Why are left arm wrist spinners so rare?

[BoyBrumby]

Because wrist spinners are rare, and a left-handed bowler might see more value in turning it away from a right hander?

One of those two things is a fact, the other one is a guess.

Yeah, pretty spot on, I'd say.

With maybe the additional factor that wrist spin is a lot harder to master than its finger spin cousin, so why would one sacrifice the advantage of a stock ball that turns away from RHBs, who're still the majority?

 

[Groundking]

It comes naturally to some people, the first time I picked up a bat I held it left handed but I do most things including bowling and throwing right . So does every cricketer in my family apart from my aforementioned uncle who is fully left handed.

This except it's the other way around, left handed but right hand bat for me. Trying to bat 'properly' left handed feels awful.

 

[Migara]

This has peaked my interest now, going through Test crickets 10 most prolific recent left-hand batsmen:

Cook (right-handed)
Sangakkara right-handed)
Lara (right-handed)
Chanderpaul (right-handed)
Border (left-handed)
Smith (right-handed)
Hayden (right-handed)
Gower (right-handed)
Langer (right-handed)
Taylor (right-handed)

only 1 of them is actually left-handed.

If you have a kid learning to play cricket, I would encourage having them learn to bat this way. Dominant hand on top.

And one of them was a real bowler.

 

[Starfighter]

@TheJediBrah I've always wondered whether there was some self-selection bias in that - players who can make the change are better coordinated anyway, have the general advantage of lefties being rarer and so the claim switching is better is reversing causality.
Then again there's also plenty of bowls right, bats left players who aren't good batsmen - like Anderson and Statham. For some reason England excels at producing such players.

Anyway, back on topic, it's the reasons already explained, wrist spin is harder and in any case turning the ball away is more advantageous. The reason we say 'left arm unorthodox' is that while there were still leg spinners back in the olden days (albeit they weren't thought highly of) it was just assumed that if you bowled left handed to moved the bal from right to left, spinning it the other way was so rare.

As an aside, has anyone else observed in club cricket etc. that left handed bowlers are much rarer than leftie batsmen? I think the proportion of 'wrong handed' batsmen might account for part of the difference, I suspect it's much harder to switch to the non-dominant hand to bowl. But in my observation left handers are steered towards batting at an early age. A common tactic in juniors was to make someone open just because they batted left handed.

 

[Starfighter]

It comes naturally to some people, the first time I picked up a bat I held it left handed but I do most things including bowling and throwing right . So does every cricketer in my family apart from my aforementioned uncle who is fully left handed.

It's certainly a thing. My grandfather also was right handed in everything except batting and golf. I'm a funny one, cricket and golf right handed, but the very small number of times I've encountered hockey I've played left handed.

I also like to give batsmen out and no-ball bowlers left handed lol.

 

[GIMH]

Then again there's also plenty of bowls right, bats left players who aren't good batsmen - like Anderson and Statham. For some reason England excels at producing such players.

At the point they made the decision to bat that way round though they were probably standout all-rounders i.e. in junior or club cricket

 

[TheJediBrah]

As an aside, has anyone else observed in club cricket etc. that left handed bowlers are much rarer than leftie batsmen? I think the proportion of 'wrong handed' batsmen might account for part of the difference, I suspect it's much harder to switch to the non-dominant hand to bowl. But in my observation left handers are steered towards batting at an early age. A common tactic in juniors was to make someone open just because they batted left handed.

It would be virtually impossible, and I'm not sure why anyone would do it.

 

[Burgey]

At the point they made the decision to bat that way round though they were probably standout all-rounders i.e. in junior or club cricket

I doubt they’d have made a conscious decision to do it tbh. The only bloke I know of who did was Hussey, who understandably switched to left handed batting because he wanted to emulate TOTAB (kid was dreaming)

 

[Starfighter]

At the point they made the decision to bat that way round though they were probably standout all-rounders i.e. in junior or club cricket

I doubt that was influential on the decision, especially in Statham's case where he played little cricket in his mid-teen years and never received significant coaching until he started his FC career.

 

[Burgey]

Katich FTW

Bevan for an even bigger win. His bowling was really very decent. Only switched to it when he stuffed his back in his late teens. Before that was apparently very quick

 

[Starfighter]

It would be virtually impossible, and I'm not sure why anyone would do it.

Funny you'd say that. If I decide to quit umpiring and start playing again, I'm seriously considering it. I've never gotten out of bottom grade bowling right handed, so I've got nothing to lose and SLA spinners are very uncommon locally. That said I've sent down occasional left handed detritus in the nets for years, to the point I can get the seam up stuff somewhat on target.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Remember when Katich moved to NSW and in his first season bowled heaps in the Shield and took a load of wickets. It was 2003 I think

 

[Starfighter]

There was that time Alex Bowden proclaimed him the best part-timer of all time. I think someone took it seriously and told him too.

 

[Himannv]

Hogg.

 

[Starfighter]

Hogg.

What about him? A hoggpile maybe?

 

[NotMcKenzie]

Again only tangentially related, but Bill O'Reilly batted left-handed as well. I believe he was often the only left handed batsman in the side. You sometimes see people come up at points (Len Darling, Wally Edwards, Alan Turner) where left-handedness seems to have been a major factor in their selection.

 

[Starfighter]

Again only tangentially related, but Bill O'Reilly batted left-handed as well. I believe he was often the only left handed batsman in the side. You sometimes see people come up at points (Len Darling, Wally Edwards, Alan Turner) where left-handedness seems to have been a major factor in their selection.

Pertaining to '32-33, Leo O'Brien was also selected due to being left handed.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Hogg.

not MacGIll?

 

[Himannv]

not MacGIll?

Not this time, sadly.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Switch batting is going to be a thing in the next 20 years.