These days, T-Twenty Cricket World Cup is going on in America and West Indies. In this regard, today we will talk about the stories associated with some interesting terms of cricket.
Googly or Googly
Although this is a well-known term, it is a bit difficult to understand for those who are not deeply interested in cricket. During the time of General Zia-ul-Haq, a General Chairman of WAPDA, Ghulam Safdar Butt, was also the head of the Cricket Board. It was customary then that every chairman was the head of the WAPDA Cricket Board
Imran Khan has written in his book that Ghulam Safdar Butt did not even know what a googly ball is. Well, even today the situation is no different. He who is currently the chairman of PCB, he also hardly knows about this.
Something similar happened in the Indian Premier League (IPL) a few years ago, when news broke about Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, one of the owners of Rajasthan Royals, who went to the ground to encourage her team’s players and a He patted the fast bowler and said, ‘Well done for making a good googly.’ He smiled helplessly and walked away. Later, Shilpa Shetty was told that Goggle makes spinners, not fast bowlers.
A goggle ball is actually a variation of wrist spinners i.e. right arm leg spinners, in which they off-break in a leg-break fashion, i.e. a ball that lands on the leg-stump instead of going towards the off-stump. Come towards the inside leg stump.
This ball makes good batters dizzy. They go to play the ball mistaking it for a leg break and the ball evades them and turns inwards.
The background of the googly ball is also very interesting. It is said that a spinner from England, Bernard Bosannet, invented this ball while playing an indoor game about a hundred years ago. He was playing with his friend, in which he had to sit on one side of a long table and throw a tennis ball to the other side so that the other one could not catch it.
Bernard bowled a leg-break style and then swung his wrist to throw the off-break in such a way that the friend sitting in front was fooled. He later improved on this variety and won the 1903–4 Ashes series against Australia. When in the fourth innings of the Sydney Test, he took five wickets with his mysterious giggle ball. The following year he also took eight wickets in one match. Unfortunately, he could only play a few Test matches and then retired.
There are two reasons why this ball is called googly or googly, one is because the batsmen’s eyes go wide with surprise. Another reason is that a children’s toy ball called the googly, which resembled a rugby ball, became popular during this period. That ball would roll at any angle. This made the googly or googly ball famous.
The last interesting thing about the Gugliel ball is that the legendary Australian batsman Don Bradman was dismissed for a wicket in his last Test innings. Bradman’s Test average is 99. Had he scored a few runs, his Test average would have been a hundred. He was dismissed by English spinner Eric Hollis and that ball was a gobbler. The famous Australian batsman could not understand this ball and was bowled.
‘China Man’
This is another interesting variety but it belongs to left arm spinners. Like a googly, if the left-arm spinner brings the ball in instead of leg-break, i.e. off-break, then it becomes an inside ball. The story of this ball being called ‘Chinaman’ is also interesting.
It is said that a West Indian spinner ‘Alice Achong’, whose father was of Chinese origin and whose mother was Caribbean African, bowled a ball in 1933 at the famous Old Trafford ground in England, on which the English batsman Walter Ranbs cheated. Kar stumps out. On his way back, he was grumbling, “That ‘Chinaman’ got me out.” A West Indian fielder heard this and shouted, “Are you talking to the ball or the bowler?” immediately took the name of the ball and thus the spin variety came to be known as Chinaman.
Later, a bowler from the famous county of Yorkshire in England claimed to be the founder of ‘Chinaman’. Interestingly, orthodox left-arm spinners of that time used this variety, which was a very difficult skill. It is said that famous West Indian all-rounder Gary Sobers used to play Chinaman along with traditional left-arm spin bowling. By the way, Sobers had a strange case that he used to spin with the old ball and often bowled medium fast with the new ball. Some of his Test wickets are as a fast bowler.
In modern times, a South African spinner, Paul Adams, became famous for his eccentric bowling action. He also used to play very good Chinaman, but maybe because of his action, in which his head was not straight while throwing the ball, his length was not good, that’s why he could not play long cricket.
