Oh for a clean offspinner’s action

From S. Giridhar, India
Much of what you read here was written by me a month ago. I had written and put aside the article but two news items in the last fortnight made me write a post script and send it over to the editor at cricinfo.com. Read on.

It was a Sunday morning in the last week of October and the sun was rather pleasant, of the kind that you seem to get only in Bangalore. I was walking to the market rolling between thumb and forefinger the piece of paper on which my wife had written the list of things required at home. Just hundred yards away from my home is a rather large play ground where invariably a couple of teams square up against each other for intense tennis ball cricket matches during weekends. This Sunday morning was no different and even as I was striding purposefully to the market, I could see beyond the compound wall of the ground, two teams had already commenced battle. The noise emanating from the spectators aligned to the two camps was equal and I guessed that it was an even scrap. The sights and sounds of cricket are like a magnet and so I paused and told myself, okay just a few minutes of this action before I resume the expedition to the market. I put my elbows on the compound wall and peered down on a match that had just begun.

The batting seemed to be of good quality and I rather suspect that one of the batsmen was of a league cricket caliber because he played a cover drive and then unfurled a square cut of some elegance. The opening bowlers were also good – they ran in smoothly and delivered decent deliveries and not a wide bowled. But a wicket had not fallen and the captain of the fielding side with some visible impatience summoned his first change.

The new bowler sets his field elaborately, in fact rather too elaborately with much gesticulation. But we are finally ready. Aha! Seems to be a spinner, only 4 steps to the bowling crease. And what does he deliver? An entire over of extremely accurate offspin, every ball was like a dart, with the third ball he took out the ‘league cricket’ caliber batsman’s middle stump and with his sixth ball he plucked out the offstump of the completely clueless No. 3 batsman. Raucous cheers, much leaping around, high fives, lots of hugs…..

I straightened up, dusted my elbows and resumed my walk to the market. But this time my head was bowed and even from the other side of the road you could see that I was not a happy man. The reason was simple. This match winning offspinner bowled with an abominable action.

Of course tennis ball cricket bowling heroes have always been bowlers like our friend here. But these days the story of the maverick offspinner does not end in the neighbourhood maidan. Our friend already 19 or 20 years old must be bowling like this for a few years and by now displaying this brand of bowling in inter college matches too. He would be wrecking teams and may soon play a higher grade of cricket. So I muttered to myself as I continued on my way.

It was not even 24 hours later that I saw some live cricket again. This time it was on television, a match between two teams called India Blue and Green or Yellow or whatever. Both teams had an offspinner each. One of them was being spoken of very highly by the commentators, as the man to watch out for, he can put the brakes, he is a tricky customer, he is the one who will………….

This young man, Mohnish Parmar, has already played first class cricket, played for India A or equivalent teams and therefore must have passed muster with umpires in India, the national committee that reviews actions. But boy, what I saw made me rub my eyes in disbelief! Here he came on a diagonal run up as though measured and marked by Muralitharan. And then he contorts himself and delivers unbelievably copying Muralitharan. And of course he beats batsmen; he gets a wicket here, a wicket there and of the 24 deliveries that he bowled at least 16 of them were the Doosra! The pernicious Doosra is difficult enough to bowl and obviously places the maximum strain on the legality of the action. And through this entire period when this young man is bowling, the commentators make only the occasional apologetic reference to his action. If it is legal who am I argue with that? But if I say it was bloody outright ugly to watch can you deny me the right to say that? Later that evening in the same match, a rather studious looking chap named Ashwin bowled a spell of offspin for the other team – neat clean action, no Doosra, the straighter one of course and he got a wicket bowling a well-set batsman through the gate. But I don’t think he will cause as much grief to batsman as the other bowler and because we worship outcomes and not the process, I think Mohnish may well break through to national colours before the other chap. And thus we will bless, encourage and actively condone such bowling actions.

Something is badly wrong somewhere. A bowler with a dubious action in neighbourhood cricket is perfectly acceptable and in fact provides the much needed sharpness to the fielding side. It is okay so long as he knows that he will play and enjoy cricket as a pastime. But it is an altogether different matter if he is allowed to graduate to higher grades of cricket. In the long run we are doing the greatest disservice to him. Take the case of this bowler with the strange action from the Challenger series match. If he were to continue playing, he would put everything else in his life on the back burner – his studies, his office career, his family. How will he cope if just a short while later, umpires finally do what should have been done when he first began to play serious cricket? Won’t it be too late to change his action? Will he be as effective? What if all his dreams and aspirations come shattering down? Most importantly who is to blame? Why is our cricket administration turning such a blind eye to what is obviously a problem of endemic proportion. I am willing to bet that nearly every Ranji team has an offspinner with a dicey action either in the team or in the fringes of the team. And simply because our system does not have the discipline or courage to stop such bowlers and tell them to correct their actions before they bowl in a match again. I type in these words and in a not too pleasant mood file this piece away and out of sight.

I open the article because I have been compelled to write the post script. November is drawing to a close. Two news items in quick succession in the past fortnight tell us that the offspinners in our country are in trouble. Mohnish Parmar’s action has been questioned by the umpire in a Ranji Trophy match. And Sunil Rao the offspinner from Karnataka has also been told that his action is not what it should be. Why did it take so long? What the umpire spotted in Mohnish Parmar’s action must have been crying out loud for a couple of seasons. How much more difficult it would be for the young man now and how much easier it could have been if our cricket system had done its duty earlier. Legspin by the very nature of the action and delivery is impossible to be bowled with an illegitimate action but an offspinner if not careful can easily end up with an action that will bring grief to the bowler and the game. The administrators of the game in India own primary responsibility.