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Why are left arm wrist spinners so rare?
- Thread starter GIMH
- Start date
NotMcKenzie
International Debutant
David Sincock Profile - Cricket Player Australia | Stats, Records, Video
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Not answering, but topical nevertheless.
HeathDavisSpeed
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
What a great nickname he has! That's much more imaginative than most modern nicknames.David Sincock Profile - Cricket Player Australia | Stats, Records, Video
Read about David Sincock cricket player from Australia profile, stats, rankings, records, videos, photos at ESPNcricinfo
Not answering, but topical nevertheless.
For those who can't be bothered clicking the link - "Evildick"
One for the early retirement thread too. Retired at 24. "Sincock once told Gideon Haigh that his early retirement was brought about by the repetition of the game ... he could not see much point in trying to dismiss a batsman again if he had already got him out."
the big bambino
International Captain
Gee that's a bit harsh. Batsman normally get to make one mistake but this bloke thinks they should only get one innings.
Shady Slim
International Coach
left armers are ten percent of the population writlarge (potentially more if it wasn't discouraged, much like how we now see higher rates of people identifying with the lgbtqi+ community now that it's more accepted, not because there's suddenly more, but because it's more accepted)
spin bowlers are usually one quarter of your bowling attack, potentially half or three fifths in the subcontinent, let's split the difference and say they're 1/3 or so of all bowlers (accounting for the fact australia and england get longer home summers than sri lanka and bangladesh here)... so based on that alone you'd only expect three out of every hundred bowlers to be left spinners - now estimate some random number for how many spinners are the leggies rather than offies, say it's a third, that seems a good guess, you get to one in every hundred... and factor in the immeasurable factor, that teams are generally risk averse and would prefer a right arm offie to a left arm leg spinner for accuracy purpose and then i would say the proportion diminishes even more tbh
spin bowlers are usually one quarter of your bowling attack, potentially half or three fifths in the subcontinent, let's split the difference and say they're 1/3 or so of all bowlers (accounting for the fact australia and england get longer home summers than sri lanka and bangladesh here)... so based on that alone you'd only expect three out of every hundred bowlers to be left spinners - now estimate some random number for how many spinners are the leggies rather than offies, say it's a third, that seems a good guess, you get to one in every hundred... and factor in the immeasurable factor, that teams are generally risk averse and would prefer a right arm offie to a left arm leg spinner for accuracy purpose and then i would say the proportion diminishes even more tbh
RossTaylorsBox
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Lol do you live in the Middle Ages
Shady Slim
International Coach
sinistra!! sinistra!!
mr_mister
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
My dad was born left handed and the nuns at his school forced him to write right handed because the devil was in the left hand or something
That was only the early '60s
TheJediBrah
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They didn't want to be associated with the racist name for the bowling style
Chubb
International Regular
I remember how Kuldeep Yadav ran through England the first time they faced him and the media wrote panicky articles about mystery spin and how England never produce left-arm wrist spinners. Then England worked Yadav out, got on top of him and suddenly the media weren't so curious about it.
My uncle played at the top levels of Essex league cricket for many years, and he is a left-arm wrist spinner. I think it's really just that wrist spin is really hard and the % of true left handers in the population is always going to mean fewer of them. It's not like batting where you can be cross-handed.
My uncle played at the top levels of Essex league cricket for many years, and he is a left-arm wrist spinner. I think it's really just that wrist spin is really hard and the % of true left handers in the population is always going to mean fewer of them. It's not like batting where you can be cross-handed.
cnerd123
likes this
Yea I think all the reasons have been listed already. Left handers are rare, bowling wrist spin is hard, spinning it into the right handers is not preferable to spinning it away.
I'll also add that a lot of the SLA bowlers we see are actually ambidextrous players, who bat right handed but opt to bowl left handed for the tactical edge. It might be much easier for them to bowl finger spin, they may lack the dexterity to bowl wrist spin.
I'll also add that a lot of the SLA bowlers we see are actually ambidextrous players, who bat right handed but opt to bowl left handed for the tactical edge. It might be much easier for them to bowl finger spin, they may lack the dexterity to bowl wrist spin.
TheJediBrah
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I'm sure this isn't true
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
Katich FTW
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
Leach and Maharaj seem to be right hand batters and throwers, for example. But I dunno if they are ambidextrous or they just bat with the top hand being the stronger hand or something. Lara was a right hander who batted left handed and Sachin seems to be a left hander (he writes left handed) who just played cricket right handed.
TheJediBrah
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Yeah that's not what ambidextrous means. A lot of cricketers bat "left-handed" but are right-handed, and vice versa, it's not rare at all. A lot of coaches will tell you the naming should actually be the other way around and you're better off having your dominant hand as your top-hand. From the Aus team I followed as a kid a lot of the batting line-up was like this. Hayden, Langer, Hussey, Gilchrist are all right-handers that bat "left-handed". Michael Clarke the opposite. I think if you go through all the great left-hand batsmen of the last few decades nearly half, maybe more, will actually be right-handed.
That's interesting about Sachin, sounds like he might be a bit ambidextrous
TheJediBrah
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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.
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.
Chubb
International Regular
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.