Why does Bangladesh not have offspinners?

[LateCut]

I am wondering why we have such a shallow offspinners pool. On the other hand there are so many SLAs (although not all of them perfoming at the top level) to choose from. Could somebody list the records of all types of spinners playing in the domestic fixtures. I tried to compile one but failed miserably. I could not figure out who bowls what. I could guess that someone is a spinner but could not distinguise between SLAs, legspinners and offspinners (and other variants). I thought offspin is the simplest one to bowl yet I have not seen one playing recently for the senior squad. We need more variety in our attack and Rafique is not going to play forever.

[TheWatcher]

Well, finger spinning with your right hand is easy, but at the same time playing offbreaks is not that hard either. As an offie, you need plenty of guile and variation to be an effective bowler. Also, while SLAs (left handed finger spiners) had/have role models such as Enamul Haque Moni and Rafique to learn from, unfortunately, right handers have none better than Jamal Babu or Shabbir Khan.

Anyway, here is the few specialist offies I know who play in our domestic leagues- Shabbir Khan (Chittagong), Jamaluddin Babu (Khulna), Yasin Arafat (Chittagong), and Rezaul Islam Rajon (U/19, Dhaka).

I understand we need few quality offies for sake of variation, but at the same time we should aknowledge the abundance of SLAs in our country as a blessing for us and keep encouraging youngsters who are taking on this style of bowling.

[BD Tigers]

Now that is a very good question. After Durjoy we didnt have any off spin bowler playing for BD. I dont know why Durjoy quit playing but he was a good offie. Yea being a finger spinner it is very hard to spin the ball like wrist spin (except Murali) and also have to have the control. Being a off spiner myself and played in divisional league in dhaka - I know u must have variations in yr bowling otherwise most of the batsmen will play u easily.

[cricket_pagla]

in our squad... dere r several offies.... H.Basher, R.Saleh, Pilot, J.Golla, T.Imran, N.Iqbal.. n da list go 1.....
so i dun agree wit u....

[TAQATOO]

Why does BD team don't have any leg-spinner yet ? Off-spiners are easy to play and its good to have a left-handed Offie rather then a right handed. But I was wondering why don't BD search for a good leg spinner or wrist spinner who can turn the ball in any track and add some variety. Kapali is not a perfect leg-spinner. He just throw the ball in leggie style which ash can do also.

[mhferdaus]

Alok and Ashraful could be made into a good legspinner, but I would rather have them making big scores !!!

[Shafin]

Our left handed spinners are good,as long as they are taking wickets,i dont see any need for crying for a offspinner

[Locutus]

Originally Posted by Shafin
Our left handed spinners are good,as long as they are taking wickets,i dont see any need for crying for a offspinner

Does not hurt having a good offspinner in your team. If Bangladesh think they are good with they have, future is looking a bit dark.

[LateCut]

Yes, offspinners are easy to play if you are a right-handed batsman. However, there are a lot of quality left-handed bastmen in the test and ODI arenas. SLAs are almost powerless against them. We could use a legspinner in these situations but we do not have any quality legspinners also. Besides, after Rafique our quality of SLAs takes a huge dip! I shudder at the thought of Rafique retiring.

[sadi]

Since we don't have so many left handed batsman in domestic cricket, our offspinners are not that successful.... it probably discourages them.... survival of the fittest and in our domestic cricket.... SLA are more suitable than the offspinners...

[shimraj]

Originally Posted by sadi
Since we don't have so many left handed batsman in domestic cricket, our offspinners are not that successful.... it probably discourages them.... survival of the fittest and in our domestic cricket.... SLA are more suitable than the offspinners...

This is a very valid point. You will rarely find any lefty batsman in our divisional league. And the reason I believe is cultural. When parents first see their child using left hand to do stuff, they basically go nuts and force the child to use right hand against the childs natural rhythm. This is very bad. I think things are changing now and we will see more lefty batsmen in the future. Anyway, there is no doubt we need to focus on producing more spinners(both varieties) than pacers now.

[Frost]

Yea, I've been thinking about this problem for a while as well - but could not come up with a good reason. It's true that off-spin is easier bowl and easier to hit. In one day games off-spinners can restrict run-rates in the middle overs by bowling negatively (by attacking on off and middle stump line without giving too much flight). However, that makes it difficult for them to get wickets. More importantly, if they get turn it can be counter productive (a slight turn will lead to a wide ball just outside the leg stump). On the other hand, if they want to be attacking bowler by trying different things, then they can become very expensive. In summary, if you are an attacking off-spinner you can become very expensive and if you are a run-checking (i.e., negative) off-spinner you have to maintain very tight line and length. Restriction of field placing in one day games are making it difficult for them to set field to get wickets. So it is not a very good motivation to become an off-spinners. A bowler's motivation is wicket - but in one days they (off-spinners) have to choose either to be expensive or to be very accurate. I'm not saying it is impossible to be good one day off-spinner but it requires accuracy, hard work, dedications, and of course talent. How many of our players have all of these? That's why Murali, Saqlain, Harbhajan are rare.

