Doosra has been laid to rest, and not before time
Garfield Robinson looks at a number of byelaws and regulations which should be confined to the graveyard of cricket
What if cricket had a graveyard? What would be the tactics, ideas and rules resident there? Bodyline would have a tombstone for sure. Devised to quell the relentless runmaking of Bradman, it had an eventful but brief existence before being made virtually redundant by the passage of laws limiting field placements and intimidatory bowling.
And though we have seen frightful short-pitched bowling over the years, Bodyline, as it was conceived prior to England’s 1932-33 tour of Australia, was erased from the game.
The back-foot no-ball rule would have a spot there as well. Laid to rest in 1962, chances of it being resurrected are slim, despite the best efforts of the likes of Bradman and Richie Benaud, while they were still with us and Ian Chappell. Though a number of recent controversial decisions indicate that the call for a return to the old rule is not without merit.
One headstone in this mythical mausoleum ought to be for leg-byes. It is one of the game’s most ludicrous regulations. What could be the justification for penalising the bowler and the fielding side for scoring a moral victory over the batsman by striking his person while he or she attempted to play a shot or tried to take evasive action. It is unfair and law 26, the portion that deals with leg-byes, should be repealed.
Perhaps the nightwatchman tactic should be there, too.Why was it ever a good idea to send in a tailender to protect the recognised batsman with close of play approaching? With opposition bowlers and captain going full tilt knowing they’ll be putting their feet up soon, who is more likely to survive?
One bowling device that might now be wending its way to that place of rest is the doosra, the “other one” – the ball from the off-spinner turning from leg to off. The argument made by a number of experts, including Bishen Bedi and Michael Holding, that it’s extremely difficult, impossible even, to bowl the delivery with an authentic action seem to have a measure of truth.
And the ICC’s recent scrutiny of bowling actions have led to the demise of the doosra in international cricket. It is difficult to think now of a single bowler who has the delivery in his repertoire.
It should be noted that the deliveries from Ravichandran Ashwin, Sunil Narine and a few others off-spinners that turn from leg are not doosras in the original sense, utilising the wrist to impart anticlockwise spin. Rather, they are carrom balls in some cases and what are being labelled knuckle balls.
It wasn’t that long ago that the doosra came into vogue. Saqlain Mushtaq is always listed as its inventor, though there are those who say it was in use much earlier. At the very least, Saqlain was the bowler who popularised the delivery, the first to bowl it consistently. And the seed he planted grew to the point where it was felt in many circles that off-spinners had to have a bit of mystery about them to be effective at the highest level.
In his autobiography, Playing With Fire, former England captain Nasser Hussain, in discussing the diminishing lack of effectiveness of spinner Phil Tufnell gave this opinion:“The reason (for Tufnell’s lack of potency) was that spin bowling had moved on. Mystery spinners like
[Muttiah] Muralitharan and Saqlain were spinning it both ways, and orthodox spinners were under pressure as rarely before.”
Some of the doosra’s main practitioners, Murali, Harbajan Singh and Saeed Ajmal were always counted among the game’s most effective slow bowlers.
Murali, for example, often referred to as the best slow bowler in history, has 800 Test wickets in 133 matches, including a staggering 67 five-wicket hauls. Harbhajan took 417 wickets in 103 Tests, and while Ajmal only has 178 wickets, he played in just 35 Tests.
But their bowling actions attracted incessant controversy. All three have been subjected to whispers throughout their careers from opponents and onlookers who found their techniques questionable. All were forced, by the authorities, to undergo tests to verify the legitimacy of their bowling actions.
The flurry of ICC activity to jettison impure bowling actions resulted in a number of bowlers being banned. Ajmal, Shane Shillingford, Narine, Sachithra Senanayake, among others were all prevented from bowling for a period.
Remedial work to reconstruct their actions and further testing allowed them to return, but in most cases their revised techniques rendered them less effective.
Ajmal, upon return to regular action, was no longer the demon of before. And Shillingford, for a while the West Indies’ most penetrative bowler, soon lost his place as he had to adjust to life without the doosra. Changing your action frequently makes you a different, less potent, bowler.
Efforts to have bowlers adhere to the rules governing bowling actions are undoubtedly good for the game. Rules should be followed by all. The extra elbow some get away with for a while is unfair to batsmen who have to face them and to bowlers who comply with the law.
What is the redress available to the batsman who fails to pick a doosra delivered from an elbow flexed beyond the allowable 15 per cent and is dismissed? And why would a bowler be happy to see a colleague gain an unfair advantage by contravening the rules.
In February 2014, Ashwin showed up for an Asia Cup game, and, to the amazement of everyone, proceeded to bowl with an action not dissimilar to Narine’s.
Questioned about the drastic change his reply was instructive:“I want to do something different. I want to keep trying something, unless you try you don’t go and venture and find out what can work or not. I just wanted to see if you can get more revs on the ball if you can do a little bit with your elbow, as much as that is allowed.
“That’s what it was all about.You can get a lot of advantage with these things so why should I lag behind if someone else is getting a competitive edge?”
For sure, Ashwin was telegraphing a message to the authorities: he and others who operated within the law’s confines were at a disadvantage. More action was needed.
Ashwin’s outburst might not have had anything to with it but the efforts by the authorities have largely eliminated the doosra from international cricket.
Saqlain first played for Pakistan in 1995. That means the doosra was brought into cricket’s mainstream just over two decades ago.
Since, as we have discussed, no current international bowler has it in his arsenal we probably have already witnessed its last breath.
It may be time we pick out a spot for the doosra in cricket’s final resting place.
What is the redress available to the batsman who fails to pick a doosra delivered from an elbow flexed beyond the allowed 15 per cent?