Why a relative lack of great left arm pace bowlers?

[viriya]

Cricket has always produced lots of ATG left handed batsmen (Sobers, Lara, Harvey, Sangakkara, Pollock, etc) and plenty of very very good ones too. It's a similar case with slow left arm bowlers, with Verity, Rhodes, Bedi, Wardle, Herath, etc among plenty of others.

But on the pace bowling front, you have Wasim, Davidson, and then.... Johnson? Zaheer? Sobers? Even if I'm missing a few names, it's clear that it's slim pickings compared to other disciplines. What makes it that hard to succeed at?

tfw Zaheer gets mentioned before Vaas.

 

[morgieb]

yeah didnt hussy literally just decide to bat left handed coz his fave player was a leftie(forget who maybe AB)

pretty funny how good he became at it was still right handed at everything else

Yeah pretty much. Ditto Kusal Perera IIRC.

 

[Shri]

I've thought about this too. How many of them actually write/throw or bowl right-handed ?

Sachin's a lefty. Have seen him sign autographs with his left.

 

[Furball]

Pretty sure Mitchell Johnson writes right handed. Probably explains a lot.

 

[Daemon]

Left arm spin is so unfair. Jadeja would be nothing if he was right handed but the **** is averaging 23 in Tests.

 

[mr_mister]

I agree. when I bowl my right arm offies against lefties I'm shocked at the sudden advantages I get from the ball spinning away from them. I'd bowl leg-spin if it wasn't so damn difficult


Left arm orthodox spin is a ****ing awesome gift and all you have to be is left-handed to have it because we all know any mug can bowl finger spin

 

[cnerd123]

Left arm spin is so unfair. Jadeja would be nothing if he was right handed but the **** is averaging 23 in Tests.

I agree. when I bowl my right arm offies against lefties I'm shocked at the sudden advantages I get from the ball spinning away from them. I'd bowl leg-spin if it wasn't so damn difficult


Left arm orthodox spin is a ****ing awesome gift and all you have to be is left-handed to have it because we all know any mug can bowl finger spin

When I first realise left arm spin is such a h4x bowling style as a kid, I started to train myself to bowl lefty.

Every now and then I feel tempted to give it another go.

Left handers don't realise how lucky they have it.

 

[Furball]

Presumably tin openers and scissors were invented in revenge for being dismissed by left armers.

 

[smash84]

interestingly while there have been few left arm greats but arguably the most skillful exponent of swing (and a bit of seam) of all has been a left armer. Wasim could do magic with the ball

 

[Shri]

Yeah, just what we must be reminded of. Please feel free to talk about what Wasim would do with his balls for the next billion pages.

 

[smash84]

Yeah, just what we must be reminded of. Please feel free to talk about what Wasim would do with his balls for the next billion pages.

he could also get those balls up in your face

 

[TheJediBrah]

Haven't read the thread so I'm sure this has been said, but this is a very easy question to answer.

There are less left-handers than right-handers. That's it.

With batsmen that's irrelevant because more "left-handed" batsmen are actually right-handed. But if you're a left-arm bowler you pretty much have to be left-handed, which is a minority in the human race.

 

[watson]

I don't know whether it's me but left-arm fast bowlers generally look uncoordinated and make the whole exercise appear like hardcwork when they bowl.

Even Wasim Akram can't compare to right-arm bowlers like Michael Holding or Glenn McGrath when it comes to grace and ease.

Mitchell Johnson was really quick but his action appeared jerky when compared to the equally fast Brett Lee who would run through the crease as smooth as silk.

Point being, there is something about the way the brain is wired that makes the biomechanics of fast bowling difficult. Sure any left-handed person can bowl left-handed but does it come easily, and is it something that a young person would want to do? Especially when they can pick-up a bat and crash the ball through cover-point as simply as pissing off a log.

Anyway, my guess is that there are few great left-arm fast bowlers because it's not something that comes easily to the human brain, and consequently left-handed teens are more likely to take up batting instead.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I don't know whether it's me but left-arm fast bowlers generally look uncoordinated and make the whole exercise appear like hardcwork when they bowl.

Even Wasim Akram can't compare to right-arm bowlers like Michael Holding or Glenn McGrath when it comes to grace and ease.

Mitchell Johnson was really quick but his action appeared jerky when compared to the equally fast Brett Lee who would run through the crease as smooth as silk.

