The doosra
An Urdu word it is one of the foxy tricks off spinners use.
It was Pakistan’s Saqlain Mushtaq who invented this bowling. But each and every bowler who tried to ball doosra earned a ban and ICC investigation.
The ICC began a review of bowling actions. A study filmed the world’s top bowlers, reassessed past cases, and sought to bring clarity to a complex area. The upshot was that the current bowling laws were unworkable. Some of the world’s greatest bowlers, past and present, whose bowling actions had never been questioned, turned out to be chuckers. The problem didn’t lie, for the most part, with the bowlers. The problem was the Laws, which had been written for the uniformity of machines not the natural biological variations of humans.
The law changed. One rule for all, 15 degrees of bend in the bowling arm, the level at which the human eye can detect a throw. Fair as you get. The doosra, in large part, did this, revolutionising an ancient law of cricket. It saved Murali, allowing the world to savour his record-breaking career. It saved off spin bowling, now a revived attacking art in all of the cricket’s forms. It filled the minds of the world’s best batsmen with dread from the most innocuous-looking deliveries; what could be more fascinating? It brought great joy to the world’s cricket public.
And, perhaps above all for supporters of Pakistan cricket and cricket lovers generally, it brought us the magic of Saeed Ajmal – a little thing that makes a big difference.