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The greatest-ever left-arm finger-spinner

Who was the greatest-ever left-arm finger-spinner


  • Total voters
    58

neville cardus

International Debutant
I'm rather obsessed with Peate, so I'll do my level best to regale you with anecdote and give you a better understanding of his legend.

To start off, you may or may not have read Lord Harris's testimony that he was so accurate, pitching time and time again on exactly the same spot, that, after a while, it would begin to look quite bear.
 
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neville cardus

International Debutant
Does anyone else think that Derek Underwood is pretty much as close as we are likely to get to seeing how Sydney Barnes bowled? I mean although different armed the ball turns the same way, and Barnes must have got similar effects to the ball shown in the link by Silentstriker, though Barnes apparently denied he cut the ball like Underwood did, saying he spun it.
It's not wholly accurate, but I must say that I quite like that idea.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
I'm rather obsessed with Peate, so I'll do my best to regale you with anecdote and give you a better understanding of his legend.
His case has fascinated me too, ever since I first heard his name 3 or 4 years ago. I'm always especially interested in "first of the long line" cases. Also, he shares my Grandad's first name and the name I have inherited via that phenomena known as "middle names".
To start off, you may or may not have read Lord Harris's testimony that he was so accurate, pitching time and time again on the same spot, that, after a while, it begun to look quite bear.
Have indeed never come accross this. The Bapu Nadkarni of his day then?
 

neville cardus

International Debutant
His case has fascinated me too, ever since I first heard his name 3 or 4 years ago. I'm always especially interested in "first of the long line" cases. Also, he shares my Grandad's first name and the name I have inherited via that phenomena known as "middle names".
It's strange that you should mention names and family, because I recently came by what might well be a rather Earth-shattering Peate-related revelation. I'll email you about it when I'm feeling tolerant enough to tackle my GMail account again.

Have indeed never come accross this. The Bapu Nadkarni of his day then?
You could say that, although Peate most certainly wouldn't: he regarded the notion of pitching on a spot as "tommy-rot".
 

JerseyGuy

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Going by what I have seen...Bedi is the best. Underwood would come next. Verity and Rhodes might be great but belong to different era. Vettori is best in this generation.
 

neville cardus

International Debutant
Going by what I have seen...Bedi is the best. Underwood would come next. Verity and Rhodes might be great but belong to different era.
That's no excuse. As we speak, I'm watching Verity's celebrated rout of the Aussies at Lord's in 1934, and, earlier today, I witnessed Wilfred's great comeback in '26. Make the effort, damnit!
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Going by what I have seen...Bedi is the best. Underwood would come next. Verity and Rhodes might be great but belong to different era. Vettori is best in this generation.
That era, however, is markedly different only in covered pitches. Other than that, matters have not changed drastically, and certainly since the 1930s. This isn't quite so true with the 1900s and 1910s (Rhodes' heyday) but there is still much which remains the same.

Put simply, fingerspinners back then had the opportunity to, and did where they were good enough, cash-in and achieve far more than they can these days. Same as even these days, those from India and Sri Lanka have far more opportunity to take impressive figures than those from, say, Australia or New Zealand.

Unless pitches once more become uncovered, all the truly great fingerspinners will always be those of what is, these days, yesteryear.
 

neville cardus

International Debutant
The advent of covered wickets raped the game of one of its most glorious uncertainties. The T20 phenomenon might have been a longer time coming had the authorities resorted back to the halcyon days of glue pots and sticky dogs.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Covering of wickets has always been one of the few things I've been totally uncertain about; beyond a doubt, so I endlessly hear from the generation who played and watched at the time they were in play, they had many merits.

Nonetheless, I'm led to believe that, basically, when a wicket (and with it the rest of the field) got wet it totally took the seam-bowler out of the equation, because he could not keep his footing (as his run-up and followthrough was sodden). This is an idea I hate, frankly. If it rains, seam-bowlers' run-ups should be covered. I also hear such a thing was indeed done in the summer of 1987 when uncovered wickets were given one final (domestic-only) fling in this country, and that it caused nasty experiences aplenty for any number of batsmen.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
No, no you couldn't really.

He's patently a better bowler than Jeetan Patel and it's almost certain to stay that way IMO.

I don't, incidentally, think the cupboard's any barer than it has been the last 37 years. It's just most of the subcontinental fingerspinners of recent times have been right-armers.

There'll be another Bedi or Qasim eventually, but it may not be for a while.

As for Vettori vs MSP - let's wait until MSP faces some top-notch batting-line-ups on some flat pitches shall we?
 

JBH001

International Regular
Havent read the whole page...must play BF 2 soon >_< ...but

*gasp*

No Colin Blythe, Neville? I am shocked, absolutely and utterly shocked!

(the man was arguably better than Wilfred)
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
Vettori isn't even really a 'spinner' IMO, a unique style where he relies almost entirely on his variations and the ball turning at all is just a sheer bit of fortune that comes from the speed he bowls at.

Not saying he can't turn the ball if he really wanted to, but his style dictates that he is more reliant on variation of pace and length than anything else.

Patel is a much better turner yet is nowhere near as valuable as Vettori (yet).
 

Flem274*

123/5
Voted Underwood,

ATM Vettori is better than Patel. That may easily change however. Though aadmittedly I am biased towards Patel.

Panesar better than Vettori? Personally looking at them I think Panesar will be better in tests but Vettori better in ODI's. As Panesar is mediocre in ODI's and excellent in tests and Vettori is good in tests and at least near world class in ODI's I rate Vettori as the overall better bowler.

Jeetan Patel is far more awesome than them both however.:p
 

JBH001

International Regular
After some thought, and bearing in mind that Neville lost the plot a little and did not include Briggs or Blythe :blink: I vote for...um...hmmm...well let me see...difficult this is...Verity!
 

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