With its origins dating all the way back to the 16th century, cricket has evolved greatly over the years.
From changes in its laws to adopting entirely new formats, the game has always been in a constant state of flux. While cricket’s lawmakers and custodians have played their part in evolving the sport with time, there have also been several players along the way who have created their own impact.
These players have helped change the manner in which the game is approached and their legacy is permanently etched in stone. Whether it be introducing a completely new shot with the bat or bringing a fundamental shift in the game, these players are cricket’s greatest innovators.
There is the great Sir Viv Richards who stood out among his contemporaries in the 1980s with his swagger and brilliance in playing ‘across the line’. Then there is Pakistan spin ace Saqlain Mushtaq who gave off-spinners a new dimension with his mastery of the ‘doosra‘.
Who can forget the outrageous genius of Kevin Pietersen and his ‘Switch Hit’. Or the manner in which Sanath Jayasuriya completely revolutionised ODI cricket with his 1996 World Cup exploits. Even the manner in which Zimbabwe legend Andy Flower tormented spinners with his reverse sweep ignited a revolution.
Among these luminaries of cricket, there is one from Pakistan whose impact on the game cannot be understated.
SARFRAZ NAWAZ
Pakistan has a long history of producing world-class fast bowlers with Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar testament to this legacy. Sarfraz Nawaz, on the other hand, was not express fast by any means and was instead a proponent of the fast-medium variety.
While he might not have rattled batsmen with his pace, the Lahore-born man’s ability to seam the ball both ways with accuracy made him an incredibly difficult customer to deal with.
A man who picked up cricket in his late teens, Nawaz went on to make 55 Test and 45 ODI appearances for Pakistan over the course of 15-year international career between 1969 and 1984.
While also being a capable batsman down the order for Pakistan, Nawaz claimed as many as 177 and 63 wickets in Tests and ODIs respectively. Standing tall at 6 ft 6, the right-armed seamer went on to forge a lethal Pakistan partnership with Imran Khan.
There were several notable displays by Nawaz in a Pakistan jersey, including a match-haul of nine wickets against India in the Karachi Test of 1978. However, his most memorable display has to be at the Melbourne Cricket Australia the following year.
Chasing 381 for victory in the second innings, the hosts were cruising at 305-3 with centurion Allan Border and half-centurion Kim Hughes batting at the crease. In the space of 33 deliveries, Nawaz flipped the match on its head to hand Pakistan the most unlikely of victories. Despite bowling three no-balls in that sensational spell, Nawaz claimed all seven remaining Australian wickets while conceding just the four runs.
His overall figures in that innings were 9-86 were then the best-ever by a Pakistan bowler, and has only been bettered by Abdul Qadir’s 9-56 against England (1985) ever since.
For all his talents, Nawaz was never far away from controversy too. In the very next match after his Melbourne heroics against Australia, he was involved in a massive controversy which is now known as the Hilditch affair. Andrew Hilditch was at the non-striker’s end when the ball was returned in his direction after a wayward throw by a Pakistan fielder.
The Australian batsman picked up the ball before handing it back to Nawaz, who subsequently appealed for his dismissal for ‘handling the ball’. Hilditch was adjudged out by the laws of the game, though the incident left a sour taste in the mouths of the Australians.
There was also the case of him jetting off to London in the middle of a home Test series against England in 1978, due to a pay dispute with the Pakistan board.
The art of the reverse swing
In cricket, swing is one of the greatest assets for pacers, especially with the red-ball. It is common wisdom that the ball swings more when it is new and shiny, and this is the time when the bowlers extract conventional swing. Swing is generally derived by creating asymmetry in the cricket ball – where one half is shined more than the other.
The seam and wrist positions of the bowler are ultimately instrumental in determining which way the ball will swing. If the seam is positioned slightly to the left towards the slip cordon with the shiny side of the ball facing the other way, then it usually swings away from a right-handed batsman as an out-swinger.
Similarly, when the seam is positioned slightly towards the right towards the batsman with the shiny side facing in the opposite direction, then the ball usually swings into the right-hander as an in-swinger.
For a long time, pacers had to rely on the freshness of the ball to extract swing. Once the ball got old with wear and tear, there was barely anything in it. Pakistan’s bowlers changed this convention is the late 1970s and 1980s, primarily through the emergence of Nawaz.
There is no clear-cut answer as to who developed the art of reverse swing, with West Indies’ Eric Atkinson, Australia’s Alan Connolly and Dennis Lillee all having a fair claim. However, it was Nawaz’s mastery of the art which started a chain reaction that would see reverse swing forever associated with Pakistan.
By continuing to shine one side of the ball from the very start and in process, letting the other side get rough, Nawaz discovered that swing could be even extracted with an older ball. In this form of swing which is generally generated after the 35th over or so, the ball swung towards the shiny side instead. With batsmen always expecting the ball to swing away from the shine, this newly formed skill turned out to be a great asset for Nawaz on the lifeless pitches of the subcontinent.
Nawaz and fellow Pakistan pacer Sikander Bakht excelled in the art which was still alien to the cricket world during the period. Nawaz is said to have passed on the knowledge to team-mate Imran Khan who went on to become an excellent proponent of the art himself.
As captain of Pakistan, Imran Khan taught the art to the young prodigious duo of Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram, who took reverse swing to a new level completely with their spearing in-swinging yorkers at pace. Such was Pakistan’s success with the reverse swing that almost every team now emulates the strategy of shining one side of the cricket ball continuously, in the hope of gaining reverse swing at latter stages.
