Aussie spinners agree to flick 'doosra'
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
SYDNEY, Jul 27 (AFP): Australia's leading spin bowlers say they are firmly against coaching the controversial 'doosra', with one Test great saying it is an illegal delivery.
The 'doosra', an Urdu term for a ball that turns away from a right-hander, as opposed to a conventional off-spinner which turns towards him, has engendered debate over its legitimacy in world cricket.
Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq has been credited with introducing the unorthodox finger-spinning delivery and it has been used by, among others, Test cricket's all-time leading wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan and India's Harbhajan Singh.
But a gathering of Australia's prominent spin bowlers at a 'spin summit' last month in Brisbane, details of which emerged Monday, concluded that the doosra cannot be bowled legally and there was no place for it to be taught in Australia.
The verdict had the unanimous agreement of the group including Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill, Jim Higgs, Gavin Robertson, Terry Jenner, Peter Philpott and Ashley Mallett.
Mallett, a former Test off-spinner and now an author, said he believed the doosra could not be delivered by a finger-spinner without it being 'chucked' and was thus against cricket's rules.
"There was unanimous agreement that the off-spinner's other one', the doosra, should not be coached in Australia," Mallett wrote in the Adelaide Review published Monday.
The 'doosra', an Urdu term for a ball that turns away from a right-hander, as opposed to a conventional off-spinner which turns towards him, has engendered debate over its legitimacy in world cricket.
Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq has been credited with introducing the unorthodox finger-spinning delivery and it has been used by, among others, Test cricket's all-time leading wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan and India's Harbhajan Singh.
But a gathering of Australia's prominent spin bowlers at a 'spin summit' last month in Brisbane, details of which emerged Monday, concluded that the doosra cannot be bowled legally and there was no place for it to be taught in Australia.
The verdict had the unanimous agreement of the group including Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill, Jim Higgs, Gavin Robertson, Terry Jenner, Peter Philpott and Ashley Mallett.
Mallett, a former Test off-spinner and now an author, said he believed the doosra could not be delivered by a finger-spinner without it being 'chucked' and was thus against cricket's rules.
"There was unanimous agreement that the off-spinner's other one', the doosra, should not be coached in Australia," Mallett wrote in the Adelaide Review published Monday.