Left handers

[Guavahalves]

10 out of 22 players of the 1st Ashes test were left handed batsmen (2 of those were right handed bowlers)

7-10% of the general population are left handed.

Why is there such an over representation in cricket?

 

[pskov]

Lots of right-handed people bat left-handed so their dominant hand is on top (two examples I can think of are Brian Lara and Marcus Trescothick).

Conversely, Michael Clarke is left-handed but bats right-handed for the same reason.

 

[Furball]

Some of them aren't really left handed though.

Cook, Broad, Anderson, Hussey and North are all right handed.

Katich, Johnson, Panesar and Strauss bat and bowl left handed. Not sure about Hughes, cricinfo doesn't list a bowling style for him.

Clarke is a lefty who bats right handed, as did Ashley Giles. Nathan Bracken is the same I think.

 

[Furball]

In fact, here's a team of left handed bats who all bowl right arm:

Graeme Smith
Marcus Trescothick
Alastair Cook
Brian Lara
Mike Hussey
Sourav Ganguly
Adam Gilchrist
Morne Morkel
Stuart Broad
James Anderson
Simon Jones

 

[Furball]

And a corresponding team who bowl left arm but bat right handed:

Dennis Compton
Frank Worrell
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Michael Clarke
Grant Flower
Murray Bisset (+)
Ashley Giles
Bishan Bedi
Nathan Bracken
Zaheer Khan
RP Singh

 

[four_or_six]

And interestingly, Mitchell Johnson bats and bowls left-handed and yet writes with his right hand.

 

[Chubb]

It would be interesting to find out if the first time these players held a bat they did so right or left handed. Did they make a concious effort to change or was it simply what felt natural?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Don't know about the rest, but I read that Mike Hussey decided to bat left-handed as a kid because he was such a big Border fan.

 

[zaremba]

Some other teams of players who bowled right, batted left:

Team A

1. Matt Hayden
2. Justin Langer
3. David Gower
4. Graeme Pollock
5. Neil Harvey
6. Shiv Chanderpaul
7. Richard Hadlee
8. Jack Russell (w)
9. Curtly Ambrose
10. Brian Statham
11. Bill O'Reilly

Team B

1. Chris Gayle
2. Mark Taylor
3. Kumar Sangakkara
4. Clive Lloyd
5. Graham Thorpe
6. Lance Klusener
7. Jacob Oram
8. Rod Marsh (w)
9. Chris Old
10. Bob Massie
11. Bruce Taylor

Team C

1. John Wright
2. John Edrich
3. Clem Hill
4. Andy Flower (w)
5. Stephen Fleming
6. Jack Gregory
7. Greg Matthews
8. Brian Close
9. Ken Higgs
10.Graham Dilley
11. Mohammad Asif

 

[four_or_six]

It would be interesting to find out if the first time these players held a bat they did so right or left handed. Did they make a concious effort to change or was it simply what felt natural?

I remember that Thorpe swapped when he was a kid to make it harder for his brothers to bowl at him.

 

[zaremba]

Of those who bowled left arm but batted right, there's a relatively small number of batsmen and a relatively high number of the better-known SLA bowlers in history:

Underwood
Rhodes
Bedi
Verity
Hirst
Lock
Briggs
Blythe
Edmonds
Giles
Shastri
Fleetwood-Smith
Valentine

 

[Furball]

It would be interesting to find out if the first time these players held a bat they did so right or left handed. Did they make a concious effort to change or was it simply what felt natural?

In my case, I'm left handed but bat right handed, as it simply feels more natural to me.

 

[PhoenixFire]

I know someone who bats left handed, throws left handed, but bowls right handed. Weird huh.

 

[NUFAN]

It is interesting the number of cricketers now in the game who are left handed.

As has been said, having the right hand up the top does make sense for a natural RH to bat LH.

My TV at home has a mirror image function and it was good fun during the first test to see some of the lefties batting right handed. Marcus North mirror image batting style looks fairly similar to Damian Martyn actually.

 

[Dydl]

And interestingly, Mitchell Johnson bats and bowls left-handed and yet writes with his right hand.

Yeah, I've always found that very strange. Not sure whether to classify him as left- or right-handed generally.

 

[SJS]

Yes I am surprised too.

I used to think that people are switching to left handed play or some cricketer fathers are changing their sons inclinations early. But now I find so many celebrities writing left handed so I suppose either left handed genes are spreading fast or right handers are a dying race

 

[G.I.Joe]

People starting to realise we had it wrong all along, IMO. I've mentioned it in the past, it is more natural for a right hander to bat 'left' handed than then way they have been taught trditionally. Has everything to do with the top hand being the dominant one.

 

[Guavahalves]

But the large proportion of left handers is new.

Why?