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Ambidextrous players

SpeedKing

U19 Vice-Captain
I used to bat and bowl right handed but about 4 weeks ago, i tried batting lefthanded in the nets and i think i was decent [ can play of my legs well and defend on off stump but useless outside off stump -might be a confidence thing]. Now i practice batting both right and left handed with a slight prefernce for bating lefthanded. I have a faster bat swing right handed, but seem to have better hand eye coordination lefthanded. I tried batting left handed in a mtch once and got bowled round my legs first ball from a right hand seamer as i did a Lara and walked across my stumps. Luckily it was in a friendly so everyone just had a laugh about it. Not giving up on left hand batting though, it really feels nice.

And Reverse sweeping becomes an absolute doddle.
 
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Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I remember seeing or hearing somewhere that Brian Lara is naturally a right handed batsman, but wanted to bat left handed to be like his hero Gary Sobers. Whether this is true or not I'm not sure, but I know he plays golf right handed and when he rarely bowls it is right handed. If it is true I wouldn't be surprised, if it isn't it is a good story anyway.
 

Barney Rubble

International Coach
Mister Wright said:
I remember seeing or hearing somewhere that Brian Lara is naturally a right handed batsman, but wanted to bat left handed to be like his hero Gary Sobers. Whether this is true or not I'm not sure, but I know he plays golf right handed and when he rarely bowls it is right handed. If it is true I wouldn't be surprised, if it isn't it is a good story anyway.
I know that Graeme Thorpe bats left-handed because when he was a kid the boundary was shorter on the left-hander's leg side - in his back garden. :D
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
Colin Miller is also very adept at using both hands.

I remember a few years ago Buchanan saying that the next generation of cricketers should be able to hit a stump 70% of the time from 20m with both arms. Interestingly, nowadays coaching has moved away from that - why practice something that you'd rarely use when you can improve a skill a lot more easily.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
twctopcat said:
And Tres. I think a fair number of people do that, means you end up (hopefully) less bottom handed and play in a more orthodox fashion.
What about the Prince of Trinidad? Surely, he has to be the most famous of that variety.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Mister Wright said:
I remember seeing or hearing somewhere that Brian Lara is naturally a right handed batsman, but wanted to bat left handed to be like his hero Gary Sobers. Whether this is true or not I'm not sure, but I know he plays golf right handed and when he rarely bowls it is right handed. If it is true I wouldn't be surprised, if it isn't it is a good story anyway.
That story is true alright. I have heard Lara himself say so to an Indian magazine in an interview once. And I think Alistair Campbell was a natural right hander who was forced to bat left handed because his dad felt that his stronger hand should be his top hand and not his bottom hand. And seeing how Tendulkar and Lara have been the best batsmen in the game for the last decade and a half, I think that theory has a lot of credence.
 

Chubb

International Regular
honestbharani said:
And I think Alistair Campbell was a natural right hander who was forced to bat left handed because his dad felt that his stronger hand should be his top hand and not his bottom hand.
Barney Rogers' dad did the same.
 

Don

State Vice-Captain
honestbharani said:
That story is true alright. I have heard Lara himself say so to an Indian magazine in an interview once. And I think Alistair Campbell was a natural right hander who was forced to bat left handed because his dad felt that his stronger hand should be his top hand and not his bottom hand. And seeing how Tendulkar and Lara have been the best batsmen in the game for the last decade and a half, I think that theory has a lot of credence.
yea i go with that theory.i used to be a right hand batsman but was told that im using too much bottom hand and shud bat left.
so i bowl right and bat left.
i can bowl some left are mediums but not very well im working on it though.
 

Deja moo

International Captain
honestbharani said:
That story is true alright. I have heard Lara himself say so to an Indian magazine in an interview once. And I think Alistair Campbell was a natural right hander who was forced to bat left handed because his dad felt that his stronger hand should be his top hand and not his bottom hand. And seeing how Tendulkar and Lara have been the best batsmen in the game for the last decade and a half, I think that theory has a lot of credence.
yeah, that theory has been popular ever since Gower took up commentary :p , but that still doesnt explain why Tendulkar bowls and throws right handed too . Theyre just from another planet. I mean, I bat pretty well left handed too ( compared to my right handed ***** that is), but I'd be all over the place if I tried to bowl or throw left handed too.
 

Monty

U19 Cricketer
gilchrist was naturally right handed in everything but him and his dad found out that his left was stronger and advised him to bat left he does everything else right and the rest is history
 

Ambidextrous

Cricket Spectator
right handed people often can bat well being a 'left handed batsman' because a) they still have their strongest hand on the bat and b) because you are using two hands its more secure than (for example) being right handed but playing tennis left handed.

it seems that cricket focuses more on making the players' one hand extremely good rather than making them both handed players.

i personally think that having 2 very good hands when bowling or fielding would be an advantage over someone who has 1 extremely good hand when fielding and bowling.
 

Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Monty said:
gilchrist was naturally right handed in everything but him and his dad found out that his left was stronger and advised him to bat left he does everything else right and the rest is history
With his current form, maybe he should revert back to right handed.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Deja moo said:
yeah, that theory has been popular ever since Gower took up commentary :p , but that still doesnt explain why Tendulkar bowls and throws right handed too . Theyre just from another planet. I mean, I bat pretty well left handed too ( compared to my right handed ***** that is), but I'd be all over the place if I tried to bowl or throw left handed too.
That makes two of us. :)
 

Ambidextrous

Cricket Spectator
i would like to thank all folks for giving me helpful info on ambidextrous players, thanks to you all.

any chance anyone knows where i could find (online) large images of justin langer? he just so happens to be my favourite player (with brett lee, gilchrist)

cheers folks
 

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