Cricket is a strange game with hundreds of intricate rules and apt terminologies used for precise shots, fielding positions and bowling actions. Yet only the most ardent cricket fans would know that a left-arm unorthodox bowler using his wrist to spin the ball is known as a Chinaman.
The action of a Chinaman is in many ways the mirror image of a right-hand leg-break bowler and the ball turns in the opposite direction of orthodox left-arm spin. The ball as a result spins from left to right after pitching – it turns into the right-handed batsman and away from the left-handed batsman.
HISTORY OF THE TERM ‘CHINAMAN’
If being accurate with finger spin is difficult enough, try to imagine the difficulties facing a chinaman bowler who tries to spin the ball from leg to offside with his wrist. Because of their action and the use of the wrist, bowlers who have perfected this art turn the ball more than traditional leg-spinners.
A Chinaman usually places the top parts of the index, middle and third finger joints across the seam. During release, the fingers straighten while the work on the ball is done by the third finger turning the ball clockwise. The action is completed with a flick of the wrist with the palm facing downwards.
Interestingly, most Chinamen have a stock googly which turns the wrong way – it spins away from the right-handed batsman and into the left-handed batsman like a traditional right-arm leg-break.
Curious as the term may seem to be, it has its own illustrious history. Two bowlers are historically considered to have given birth to this difficult art of unorthodox left-arm bowling.
Charlie Llewellyn, a South African all-rounder who played at the end of the 19th century is widely credited with having invented the delivery. But the term is widely believed to have gained acceptance and entered popular cricketing parlance thanks to former West Indian spinner Ellis “Puss” Achong.
Achong was the first Test player of Chinese ancestry. Legend has it that in the 1933 Test at Old Trafford, Achong gained notoriety by dismissing English batsman Walter Robins with his mysterious action.
Robins had joined his captain Douglas Jardine at 324 for 6 and added 140 runs in a brilliant partnership before being undone by the strange left-arm wrist-spin of Achong. A bemused Robins, while walking back to the pavilion had remarked, “Fancy being done by a bloody Chinaman”.
The remark had reportedly drawn a quizzical repartee from Learie Constantine who had been fighting racism at that time: “Do you mean the bowler or the ball?” But the term chinaman caught on and has been a fixture of the cricketing dictionary since then.
SHORT HISTORY OF CHINAMAN BOWLERS
Because of their strange action which is so difficult to perfect, Chinaman bowlers are understandably a rare breed. But there have been some famous practitioners of the art like Chuck Fleetwood-Smith, Michael Bevan, the legendary Gary Sobers, Dave Mohammed, Paul Adams and Brad Hogg.
When Adams made his debut in 1995, he was hailed not for his bowling exploits but his unorthodox action. The English batsman Mike Gatting went on to compare his action with that of a ‘frog in a blender’ after he had bamboozled Gatting.
Hogg is widely considered to be the most famous of the modern-day chinaman bowlers who popularised the left-arm orthodox action. Still popular in domestic T20 circuits, Hogg had a brilliant international career having won two World Cups with Australia.
He was also the standout performer in those tournaments finishing with 13 wickets in the 2003 World Cup and 21 wickets in the 2007 World Cup.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) recently brought the talented South African chinaman bowler Tabraiz Shamsi into the spotlight. Shamsi who replaced the injured Samuel Badree in the Royals Challengers Bangalore squad in the 2016 IPL, had a reasonably promising season.
He was however already a big name across T20 leagues having played for illustrious first-class teams like the Dolphins and the Titans to name a few, and was the highest wicket-taker in the 2015 season of the Caribbean Premier League for the St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots franchise.
India seem to have unearthed their own talented chinaman bowlers in the recent past. Kuldeep Yadav who made a name for himself during the 2014 Under-19 World Cup is a promising prospect.
At the tournament, he took a hat-trick against Scotland. He was the first chinaman bowler to be selected for the Indian team against the West Indies in October 2014 but he did not play any matches.
But the Indian bowler with an outrageous left-arm unorthodox action who hogged the limelight in the last IPL was Shivil Kaushik. The 21-year-old, who made his debut with the Gujarat Lions this season, has an action that made him very difficult to pick, making him one of the sensational finds of this IPL.
Speaking of his strange action, Kaushik told iplt20.com: “I was eight when I first played cricket and picked up the chinaman action as it came naturally. I haven’t changed it since then. The batsmen found it difficult and my friends too told me that I must continue.
“Many coaches have helped me and they have not tinkered with my action. Anil Kumble has been very supportive. I was 15 and got into competitive cricket when somebody told me that I bowl like Paul Adams.
“And then I watched a few videos of his bowling. Being tall is definitely an advantage as I get more bounce and purchase from the wicket.
“It is something that has come naturally to me, so my body does not take much of a load and is accustomed to the stress as this is how I’ve bowled right from the start. To get my rhythm going, I just need to practice more and keep bowing.”
