Rock back and setting action You must have heard coaches and fast bowlers talk about the rock back action in the delivery stride. What is rock back? It is the leaning back of the body just prior to the bowler's delivering the ball. At the instance of the back foot landing for the ...

Release of ball - Pace Bowling In earlier lessons, we have discussed how the ball is gripped for the in swinger and the out swinger. We have also discussed the basic bowling action. But all this will be of no use if you do not learn how to release the ball correctly. You will do well ...

Grips for various deliveries To bowl well you need to learn how to grip the ball correctly. The various grips which shall be discussed in this section will neither guarantee success nor what was intended to be bowled. Because bowling skills largely depend on many components such as run-up, body position, front arm, wrist action ,etc., ...

The Open Action Last week we saw how to get into the classical side-on action for bowling. But if you have noticed over the years, most of the Caribbean fast bowlers have had an 'open' action. Players from the West Indies have always had a cavalier style of ...

The off-break is the ball that turns from the off-side to the leg side for the right handed batsman. There is no difference in the grip for an off-spinner and a left-arm spinner, except that they use different arms to bowl. The left arm spinner is a mirror image of the off- spinner, but we ...

Getting the length of the run up right is important to get a proper bowling rhythm. Each bowler has judge for himself, how long his run up will be, according to what he intends to bowl (fast or spin) and according to what suits his bowling action. One of the best way of marking the length ...

A leg-spinner, when called upon to bowl, makes the spectator sit on the edge of his seat with the expectation that something exciting is going to happen. They inspire millions of youngsters to bowl like them. A few years back, I was one of the selectors to shortlist trainees for the under-14 year age group ...

Most teams prefer to have a left arm spinner in the side because the ball that drifts in and spin away from the right handed batsman is regarded as the most difficult ball to negotiate. Wilfred Rodes (1877-1973) of England was a master at the art of curving the ball in and controlling its flight, variation ...

In-swing is the delivery which moves towards the right-handed batsman, in the air, from the off-side. The ball may start swinging early - as in the case of 'banana' swing - as soon as it is released. Or it may swing late - moving in a more or less straight line and then swinging in ...