Shane Shillingford is not a glamorous spinner. He’s never been picked in the IPL auction, he’s never had overwhelming success at any level, but slowly and surely he’s establishing himself as West Indies’ premier spinner. He could have considered himself unlucky to have been dropped for the effervescent Sunil Narine, not long after taking the…

And so is everyone who says you can’t bowl it without chucking. I’ve changed my mind a little over this debate. My biggest post in terms of hits (86) with was this one, about Saeed Ajmal and my opinion that he chucks his doosra. In one sense I haven’t changed my mind, I still think…

Chucking is one of the most delicate subjects in cricket, up there with claiming catches that bounce and where the line is in sledging. It’s pretty much unanimously agreed in the cricket world that chucking is bad, wrong, against the rules and against the so-called ‘Spirit of Cricket.’ So I’m going to be very careful…

It’d be easy for Mehedi Hasan Miraz to get carried away. The Prime Minister has ordered a house be built for him; he’s already the second highest ranked Bangladesh bowler in the ICC rankings at 33; praise is coming from all corners of the cricketing world. Also apropos of nothing, his off-spinning heroes are Graeme…

Spinners who don’t rip the ball annoy me. Leg-spinners who fail to try to rip the ball anger me more than almost anything else in cricket. Be a fucking off-spinner if you don’t want to spin the ball. For fucks sake Chawla, 43 year old arthritic Warne playing in the tinpot IPL clone still turns…

There’s a video on YouTube of Shane Warne’s bowling action in slow motion. Watch it and you see the incredible physicality Warne put into his bowling. In normal motion he strides up to the crease and seems to just roll the ball down, but in slow-mo you see the huge effort that goes through the…

The former West Indies U-19 opening batsman John Campbell is generally rated for his left-handed strokeplay. Indeed, he’s had a breakthrough season with the bat in the Regional 4-Day Competition for Jamaica this year, a maiden First-class fifty in his first match of the season, and a hundred in the next the highlights. I’m not…

Scout Report: Odean Brown At some point between the time Walsh and Ambrose retired and the last few years, the West Indies became a spinner’s paradise. Of course, it had been like this before, Rahmadin and Valentine, Lance Gibbs had been the biggest weapons for the Windies during the 50s and 60s. Since then, and…

Scout Report: Rahatul Ferdous Out of all spinners, left arm orthodox bowlers often have the most pleasing loop to their bowling. The classical left armer’s action seems to lend itself to that sort of virtue, think of the likes of Bishen Bedi, Phil Tufnell, Daniel Vettori, Monty Panesar, Phil Edmonds, all players who counted among…