I don't usually write about my own cricket because it feels self-centred and boastful. That said, I think that this thread is the perfect place to discuss this, and possibly also a place where some of our younger members might be able to learn from certain points that I raise.
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For most of my time playing cricket I was a fast bowler, but that came to an end a few years ago when I noticed signs of severe damage to my knees. I have a quite impressive range of knee-related ailments that include patella tendinitis, chronic cartilage damage (a relic of my growth spurt when my bones would grow quicker, causing it to fray between them) and nerve damage in one of them. I also got sent for an x-ray "to make sure there's nothing else more serious going on" but I never heard back so I'm assuming it's nothing else serious. That said, my big bit of advice is to listen to your body, and to perhaps consider lessening the impact on it by bowling spin.
As a quick bowler, my stock ball was an away-swinger, although I would use a cross-seam delivery and occasionally an in-swinger (quite hard to control, as my natural action didn't really encourage it) as variations. As time went on, I developed a bouncer and yorker, as well as an array of slower-balls including:
- Leg-cutter (seam-up grip, run down the left hand side of the ball)
- Off-cutter (seam-up grip, run down the right hand side of the ball)
- Obvious leg-break (three-fingered grip, with which I would impart leg-spin as I released the ball - usually used as a set-up for the less obvious leg-cutter)
- Obvious off-break (gripped between my middle finger and the first knuckle of my index finger, which would impart off-spin without effort - sometimes a set-up for off-cutter)
- Knuckle-ball (used a split-fingered grip like Adam Hollioake, then released like a seamer, useful as it would still swing through the air if I wanted it to)
- Carrom-ball (gripped with index and ring finger, flicked out of the front of the hand with my middle finger which imparted dip and leg-spin)
- Back-of-the-hand (held like a seamer, but delivered out of the back of my hand; looks like an away-swinger, behaves like a leg-break)
This meant that, if the bouncer and yorker are included as variations, I had a dozen different balls that I could confidently call on if I was bowling well. This made me a bit of a pain in the arse to face in Twenty20 cricket. In longer formats though, I would usually stick to the away-swinger, the cross-seamer, the knuckle-ball and the back-of-the-hand ball, each of which would be bowled less often than the one that went before it. If you're going to bowl a longer spell, or bowl with the new ball, it's vital to know what your stock ball is and to be able to bowl it well at least 85% of the time.
At various times, I was a part of three different county set-ups (I got furthest with Leicestershire) and trialled with three more. Yorkshire were sniffing at around the time I gave up on the whole county circus because it is, for the most part, a toxic environment run by sadistic coaches. I should point out that I did not find Leicestershire to be like this, and did not experience Yorkshire's training methods, which is why I have named them but not other counties.
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Since my knees decreed that I should give up bowling seam, I have set about turning myself into a good off-spinner. Although leg-spin is perhaps more of a wicket-taking option should you learn to bowl it well, I settled on off-spin because it is easier to bowl with control, and most of the cricket that we play in the UK is limited-overs.
As an off-spinner, I only usually use three variations:
- A standard off-break (gripped between my index and middle fingers, spun hard)
- A slower off-break (gripped between my middle finger like my obvious off-break slower ball - see above - and the knuckle of my index finger; I got the idea from Dainty Ironmonger's amputation-enforced grip and have never come across another spinner who has explored the idea)
- A dart (gripped like a cross-seam delivery, with my fingers pushing the ball out quicker rather than imparting spin; more subtle spinners might call it an arm ball, but I do not)
Although I can turn the ball the other way, either by bowling a carrom ball or a traditional leg-break, I find that bowling from around the wicket creates an angle whereby the natural variation of the wicket does all of that hard work for me. If I land a ball on a right-hander's off stump and it turns, I am threatening the inside edge of the bat as well as bowled and LBW (see previously where I mention spinning it hard); if I land it in the same place and it does not turn, then I can threaten the outside edge, either creating a catch to slip or off the outside half of the bat into the covers. An effective weapon against this angle is the sweep shot, but because of my height it is still a risky shot for the batsman to play.
Now, there is one other thing I use to my advantage to put off the batsman: because I'm a spinner, I can get through my overs very fast. On one happy occasion, I laid a plan with another spinner, according to which we would open with both of us rather than faster bowlers. We did so, and at the end of the first 30 minutes, we had the opposition on about 34 for three. They were also sixteen overs into their innings, because we were getting through them as fast as possible: for our spell of bowling in tandem, we had gone at over 30 overs per hour not by rushing, but simply by not dawdling or hesitating. If you're a spinner bowling well, it can be a really useful weapon to just get through your overs quickly.
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I'm not much of a batsman. This isn't because of a lack of shots, but because of a lack of application. For example, I only have a handful of fifties to my name and one of them came in only 29 balls. It wasn't so much because I was slogging as because I (wrongly) believed that I was invincible because I'd hit a few cover-drives. I was eventually out caught on the boundary, skying a hook shot, for 56.
If I approached my batting with the same sort of analysis and strategic detail as my bowling, I would probably be quite good at it. Unfortunately I don't, because batting just isn't really that much fun.
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There is no excuse for bad fielding. I am not a natural athlete (at all) and am not the usual build for a top-class fielder. It takes a long time to get down from 6'5", especially with knees that don't like to function as the middle part of a leg. My key point is that mobility is not my strength. But I (and anyone else who puts the effort in) can make up for that in other ways, including:
- Practice throwing with accuracy and power, so that any time lost getting to the ball is made up by how quickly you send it back.
- Improve your reflexes by getting people to throw balls at you hard from a close range. Use tennis balls for this so you don't die.
- Practice catches that are at least as hard as you are likely to get in a game, so that when you do have to catch something in a game it feels easy.
- Don't ever give up on the ball until it has crossed the boundary. The amount of runs you'll save by throwing yourself at a ball as it passes, or by diving at it on the boundary, is huge.
- Always assume that the fielder next to you will misfield; get yourself into a position to back them up.
- Always expect the ball to come to you and you'll be ready for it when it does.
- If you're really ambitious, learn to throw short distances with both hands so you don't have to switch the ball from one hand to the other.
I've been the captain of a few crap sides, but by practising all of those fielding rules (apart from the last one) I've managed to rally them to beat far better sides. I don't say that to brag, I say it to make the point that
anyone, regardless of their batting or bowling ability, can practice the skills needed to make them a truly excellent fielder.
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To conclude, I am not perfect. As a fast bowler, I sometimes bowled too many variations. As a spin bowler, I miss my length and bowl short too often. As a batsman, I don't take enough care to build an innings properly.
But there is no excuse for bad fielding.