On the other hand if we had a good 3 - 5 day cricket structure where an off-spin bowler could place his field and try different things, things could have been easier for off-spinners to grow. Until then we will have to wait for some extremely talented off-spinner to pop up from no where:-)

[Fazal]

Why does Bangladesh not have offspinners?

Interesting observation. My analysis is less technical. For some reason (I cannot say why) if you see the trend in Bangladesh... you will see that things doesn't come in ones-and-twos here.... either it doesn't come at-all or it comes in bunches.... see in other fields... the boom of garment industires... the banks... the multistoried appartments building....etc etc

So therefore we shouldn't worry that much and should wait patiently... trust me... when it will start comming (i.e. off-spinners) it will be comming in bunches... more than we will be able to remeber their name..

.....but sadly enough at that time we will stop producing any other kind of bowlers.

[Frost]

Yea, kothai bole na - "Hujuge Banglai":-)

[IanW]

These things happen in cricket.

For example, here's a list of good Australian offspinners ... Ironmonger, who was a New Zealander.

Similarly, he's a list of good English legspinners ... Bosanquet.

Yeah, some variety in the spin attack would be good, but Rafique and Haqur are a good pair.

Ian Whitchurch

[TheWatcher]

Ironmonger ??? Bosanquet ??? Ian, are you talking about cricket in pre-historic era ?

[Bengali_bradman]

Originally Posted by Fazal
Why does Bangladesh not have offspinners?

Interesting observation. My analysis is less technical. For some reason (I cannot say why) if you see the trend in Bangladesh... you will see that things doesn't come in ones-and-twos here.... either it doesn't come at-all or it comes in bunches.... see in other fields... the boom of garment industires... the banks... the multistoried appartments building....etc etc

So therefore we shouldn't worry that much and should wait patiently... trust me... when it will start comming (i.e. off-spinners) it will be comming in bunches... more than we will be able to remeber their name..

.....but sadly enough at that time we will stop producing any other kind of bowlers.

GOOD OBSERVATION

[IanW]

TheWatcher,

You want to dispute my point ?

You want to have a go on behalf of, say, Ian Salisbury, Ashley Mallett, Ray Bright or Murray Bennett ?

Ian Whitchurch

[Tigers_eye]

offies, leggies will come in abundance (because of the nature of the pitches) as Fazal has illustrated.

How about asking the question "why we don't have a 90+mph bowler?" I don't think that will come in abundance. Wouldn't that be a more concern than offies?

[Sovik]

what happened to sabbir? he was a decent off spinner

[LateCut]

Originally Posted by sadi
Since we don't have so many left handed batsman in domestic cricket, our offspinners are not that successful.... it probably discourages them.... survival of the fittest and in our domestic cricket.... SLA are more suitable than the offspinners...

Makes very good sense. Now the question is why we do not have left-handed batsmen?

[Frost]

LateCut, I think answer to your question can be found if we observe Bangladeshi culture. When a child start using his/her left hand his/her parents start "correcting" that. Most of the parents do not accept (may be it's changing) the fact that their child can be a lefty. For example, I saw my younger brother growing up - when he was learning to write for the first time he used his left hand, but my parents meticulus patience "corrected" that problem. When he started to play musical instruments he used his left hand again - but this time he was old enough (or stubborn:-) to resist my parents' direction. So in the end he became lefty in some tasks and right-handed in some other tasks. Here is an interesting observation about the word "sinister" - current meaning evil, menacing, etc.; however, the original meaning was someone who is left-handed. In the past it was considered that lefty persons are bad and that lead to current meaning of the word. I think the similar mentaility prevails in Bangladesh (may be not as visible anymore) and so we do not see many lefty batsmen coming:-)

[Sauron]

Hey Frost, are your initials J.D. by any chance?

[LateCut]

Forst! Tahole doshta abba janer? Hmmm! Now I know why I cannot bowl fast. May be I was born a lefty but ba'jan did not allow me to be lefty.

[Frost]

Sauran, no my initials are not J. D.

LateCut, yes, dosh ta abbajan-er.