Mystery Ball called “Doosra”

When Saqlain Mushtaq discovered the mystery ball which he named doosra in the 90's he had little idea that this ball would become the subject of huge controversy, which would change the face of cricket forever. The story goes that when Saqlain was perfecting this delivery in the nets, Javed Miandad who was the Pakistani coach at that time used to prompt Saqlain to bowl this ball by calling it "doosra." This was then the origin of the name Doosra. When Saqlain started using the doosra in international cricket it confounded some of the best batsmen. They thought that ball would come into them like an orthodox off-spinner but instead, this ball moved away from right handed batsmen. This made Saqlain a potent force in cricket.

Saqlain played many seasons for Surrey and regularly topped the bowling rankings season after season. In International cricket he was equally devastating. He once stunned the strong Australian batting line up in Hobart claiming six wickets in the process. I clearly remember one ball he bowled to Shane Warne. The ball pitched on middle and took his off bail! This was the power of doosra. Before this there was no way an off spinner could have done this to a right handed batsman but now it was possible and game was changing dramatically.

Slowly batsmen started to pick Saqlain's doosra and as years went by he became less menacing. One of the reasons behind this was that he over used his doosra which made him very predictable but during this stage Muttiah Muralitharan emerged with his version of doosra. Muralitharan had been called for suspect bowling action previously. His action was in fact scrutinized greatly by Australian umpires and media which lead to lot of controversies. Muralitharan was regarded as a vicious turner of the ball who could turn a ball even on glass. He had a vicious off break but as this was the only weapon in his armory he was relatively more predictable than Saqlain. When he perfected doosra he also became more potent and is now arguably the best off spinner in the world. He started picking wickets in abundance and there were few batsmen who could read him.

Last year Muralitharan was reported for suspect bowling action by match referee Chris Broad after conclusion of Australia SriLanka test series. There was concern over his doosra. His doosra was found to turn even more viciously than Saqlain’s due to considerable straightening of the arm, which was considered illegal according to rules of cricket. ICC concluded that Muralitharan should not be allowed to ball doosra but Muralitharan hit back at ICC indicating that He was being made a scapegoat. He challenged that the actions of majority of the bowlers bowling today was not absolutely clean and this was proven through technology. According to results 80% of bowlers playing in modern cricket straighten their arms. This includes bowlers of calibre of Glenn McGrath and Shaun Pollock whose actions seemed clean to naked eye. This has also aroused shock among bowlers of past era who now are in doubt over authenticity of their actions.

The winner in all this controversy is Muralitharan who was criticized continuously during his career but now no one can point fingers at him as truth is for every one to see. Now in order to rectify this situation ICC has placed a limit of 15 degrees up till which bowlers are allowed to straighten their arms. So ICC in an indirect way has legalized chucking to save the game from jeopardy. This decision has led to mixed reactions round the cricket world but decision is pretty logical as there needs to a guideline justifying and monitoring what 80% of bowlers do around the world. So a ball called “Doosra” has really changed cricket forever. The most interesting thing to note here is that Saqlain who discovered doosra was never called for having a suspect bowling action while his followers such as Murlitharan, Harbhajan Singh and Shoaib Malik all have been called for a suspect bowling action. But if action of some of these bowlers had been absolutely clean then every one would have assumed that rules defined by cricket were never defied.