these black deeds, become rich overniht.

Seeing the passion of Indians for cricket, even the britishers are amazed that the magic of the British Raj is so pervasive in India. The Indians themselves accept that among the legacies left by the Britisher, if England language and literature comes at top, the cricket, famous for its glorious uncertainties, comes nearest to it. Not just in the main cities, even if you go to the remotest villages, you can not help getting interested by people's love for cricket. The tea vendors, rickshaw wallahs, students and employees working in offices, you can see all of them tuned in to the radio or watching the match on television. It seems as if an unannounced curfew is on. Besides the streets, even schools, colleges and offices wear a deserted look.

Great Players from Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka got their test status at the Lords test in 1982 but it lost the match. Despite this, its players improved everybody with their positive play. The Sri Lankan players were popular in England even before they had got test status and were playing county cricket. After being granted test status, cricket gained in status in the country and its players were filled with great enthusiasm.

From 1981- 1982 to 1982- 1983, Sri Lanka played one test match each against England and India,three against Pakistan and two against New Zealand. Of these 7 test matches played, it could not even win one, while it had to lose 5 and two test matches were ended in draw. In the 10 years between 1981 to 1990, Sri Lanka played 30 test matches which was less than the number of test matches played by any country in the same period. During the same period, other nations had played thrice or twice the matches played by Sri Lanka. The players of Sri Lankan cricket came only up to the standard in 1990. Arjun Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasurya and other great players came in this time only. 

Great Players from Pakistan

The Pakistan team mostly had players of test match standards. Fazal Mahmood had also played for the first Pakistan representative team. But he did not get much attention. In 1951, an MCC team led by Neil Howard came on a tour to Pakistan. Fazal Mahmood guided his team to victory with his leg cutters. The controversial LBW decisions in this match found a mention even in the Wisden magazine, regarded as the Bible of Cricket. It is said that the Pakistani umpires refused at least 30 appeals against the Pakistani batsmen by the MCC bowlers. But without caring for it, Pakistan and its fans celebrated its victory.

In the last 25 years, 12 matches between India and Pakistan have ended in a draw. The reason for this is very clear. They don’t want to lose the match at any cost. Great players from Pakistan made a significant change in International Cricket. Imran Khan, Wasim Akram amd Waqar Younis were bowling figures from Pakistan. They contributed many to the international cricket. Reverse swing was invented by Pakistani bowlers. Imran Khan is considered to be the inventor of this trick. It added sharpness to fast bowlers. Wickets were faiilng apart when this trick was used.

Great Players from India

Sunil Gavaskar of India was not only the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in test matches, he was also the first batsman to score the maximum number of runs in Test cricket before Allan Border. The recored for maximum number of centuries was also in his name till Sachin broke that record. Tendulkar has beaten the record with 35 centuries. On the other hand Sachin Tendulkar was the first batsman in one day cricket to score 10,000 runs. The maximum number of runs in One Day matches and Test matches is also I his name.

In bowling, before Kapil Dev had become the first bowlerto break Richard Hadlee’s World record of 431 test wickets. It is true that India had performed well in home than at abroad. The reason for this has been our wickets, climate, environment and playing in familiar conditions. Every body faces trouble while playing abroad. If India is not able to play well on the bouncy wickets of New Zealand, Australia and on the movement wickets in England, then these countries also face problems in playing on the slow, turning wickets of India. Some of Indian players have been able to adapt to the situations very well. VVS Laxman plays well in Australian Cricket. 

Some Major Contributions to Cricket

Even in spin bowling, the off spin bowled through fingers, the leg spin bowled using wrist, left arm spin and armour bowling are the features of Indian sub-continent. But the British artistry has become ineffective because of one day cricket. Despite the lack of facilities and favourable circumstances, the success of players like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Jayasurya, Zaheer Abbaz and Wasim Akram is praise worthy. Despite having played on matting wickets, Nayudu played on turf. Gavaskar never got the chance to play fast bowling in India while Kapil Dev never got to bowl on wickets in India that helped fast bowlers. He never had a good opening bowling partner too. Sri Lanka was troubled by political instability and the change of Governments continued even in Pakistan. But still, the three countries continued to dominate the international cricket.

They made significant contributions to the world cricket during all these times. They produced some finr players in cricket who were considered as masters in cricket. Players like Sachin Tendulkar, Jayasurya, Rahul Dravid, Muthayya Muraleetharan, Sourav Ganguly, Wasim Akram, Insamam and many others were masters in cricketing skills. The contributions made by these players are significant in Cricketing World.

Englnd claims Victory

England clinch ICC world t20 in an exciting fashion. It was the all round performance from Kevin Pietersen that helped the English boys reach their hand over t20 cup. Kieswetter made it easy in the mean time. A fine bowling performance from England restricted the Aussies to 147 in 20 overs earlier. It was then a fine partnership between Kieswetter and Kevin Pietersen that anchored English victory in the second session of match. Morgan coming late in the match didn't waited for his captain to do the striking but took the job comfortably as soon as he came. Kevin Pietersen was adjudged player of the tournament while Kieswetter took the man of the match award.

England didn’t got any world cup matches except this one. This will be a real happy event for the cricket fans in England. People were eager to celebrate atleast one event in cricket for them. The England team finally got one to cheer for.

Bangladesh Joining World Cricket

Bangladesh is the tenth and last nation to be granted test status. Before the creation of Pakistan, Bangladesh was known as East Pakistan. Bangladesh has close social and cultural affinity with West Bengal. Their culture, customs, language and dress are more or less similar. The land is fertile but the people are poor. The life of a common man in the village of Bengladesh was miserable. In 1973, East Bengal, that came to be called East Pakistan, became independent after a war with Pakistan. There was lot of blood shed, but eventually their struggle ended in freedom.

In 1976-77, an MCC team led by former captain of ESSEX and then the England sector Brian Taylor came on a tour of Bangladesh. This team played four test matches. Three of them ended in a draw but on a matting wicket in Chittagong, Mcc won by an innings. Bangladesh may not have won the match, but the important thing was that 40,000 people turned up to watch the game in 3 days. In the next International competition, Sri Lanka emerged victorious.

By now Bangladesh is recognized by many people and nations. Bangladesh is also taking part in World Cup matches as well. They even knocked out India in the 2007 ICC World Cup match.

Zimbabwe with Cricket

After being ostracized from international cricket for 21 years, South Africa returned to the fold in 1992. Zimbabwe also got test status in 1992. It started its international carrier by playing in the one-off test against India at Harare. This test ended in a draw. In 1993, the Zimbabwe team toured India to play one test match which it lost. But in 1998, it defeated the visiting Indian team to register its first win. Neil Johnson, Heath Streak, Andy and Grant Flower were the architect of the win over India. It was a big achievement to have defeated an India side that had been playing test cricket for 60 years and which had world class players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.

In 1998 itself, Zimbabwe toured Pakistan and registerd its first win on foreign soil by defeating the hosts 1-0. It surprised the cricketing world by wrapping up the match against Pakistan in 4 days. The second test ended in a draw and third test was not played due to bad weather conditions. The Pakistan side has a strong fast bowling players and was regarded a cricketing power at that time. Still the Zimbabwe managed to win a test match against them.