Recently I got to interview one of my heroes as a kid. It wasn’t some superstar, but a freakishly talented player who never made it to test level.
His name is Craig Howard.
The interview was for a project I am doing.
The favourite part of my job is talking to leggies, and talking to Howard was really cool.
But there was one weird thing that I realised, in the interview he said he didn’t master the wrong’un until he was 14.
Now this was a guy who was bowling unplayable flippers at 18.
One that Shane Warne thought was as good if not better than he was.
The reason I mention all that was because I mastered the wrong’un at 13.
I didn’t know how to use, or more importantly when to use it, but if you said, hey, little cunt, bowl that wrong’un, i could.
At that stage in my career I was obviously very advanced.
That might mean shit to you, but to me, that is pretty cool.
Howard and I both started legspin very young, he was a superstar, and I was handy.
We both went through the Warne era at different times. He went through it when he was at first class level, while he was struggling with injury.
I went through it at 13 while I was mastering the wrong’un.
I remember being told not to bother with the wrong’un, Warne doesn’t need them.
Howard and I were also quite different bowlers to Warne, he came in like O’Reilly or Fleetwood Smith, like a quick bowler, I came in like Mushy.
If I hadn’t have come in like Mushy, I would have come in like Howard.
Both of our careers (if you can call mine that) ended quite bad. Howard finished as a leggie in his early 20s and ended up a physical basket case who could only bowl off spin (shudder), and I left cricket in my early 20s because of work and general shitness.
I never truly believed I could play for Australia, but Howard read headlines saying he would.
He was a great bloke, and I think it was a shame he never got to play for Australia. He is younger than Bryce Mcgain.
This article might not make much sense, but, few people remember Howard let alone write about him, i just thought I should here, incase my other project never makes the light of day.
When I was young, I wanted to be this dude, but now I just felt honoured chatting to him about the coolest cricket artform for an hour.
Pre-season training has started.
But as usual training is at 10am on a Sunday morning, and not even Jesus himself couldn’t wake me.
Instead I have started up my own personal training regime.
I got an indoor ball and took it to my desk.
Now I am slowly warming up my finger, one leggie at a time.
So far I haven’t hit the computer, and most of the leggies have hit the spot, the spot being my left hand.
The next step is going down the nets, but we are only in February, no rush.
Perhaps I went a bit far in the title, but fuck it.
Nothing pisses me off more as a spinner when someone says, “come on, pitch it up”.
What the fuck do they think I am trying to do, bounce the bastards out?
I’m bowling legspin you fucking simpleton, if it is coming out short, trust me I am trying to fucking pitch it up.
It is like telling a quick bowler off for bowling two foot down the legside, they aren’t trying to do it, so why bring it to their attention.
If I was bowling a foot short, and they thought tactically i should pitch it up i could wear that, but this is when i drop half way and the ball sits up.
Why would be be trying to do that, why do people feel the need to tell me i shouldn’t be doing it, I am not an idiot, i know a bit about cricket, I can tell a shit ball out of my hand, i don’t need some bastard telling me that I have done something wrong.
It just pisses me off.
Leg spin is hard, and sometimes length gets away from you.
But as the bowler, we can tell, the tell tale sign is generally the four the batsmen hits, or the groans of your team mate as the ball hits the middle of the pitch.
If you catch yourself saying pitch it up this year, think it over, is the bowling trying to bowl full and just fucking up, or is it part of some plan to trick the batsmen with half track filth.
Today I received a free replica shirt from the Victorian Bushrangers.
That isn’t the story.
The story is the tag on the shirt.
It says;
“A unique moisture wicking process made possible by the maximisation of the fibre capillary action through our unique profiled cross section structure will ensure all excessive moisture generate by the body is quickly moved to the fabrics surface.”
Try to overlook the fact that used unique twice in once sentence.
What a sentence that is, and what it means to them is;
“Each fabric has been designed to maximise the athletes performance in their preferred discipline.”
For some sports, swimming for example, I am sure that clothes can make a big difference.
I am not sure that even with unique wicking it is that big a difference in cricket.
This top has obviously been designed with professional cricketers in mind.
But every time I looked at a normal everyday bog standard cricket shirt this year they had wicking technology that would improve me, or were simply designed for enhancing my performance.
And yet, none of them seem to make my wrong’un land more consistently.
Weird.
It is on the Ashes.
It is called Ashes 2009: when freddie became jesus
You should get it, or click on the link.
Please.
I have always been a slow legspinner.
Not trundler in the park slow, but slower than the average leg spinner in organised cricket.
It has never really bothered me. I have had coaches who have tried to make me bowl quicker, and sometimes I have, but in general i have bowled at the slower pace because it suits me better.
But one thing I have noticed is that in the UK the pitches are slower and softer (obviously) and if you fuck up your length, even slightly, the ball just sits up and gets whacked.
In 09 I bowled slower than I ever have before, because of my knee, and I also dropped shorter more than usual, so maybe the problem was magnified. But even in 08, that one game i bowled well, my one problem was dropping a tad short and getting cut away with ease.
So I have a question that I need to answer:
Should I bowl quicker on slow English pitches?
This could all be an overreaction. Last year was a shocking year for my bowling, and it could be that I am just thinking that I need to do something different, when really all I need is a functioning knee.
My knee is now pretty good. I can get up stairs ok, haven’t had any pain in it for a while, and am thinking about doing some jogging on it in the near future.
The thing is that even with a good knee, with my current run up I wont be able to pick up the pace any further. The chest on action is good for me, but even bowling quicker balls with it can be tricky.
So not only would I have to change my run up, to give more momentum, i would have to (probably) change to a side on action.
Luckily i have a run up and bowling action to model myself on.
Last week I went to the BFI cricket archive enevening, and I saw a bit of Chuck Fleetwood-Smith bowling.
It was a hypnotic action.
Coming in off about ten steps side on, smooth as silk, and then a side on action with maximum spin.
This isn’t just because Chuck was a drunkard from Melbourne, although that helps too.
So in the pre-season, brief as it is, I shall try this quicker style of side on legspin and see what I can make of it.
I can always go back if it is shit.
Plus I think it will help my flipper and carrom balls, both of which i was getting pretty good at by the end of the year.
