The Joy of Six: Cricket Innovations

From games of Twisti-Twosti to scraps of tarpaulin, here are six moments of invention that really changed the sport
1) The googly These days it is considered a vital part of any leg-spinner's armory - wrongly, perhaps: Shane Warne's wrong 'un was about as subtle as his chat-up technique. But at the start of the 20th century, the googly was viewed as a sneaky piece of sophistry. The Middlesex leggie Bernard Bosanquet invented the delivery during games of Twisti-Twosti, in which players bounced a tennis ball across a table in the hope that that poor sap at the other end wouldn't be able to catch it. His invention quickly spread, with South Africa unleashing three of the critturs during a 4-1 hammering of England in 1905-06. Off-spinners fought back in the 1990s when Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq developed his "doosra" (Urdu and Hindi for "second" or "other"), although some believe the delivery - a leg-break bowled with an off-break action - cannot be bowled with a legal action. The googly though remains above the law and much-loved, with Mushtaq Ahmed's dismissal of Graeme Hick in the 1992 World Cup final its most recent high-profile example. 2) Bodyline Well, we could hardly leave it out, could we? What began as a plot by England's Aussie-hating captain, Douglas Jardine, to win back the Ashes by nullifying Don Bradman (Jardine insisted England's players refer to him at all times as "the little bastard") ended up as a diplomatic incident with more legacies than you can shake a rib-cage-defending bat at. First, the MCC passed a law banning the presence of more than two men behind square on the leg-side; no more leg-stump bouncer-fests, in other words. Second, Harold Larwood - one of the great unfulfilled fast-bowling talents of all time - was scapegoated out of the game by the two-faced English authorities. Third, the Poms still have to endure what is usually referred to as "the longest whinge in sporting history" mainly because England won 4-1 and Bradman averaged a mere 56. He never did as badly again, but, hey, it was fun while it lasted. 3) Hawk-Eye Bear with us here. This clever little gizmo may not be to everyone's liking - "I'm sorry, but that was missing leg" is an oft-heard press-box grumble as Hawk-Eye shows the ball ploughing into middle stump - but it has changed the thinking fan's perception of the leg-before decision. In effect, Hawk-Eye has made the stumps bigger. After all, a ball that clips the leg stick is just as out as one that dislodges middle. But more to the point it has emboldened umpires to give batsmen out on the front foot, with the chief beneficiary being wicket-to-wicket left-arm spinners such as Monty Panesar, whose stock ball to the right-hander pitches on middle and straightens. To date 27% of his Test victims have been lbw, compared with 18% for Daniel Vettori, who took many of his wickets in those innocent pre-Hawk-Eye days. Hawk-Eye may yet be the death of umpires too if the authorities are persuaded that a machine whose inventors claim accuracy to within 5mm can remove the dreaded shadow of human error. 4) Pinch-hitting In the 1979 World Cup final, Geoff Boycott (57 off 105 balls) and Mike Brearley (64 off 130) spent so long adding 129 for England's first wicket as they chased West Indies' 286 for nine in 60 overs that they placed an intolerable burden on their team-mates. England were soon skittled for 194. And yet, in the days before Mark Greatbatch decided to ignore the unwritten cricket law that demands dourness from all New Zealanders and used the opening overs to hit over the top in the 1992 World Cup, this thou-shalt-not-pass attitude was prevalent. And what Greatbatch could do (313 off 356 balls in that tournament), Sanath Jayasuriya could do even better. It's rarely remembered that he went into the 1996 World Cup with a dreadful one-day record - an average of 19 from 99 matches - but that was all forgotten as he made 79 off 93 balls against India, 44 off 43 against Kenya and then 82 off 44 to see off a pitiful England in the quarter-finals. Jayasuriya never looked back (the next 12 years brought him 24 of his 25 ODI centuries) and nor did one-day cricket. 5) The scoop Sure, we all know that the scoop and its many illegitimate offspring are causing bowlers fresh nightmares by the game, but here's an airy waft outside off for you: without the scoop, we might not now be agonizing over Lalit Modi and Sir Allen Stanford. Here's why. When Pakistan needed six off four balls to win the World Twenty20 final at Johannesburg in September, Misbah-ul-Haq tried to scoop Joginder Sharma over short fine leg. He stuffed it up, Sreesanth took the catch and India arrived home to a hero's welcome in the streets of Mumbai. Until that moment, cricket's financial superpower had played Twenty20 under sufferance, fearful that the erosion of the 50-over game would cost them crucial advertising air-time. Now, they sensed a golden goose, and when Kapil Dev set up his Indian Cricket League, Modi retaliated with the Indian Premier League. The rest, as they say, is recent history. Now if Misbah had played a cover-drive instead ... 6) Covers A few sheets and bits of tarpaulin don't sound like much of an innovation but they just might have been responsible for the beginning of the end for the orthodox finger-spinner, a trend which in turn helped inspire innovations such as the doosra. Anyway, we digress. The advent of covered pitches - phased in at various stages between the end of the 1960s and the early 1980s - meant that average offies could no longer land it on a length and allow the sticky dog (a wet pitch drying out quickly under the baking sun) to do the rest. As the elements were increasingly denied their Machiavellian access, pitches around the world became more uniform and batsmen - led by Hansie Cronje and Steve Waugh - discovered that the slog-sweep was suddenly a percentage shot rather than a risk. Heavier bats and smaller boundaries haven't helped the traditional off-spinner's cause, but it all goes back to those pesky covers.