Sunday, November 30, 2008

Anil Kumble - greatest ever Googly bowler?

Cricinfo.com's usually-authoritative Statsguru has a blind spot when it comes to Googly bowlers.

South African Paul Adams recently retired with a classification of left arm 'Chinaman'. But Adams' stock delivery was a Googly, moving sharply away from the right hander, and delivered by gripping the ball between index finger and thumb.

This is not an isolated incident: now Anil Kumble retires from a magnificent career as a right arm Googly bowler with a Legbreak variation - yet Statguru calls him 'Legbreak googly'. Even Kumble's model, the legendary Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, is misclassified as just 'Legbreak', when he was known as a top-spin/ Googly exponent.

Such misclassification is not trivial. With accurate terminology Kumble's reputation moves-up from being the second best Legspinner of the past twenty years to (probably) the greatest Googly bowler of all time.