By their very nature, left-arm spinners are not the most fashionable commodity in the game. They certainly don’t garner the same level of excitement as their more exotic cousins, the ‘chinaman’ bowler.
The humble left-armer did get a bit of the spotlight when Kevin Pietersen kept being dismissed by them. ‘KP’ tended to treat them with ‘you can’t bowl to me’ disdain, but they somehow kept getting him out.
The whole world and its team went in search of these left-arm merchants. Somehow, they have lasted the course, not blasted away by the hurly-burly of T20 cricket, and the proliferation of batsmen with terrible pitch-side manners.
And yet, we see them everywhere, with varying degrees of success. The Proteas have one in their Test ranks now, and despite the initial naysayers, Keshav Maharaj has settled very happily into his role.
He patiently hits his mark, dutifully following the instructions of Faf du Plessis. Far from being a stopper of runs, Maharaj has added to his armoury, and is giving his stock delivery more air, turning it and reaping regular rewards.
Despite his current standing in the national Test side, ‘Kesh’ has retained the humility that got him there in the first place. He took his maiden five-wicket haul in the ongoing first Test against New Zealand, and his reaction was to shed a tear of joy in the dressing-room.
Those who only take notice of cricketers once they start appearing on television may not understand or appreciate the length and ruggedness of the Maharaj journey to the summit he now occupies, but those who frequent Kingsmead know just how far he hard he has had to work to get there.
Linda Zondi and his selectors made sensible choice of slow bowlers, and their practicality has proven to be very shrewd.
Funnily enough, Maharaj’s ascent to the Test ranks has opened a door at the Dolphins. That’s the wonderful thing about sport, because the domino effect of opportunity goes all the way to the first rung of the potential ladder.
Kyle Nipper, a star in the first-class ranks for KZN Inland over the past few seasons, would have been forgiven for giving up the franchise cricket dream, and maybe finding a ‘normal’ job to do. But, as we now know, left-armers are not normal and mundane, but rather men of considerable substance.
Nipper has just come off the fortnight of his career, with runs in Paarl, and wickets in Bloemfontein, and national exposure on the small screen. One commentator even had the unwitting nerve to call him ‘young’ Nipper, as he and Sibonelo Makhanya closed out a run-chase against the Cobras.
Nipper is 30 later this year, so he is no spring chicken. He has led the Inland side to trophies, and quietly tapped on the Dolphins window for the past five years. And yet, the unglamorous road of first-class cricket has not weathered him or diminished his ambition. Like Maharaj, he remains one of the game’s genuine good guys.
Importantly, they both quickly understood that they needed to bring a fuller repertoire to the paid ranks, and they have worked on their batting, and are always sharp in the field. They understand that it is not always enough to just be a left-arm spinner in modern times. But, happily, they have also found that it is also no longer unfashionable to be just that.
Long live the humble leftie
* Sri Lankan Rangana Herath’s nine wickets against Bangladesh this week made him the most successful left-arm spinner in Tests, with 366 victims. He overtook Daniel Vettori (362).