Former Pakistan cricket captain and ace batsman, Zaheer Abbas, recently lamented that right from the moment Pakistan achieved international cricket status (in 1952), its batting has been its weakest link. Even a cursory look at the record of Pakistan teams across the last many decades would suggest that Abbas is correct in his claim and that a majority of victories enjoyed by the Pakistan cricket teams (in Tests, ODIs and T20s) have largely been initiated by impressive bowling feats. May be that is why Pakistan has been in the forefront of not only producing a string of some exceptional fast, swing and spin bowlers, but more importantly, has introduced and pioneered innovations (even inventions) of bowling styles and deliveries that were once unheard of (and never before seen) in international cricket. Leading examples in this respect include ‘reverse swing’ and the ‘doosra.’ Nobody’s sure exactly who coined the term reverse swing, but it first appeared in the British media during Pakistan’s tour of England in 1992. Reverse swing is when a fast bowler is able to swing the old ball. Technically the ball should only swing when it’s new, but when Pakistani fast bowlers like Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Aaqib Javed began running through the English batting line-up (during the 1992 series) with the old ball, the British media first accused them of ‘tampering with the old, worn out ball (to achieve swing)’, before saner heads like famous Australian commentator and cricket expert, Ritchie Benaud, revealed how the Pakistan bowlers were swinging the old ball.
Just before the fifth Test in the 1992 series, Benaud interviewed Pakistani captain, Javed Miandad (for BBC TV). Miandad explained that reverse swing can be achieved by keeping one side of the ball as new as possible (through vigorous polishing using cricket clothing, sweat and spit), while letting the other side degrade. Miandad also suggested that Pakistani bowlers had been using this technique for over a decade and it is only when bowlers like Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram became such lethal exponents of this technique that the cricket world woke up to what the Pakistani bowlers were up to.
Across the 1990s and good part of the 2000s, Pakistan remained the leading exponent of reverse swing. But after 2003, fast and swing bowlers of other Test playing nations had begun to master the technique as well and the art of reverse swing bowling began to be seen as a science! Miandad was right to suggest that reverse swing was not something that Pakistani fast men like Waqar and Wasim had invented in 1992. It is another former Pakistani swing bowler, Sarfraz Nawaz, who has been established as being the pioneer of reverse swing bowling.
Regards,,,,,,,
Abdul Haseeb