Point being, there is something about the way the brain is wired that makes the biomechanics of fast bowling difficult. Sure any left-handed person can bowl left-handed but does it come easily, and is it something that a young person would want to do? Especially when they can pick-up a bat and crash the ball through cover-point as simply as pissing off a log.

Anyway, my guess is that there are few great left-arm fast bowlers because it's not something that comes easily to the human brain, and consequently left-handed teens are more likely to take up batting instead.

that's an interesting hypothesis, but I don't think it has any basis in fact. I would assume that left-arm bowlers appear uncoordinated and clunky to you because you're right-handed and it's just the feeling you get while watching them. I know, I feel the same way while watching them.

 

[Julian87]

Pretty sure Mitchell Johnson writes right handed. Probably explains a lot.

Apparently he was also a very, very handy right handed tennis player as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_s8zAPOETA

 

[Zinzan]

I don't know whether it's me but left-arm fast bowlers generally look uncoordinated and make the whole exercise appear like hardcwork when they bowl.

Even Wasim Akram can't compare to right-arm bowlers like Michael Holding or Glenn McGrath when it comes to grace and ease.

Mitchell Johnson was really quick but his action appeared jerky when compared to the equally fast Brett Lee who would run through the crease as smooth as silk.

Point being, there is something about the way the brain is wired that makes the biomechanics of fast bowling difficult. Sure any left-handed person can bowl left-handed but does it come easily, and is it something that a young person would want to do? Especially when they can pick-up a bat and crash the ball through cover-point as simply as pissing off a log.

Anyway, my guess is that there are few great left-arm fast bowlers because it's not something that comes easily to the human brain, and consequently left-handed teens are more likely to take up batting instead.

Nah, I think this is purely subjective & something you may see. To me, I love Wasim's & even Boult's & Zaheer's actions. I agree Johnson's was a bit too jerky, but I don't think that is due to him being a leftier, more that he had that stop-start slingy action.

 

[NUFAN]

I agree that left handed bowlers make it look difficult, but only when they bowl from around the wicket.

 

[Black_Warrior]

But you have so many great /very good left handed batsmen and spinners.

Great left handed batsmen : Sobers, Lara, Sanga, Pollock, Harvey, Chanderpaul, Hayden, Morris, Border, Langer, Cook, Kallicharan, Gower, etc

SLAs: Rhodes, Verity, Bedi, Underwood, Wardle, Peel, Herath, Lock, Jadeja ()

The pacers cupboard is relatively barren, so it's not just a natural left vs right thing.

This has more to do with the fact that there's a theory that we actually bat with the opposite hands. If we are a right handed person, we should generally be batting in what is now a left handed batting stance and vice versa. So that allows a lot of right handed people to bat left handed but the same theory does not apply to bowling. You hold the bat with two hands but you bowl with your strongest arm.

 

[MartinB]

Bruce Reid was on the way to being a ATG bowler when his back gave out.
Another left hand Fast bowler was Bill Johnston.

Interesting to note that both Johnston and Davidson (left handed leg spin) started as Spinners. The idea that most left hander's are attrated to being spinners could be correct.

Another possibility is right-handers can be either in-swing or out-swing bowlers. Left hand bowlers need to be able to swing the ball in. An example is Mitchel Johnson, he mostly swung it away (if it swung). But when he got it swing in to the right hand batsmen he was devastating

 

[TheJediBrah]

Bruce Reid was on the way to being a ATG bowler when his back gave out.
Another left hand Fast bowler was Bill Johnston.

Interesting to note that both Johnston and Davidson (left handed leg spin) started as Spinners. The idea that most left hander's are attrated to being spinners could be correct.

Another possibility is right-handers can be either in-swing or out-swing bowlers. Left hand bowlers need to be able to swing the ball in. An example is Mitchel Johnson, he mostly swung it away (if it swung). But when he got it swing in to the right hand batsmen he was devastating

I don't agree with this. The first part I think is only hesitantly true, if that. and the value that is put on left-armers who can swing the ball into right-handers is just a result of a traditionally higher proportion of right-hand batsmen.

As far as I can recall Mitchell Johnson always swung the ball in with the new ball, if it did swing, and swung it away reverse. Which seems to be the case with the vast majority of bowlers.