Ever wished U could swing both ways. The Cricket ball I mean. Swing it late..old and new. Growing up I thought its in the action..Wasim bhai rushing in at the last moment shifting the ball into the bowling palm and putting in some magic trick by tellin the ball to swing just that little late to make an ass out of the batsman. Then some old ball gobbly dock crept in. Shine one side roughen up the other and voila..we gali cricketers playing the weekly sunday morning big match and barking out to each other to keep shining one end. some asshole keeps on forgeting which side to shine on..and we sadly curse that twat for the non existent reverse swing. In my short playing career I never saw reverse swing happen..But Meself more of a tennis ball player believed that I could make the tennis ball swing..It could be if there was a strong wind blowing and your stock ball was a fulltoss..u got the impression that it swung late just before the batsmen connected to send it out.
An interseting thing which I came across while reading Pundits from Pakistan a brilliant first book by wisden's Rahul Bhattacharya is something called Tape ball cricket. In India almost all of the cricket played in gullies is Tennis Ball or Flash Ball cricket. Flash ball is nothing but a much heavier tennis ball.
But in pakistan almost all the cricket played is Tape Ball cricket. I dont recall watching or playing such cricket here anywhere. Now me rahul and the most of pakistanis have started to believe that one big reason why pakistanis have had great pacers is tape ball cricket.
let me first explain what is this thing called reverse swing. there are several theories to it..indian is the parachute effect..english go with the conventional smooth side rough side theory and pakistanis say that this is a secret and comes naturally to them. The parachute effect says that one side of the ball which the bowler keeps on shining becomes heavier than the other side due to the moisture applied. on delivery due to the weight difference the ball revolves due to gravity with the smooth side coming down and producing sideways movement. This is utter bullshit n I heard Javagal srinath explaining this once on TV. The more accepted theory is of that of a derivation of Bernaulli's theorm where the rough side has greater air speed than the smooth side producing deviation on the smooth side due to air speed difference.
No
w Tape ball cricket does not explain any of this per se but imagine if one side of the ball is taped up in insulation tape n other side left as it is, the same effect would be achieved with maybe prodigious swing.Now majority of pacers in Pakistan have come from Guli mohalla cricket. There as kids they have played with balls covered with tape with only a small space left for gripping. Imagine a kid aspiring to be a pacer getting to let the ball talk. what a big confidence booster. Now if u have played with tennis ball u know that it travels slow through the air and it really doesnot create any difficulties for the batsmen. A tape ball travels faster, swings in air and has a "swoosh" true bounce after pitching unlike the tennis ball which sorts of dips down after pitching. Now fast bowling kids in gallis can develop their action with a much lighter ball which simulates real leather ball. It grips properly in their hands and gives them the confidence to bowl as fast as they can. I,ve heard of instances of bowlers shouting in nets before delivery whether their next ball would be in swing or out swing.
Now the big mystery for me is why there is ABSOLUTELY NO Tape Ball cricket played in India?????
