It is the era of wrist spinners, especially in T20 cricket. One of their potent weapons is the googly, a brilliant variation that helps them to keep batters in control and also pick up wickets. Rashid Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Adam Zampa and Varun Chakaravarthy are some of the premier wrist spinners in world cricket today.
What is a googly?
For a right-handed leg-spinner, the ball turning away from leg stump to off stump is what we typically call a leg break. If the batter is left-handed, the leg break will be spinning in from off stump to leg stump. Now, what if a bowler can bowl with a leg break action and get the ball to go the opposite of a usual leg break?
That is what we call a 'googly'! Basically, a delivery bowled with a leg break action but behaves like a proper off break. With no change in the action, it becomes difficult for batters to pick it, thereby providing wicket-taking opportunities for the bowlers.
Who invented the googly?
The man responsible for this brilliant variation is Bernard Bosanquet, an Australian who was born in 1877. Today, 13th October, is his 148th birth anniversary. Nicknamed as 'bosie', the leg-spinner found the googly purely by accident.
When and where was the googly discovered?
One fine day, while playing billiards, Bosanquet was having fun on the table with the balls with his friends. That's when he tried flicking the ball from the back of the hand with a proper leg break action, and the ball behaved as an off-break. Given the person that he was, Bosanquet tried it out in professional cricket and the rest, as they say, is history!
Where was the first googly bowled?
In the 1903-04 season, 'Bosie' allegedly bowled the first-ever googly in professional cricket. Legend has it that the very first googly gave him a wicket. Initially, this variation was considered as an illegal tactic by opposition batters but soon, it became the norm.