The Mystery Spinner
A mystery spinner is basically a spinner who surprisingly bowls two different balls in his routine bowling action. Many ‘Khabe wrist spinners’ have become famous these days who bring the ball inside as well as breaking the leg from the wrist. They are now called mystery spinners and are called ‘wrong-on’ instead of the cinnamin variety. Chinamin was probably dismissed as a racist term.
‘duck’
Getting out for zero in cricket is called a duck. Duck actually means duck egg, which is similar to zero. Interestingly, like cricket, tennis also uses a strange term ‘lou’ for zero. If a player wins a set by six zero, it is said to win by six low. The term has been used for two centuries, but tennis experts don’t know how it originated. One explanation given is that it refers to the player’s love for the game that he is playing despite the zero score.
Well, in cricket, duck means egg. Once upon a time on Australia’s Channel Nine, as soon as a player was out for a wicket, a duck-shaped cartoon would walk towards the pavilion in tears and lay an egg before leaving. Those who watched the 92 World Cup matches must have seen this scene many times.
If a batsman gets out on his first ball, it is called a golden duck. If a player is dismissed on the first ball of both innings, it will be called a ‘King Pair’. It is said that if a batsman gets out on the first ball of the match, that duck will be called ‘Diamond Duck’.
Some incidents regarding Dick are interesting. Indian player Ajit Agarkar was dismissed for five consecutive innings in the tour of Australia. He was nicknamed ‘Bombay Duck’ by the press after his city. When former Australian captain Kim Hughes toured South Africa with the rebel Australian team, he was dismissed on the first ball in both the innings of the third official Test, but an interesting coincidence was that he was once a runner for the injured Rodney Hogg. Then came into the field and on the first ball he ran out his player for zero, technically three zeros in a match.
In 1946, the Indian team visited Glamorgan, in a match in which county player Peter Judge was dismissed by Indian League spinner Chandrasruti on his first ball. This was the last player. India follow-on to Glamorgan. They sent Peter Judge Hay as the opener to save the wicket. From here, Chandra Sruthi started bowling with the new ball. Peter Judge was out on his first ball. According to experts, it is technically not possible to get a faster pair than this in cricket.
Interestingly, any player in the world who gets a dunk in any form of cricket, becomes eligible for membership of a premier club in Essex England. This club collects donations for the welfare of visually impaired people. The club was headed by English spinner Derek Underwood, who passed away just a few weeks ago. Underwood had the distinction of being dismissed twice in one day for Kent County against South Africa. He was therefore deemed worthy of the leadership of the club.
‘Drop In Pitch’
There was a lot of talk about ‘drop-in pitches’ after Sri Lanka’s low-scoring defeat to South Africa at the Nassau Cricket Stadium in New York on Monday during the ICC International T20 Cricket World Cup in America and West Indies.
It should be noted that in the match played at the Nassau Cricket Stadium, the entire Sri Lankan team was bundled out for only 77 runs, while the target of 78 runs was achieved by South Africa at the loss of four wickets in the 17th over.
After this, Sri Lanka captain Venendu Hasaranga and South Africa captain Eden Markram, cricket experts and fans also criticized the drop-in pitch.
It should be noted that the match between traditional rivals India and Pakistan is also to be played at the same stadium on June 9.
So what exactly is a ‘drop-in patch’? Let us tell you. A ‘drop-in pitch’ does not look very different from a normal pitch but is artificially produced outside the cricket field in a factory or environment.
When required, this drop-in pitch is delivered to the ground and installed with the help of a crane and is dismantled again after use.
Drop-in pitches are mostly used in fields where other sports besides cricket are played.
‘Drop-in pitches’ were initially introduced in the year 1977 during the Kerry Packer series started by Kerry Packer.
When the Australian Cricket Board refused to provide its Test venues for the series to be played in Australia, the Kerry Packer World Series was held on grounds that were primarily used for football or other sports. .
In such a situation, pitches were prepared outside the ground and installed in these fields for this World Series.
Generally, cricket is played during summer in Australia and New Zealand while these fields are used for football in winter, hence the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia and drop-in pitches in New Zealand are used.
On the occasion of the current season of T20 World Cup, different stadiums in America have been prepared with the help of the same patches