Off-spin and Leg-spin are named wrong

[Matt79]

When I was a kid, the terminology seemed backwards to me, as in it should be named after the direction you're making it spin towards (you don't call a left hand turn a right hand turn because you're turning "from the right"), but can't say it's worried me since.

 

[Furball]

We just pretend cack-handers don't exist. It's win/win. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to ban them and do any of us have the brass front to say we know better than the great man? No. QED.

Don't bait mods.

 

[Prince EWS]

We aren't afraid to tackle the big issues here at CricketWeb.

 

[slowfinger]

I see where the OP is coming from, I've thought it myself.

It hardly matters though.

Just like 'soccer' instead of 'football'

 

[vijay.genius1]

Batting?

For a left handed batsman right side does most of the work and vice verse for a right hander...what do u think guys?

 

[JimmyGS]

When I was a kid, the terminology seemed backwards to me, as in it should be named after the direction you're making it spin towards (you don't call a left hand turn a right hand turn because you're turning "from the right"), but can't say it's worried me since.

A southerly comes from the south for what it's worth.

 

[PhoenixFire]

What's the difference between someone being called Leg-break and Leg-break-googly?

 

[BoyBrumby]

What's the difference between someone being called Leg-break and Leg-break-googly?

At a guess the former doesn't bowl a wrong 'un?

 

[Jarquis]

Thought it was that the latter just bowls googlies tbh.

 

[PhoenixFire]

At a guess the former doesn't bowl a wrong 'un?

Hmm, well I thought that, but why would they class a bowler on whether they 'could' bowl a googly. I'd have assumed that virtually all FC leggies could bowl a wrong 'un should they wish.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Hmm, well I thought that, but why would they class a bowler on whether they 'could' bowl a googly. I'd have assumed that virtually all FC leggies could bowl a wrong 'un should they wish.

Can't recall Chris Schofield ever bowling one (insert your own joke about "I said FC leggies" here) and his bowling style is listed as "leg break" on cricinfo, whereas Warne & MacGill are "leg break googly"

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Hmm, well I thought that, but why would they class a bowler on whether they 'could' bowl a googly. I'd have assumed that virtually all FC leggies could bowl a wrong 'un should they wish.

Nah, don't think so and I'm not sure the latter would always be the case. That said, Wisden classifies all five (five!) wrist-spin bowlers out of the 141 who qualified for last year's FC averages as 'LBG'.

Just flicking through Wisden... Mendis is classed as 'OB/LBG', while Saqlain used to be classed as 'OB/LB' in his prime.

All right-arm wrist-spinners (Warne, Chawla, Imran Tahir, Mishra, Danish Kaneria) seem to be classified as 'LBG', until you reach the Sri Lankan domestic averages. There Malinga Bandara is 'LBG', but RSR de Zoysa and S Prasanna are simply 'LB'. Maybe it's just because Bandara has had international exposure, but it seems strange that Wisden, being such a stickler for fact, would make different classifications within the same section unless there were obvious reasons, i.e. de Zoysa and Prasanna could not bowl a googly.

 

[Matt79]

Hmm, well I thought that, but why would they class a bowler on whether they 'could' bowl a googly. I'd have assumed that virtually all FC leggies could bowl a wrong 'un should they wish.

Wonder whether anyone goes back and revises the classification should they unveil one, and to what standard/regularity do they need to produce it before the change occurs?

 

[Debris]

Off-spinners pitch it on the off stump and leg spinners pitch it on the leg stump. Makes sense to me.

 

[zaremba]

Mendis is classed as 'OB/LBG'.

When I first heard of him he hadn't yet made his SL debut and was listed as Right-arm slow medium by cricinfo.

Then they changed it to "right arm mystery spin", which I loved.

Now, as you say, he's "right arm offbreak, right arm legbreak".

 

[popepouri]

Call leg spin a "Shane Warne". YouTube - Sri Lanka Cricket - Murali bowls leg spin

 

[zaremba]

I've just spotted that cricinfo have Michael Yardy as "Left-arm medium / left-arm slow". I love that - left-arm slow - no pretence at all that he's actually a spinner.

The fact that he can be effective in T20 shows what's so very wrong with T20.

 

[NasserFan207]

Doesn't really matter now, we are used to the names, and changing them would just create a mess.

 

[Furball]

I've just spotted that cricinfo have Michael Yardy as "Left-arm medium / left-arm slow". I love that - left-arm slow - no pretence at all that he's actually a spinner.

The fact that he can be effective in T20 shows what's so very wrong with T20.

He's been effective because he's bowled well. He's been accurate and darted it in in such a way that he's been difficult to score off.

As soon as he stops bowling so well, he'll get smashed.

 

[zaremba]

Yes but the point is, non-spinning darts are not fun to watch. It just underlines how devalued attacking bowling and wicket-taking is in T20 cricket.

His FC bowling record is 26 wickets in 122 FC matches, at an average of a touch over 77. This guy is not a proper bowler. He is, as it happens, a proper batsman, averaging nearly 40 in FC cricket, but of course bats right down the order in T20 for England.

All this is maybe a bit churlish of me, though, because (a) I love Mike Yardy and (b) I'm really enjoying this T20 tournament, particularly the excellence that England are showing.