Spinners and what you call them by Les Everett

My address to the assembled cricket media, administrators and players. 

Thanks for coming everyone. I’m taking advantage of this rare two-day break to talk about an important issue – spin bowling.

As the game developed and we went from bowling underarm it became important to name or describe the various types of bowling. Fast bowling was pretty easy to put a label on but then there were various types of slower bowlers who aim to “spin” the ball to alter the direction it goes after bouncing.

Please remember that when we came up with the names for the various types of spin bowlers children in schools were discouraged from reaching for pencils with their left hand if that was their natural inclination. Some had their left hands bound and were forced to write with their right. It’s no surprise, therefore, that there was some right-handed bias in early descriptions of the game.

So. Off-spin means the ball, in its standard form, spins from the off side to the leg. Leg-spin means the ball spins from the leg side to the off. Remember we are talking about right-arm bowlers to right-hand batters.

A left-arm bowler, delivering the ball in the same fashion as an off-spinner is referred to as a left-arm orthodox bowler. A left-hander using the same wristy technique as a leg-spinner is a left-arm unorthodox bowler.

Nathan Lyon is an off-spin bowler. Ravindra Jadeja is a left-arm orthodox bowler.

Shane Warne was a leg-spin bowler. Kuldeep Yadav is a left-arm unorthodox bowler.

I don’t want to point the finger but I will use a couple of examples, please don’t take any of this personally. One of you, a fine player now commentating, goes by the name of Mr Cricket. I hope he has been taking notes as I’ve heard him refer to a bowler as a ‘left-arm offie’.

I must say I learn much about batting, fielding and the tactics of the game when listening to Mr Ponting on the TV. Even he could learn about what to call spin bowlers.

Earlier this year I read a quote from left-arm orthodox spin bowler Mr Agar from WA that he had been trying “a few leggies” in the nets. Can anyone tell me what he was actually doing? Well done everyone – left-arm unorthodox.

There might be wrong’uns and arm balls and top spinners and doosras and carrom balls but – although they come in many shapes, sizes and peculiarities, there are four types of spin bowlers. 

Thank you.

• Illustrations from Calling All Cricketers: Cricket Coaching Manual produced by The New South Wales Cricket Association. First published 1955, reprinted in 1962. My cherished copy was ruined in an indoor plant over-watering incident in Corrigin in 1979. I picked up my current copy a few years ago at a second-hand bookshop. Inside is the inscription Ian Lonnie 2 PS (that sounds like a teachers college group).