We have just been treated to a wonderful example of Test Cricket.
In fact, both the fourth test at the MCG and the third test in Brisbane have been utterly absorbing. Despite the rain and the subsequent draw in the third Test, there were many instances of drama that highlighted the magic that can be found in the micro-moments within a match.
Like many, I was left wondering about a number of moments. Two dropped catches stand out for me: in the third Test in Brisbane when Smith dropped Rahul on the first ball of the fourth day and, in the fourth Test, when Labuschagne was missed by Jaiswal in the second innings.
Another thought occurred to me across both Tests. What impact would Shane Warne have had on both games? My mind was stirred to think about Warne and leg-spinning because of three recent happenings.
For Christmas, I received the recently published ‘Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes’ by David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts.
It retells the story of the famous Test victory in 1961 at Old Trafford where Benaud’s legspin played such an important part in Australia’s win.
I enjoyed revisiting this match and being reminded of Benaud’s long pathway to success. The book is a good read but I felt that the authors strayed from the tale, possibly in an attempt to fit in their own particular wider interests.
Secondly, I received Christmas greetings from someone I first encountered way back in 1977, when I was asked to coach the Under 13A cricket team.
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It was my second year of teaching and I had just been appointed to a new school north of Durban in South Africa. I cannot remember much about my expectations, but I do recall the then-young man, Richard McGlashan, a leg-spinner well beyond his years.
With a bouncy run-up and high action, he bowled at quite a pace. He was, for his years, an extraordinary talent. He went on to represent his country in cricket. McGlashan never had the opportunities afforded to Benaud.
Finally, in both the third and fourth Test matches of this current series, we were treated to the highlights of Warne’s career. During one lengthy rain delay in Brisbane, we watched fifty of Warne’s great dismissals.
So, leg spinners were, and are, very much in my mind.
Another question came to mind: why were there so many great leg-spinners produced in Australia – and is it a disproportionate number when considering the other Test-playing nations?
Sometimes they hunted in packs; Clarrie Grimmett and Arthur Mailey, and then Grimmett and Bill O’Reilly, and, in more recent times, Warne and Stuart McGill.
From 1920 until the Second World War, Australia could call upon three of the great bowlers of the era: Mailey (99 wickets from 21 Test matches between 1920 and 1926 at an average of 33.91), Grimmett (216 wickets in 37 Tests between 1926 and 1936 at 24.21) and O’Reilly (144 wickets in 27 Test matches between 1932-1946 at an average of 22.59).
Keith Miller compared O’Reilly and Grimmett by saying: “Bill bowled at such a pace that you could not use your feet to get at him. He was on you too quickly. He concealed his wrong ‘un, his leg break and top spinner so well that it was always difficult to tell which way the ball was going. Clarrie Grimmett was without doubt a great bowler, but I could play him a lot better than I could play “the Tiger”… Clarrie was not nearly so fast, and I could “pick” him when the ball left his hand.”
O’Reilly was appropriately generous about Grimmett – his treasured bowling partner: “He absolutely amazed me with the scope of his research into the skills of the game. Mailey’s bowling techniques never did appeal to Grimmett. Indeed, in his quiet analytical way, he was inclined to spurn the profligate attitude Arthur had to the presentation of easy runs to the opposition. … The two great bowlers had little in common.”
Indeed, the great writer, Neville Cardus said: “Mailey bowled as a millionaire, Grimmett as a miser.”
Bradman, writing in 1950, commented that no other leg-spinner of his time could be classed alongside Mailey or Grimmett. But for O’Reilly, he reserved the highest accolade as the greatest bowler: “O’Reilly never gave the batsman any respite. He was always aggressive and had great stamina and courage. To hit him for four would usually arouse a belligerent ferocity which made you sorry. It was almost disturbing a hive of bees. He seemed to attack from all directions.”
In between the Mailey/Grimmett/O’Reilly era and the Warne/McGill time, Australia’s best leg-spinner was Richie Benaud (248 wickets in 63 Tests at an average of 27.03) who was probably one of Australia’s finest captains.
Benaud went on to achieve almost god-like status for his post-cricket work in the media.
Shane Warne. (Photo by Hamish Blair/Getty Images)
Of course, Warne is a book or three in itself.
I think Gideon Haigh’s, ‘On Warne’, is one of the best cricket biographies written. Warne was a complex character, and Haigh writes incisively and sensitively about this great bowler – maybe the greatest?
There have been other very good leg-spinners over the years but nowhere in the concentration that we find in Australia.
Back to the question of why the Australian dominance in this department. I suspect it has something to do with perseverance in selection and the willingness of the captain to encourage and support this selection on the field of play.
Speaking of selection, the South African selectors sent a quartet of wrist spinners to England in 1907 – Reggie Schwartz, Aubrey Faulkner, Bert Vogler and Gordon White. All were more than competent googly bowlers.
Leg spinners also need a very good wicketkeeper. Warne had, in Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist – two of the finest.
Getting back to one of my original questions. Would Warne in the current test team have changed the course of play?
Of course, he would. But then we would have missed out on one of the greatest Test matches ever played. As we are reminded in Ecclesiastes – ‘there is a time for everything’ – and what a feast we received.
Clarrie Grimmett. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)
This leads me to a few afterthoughts on this series in general; firstly, Jasprit Bumrah is a great bowler. He may be in this moment of time, the best ever.
Also, Virat Kohli is one of the great batsmen of the modern era. His behaviour in barging into Sam Konstas was totally unacceptable ‘workplace’ behaviour. The subsequent sanction given to him is tremendously sad but utterly predictable.
As for Konstas, there is a fine line between youthful exuberance and bad manners. Some of the more experienced heads need to get in his ear.