It is a mystery why we have not had too many Left Arm Chinaman-Googly bowlers in Cricket.
I was reminded of this when I saw Shival Kowshik, Kuldip Yadav and Brad Hogg bowl in the IPL.
The Chinaman-Googly bowler (called after the first of the ilk, Ellis Achong, who was of Chinese Origin and played for West Indies, and who used to bowl the occasional Chinaman) is the left handed counter part of the right arm Leg spin bowler. We haven't seen many. Paul Adams was one, and before him Gary Sobers could bowl it, though he could and did bowl everything, pace or spin, left handed.
Though leg spinners themselves are rare, we did have some wonderful bowlers like Bill O'reilly, Clarrie Grimmet, Bob Simpson, Subhash Gupte, B.S.Chandrasekhar, Anil Kumble and of course, Shane Warne, to name a few. It is a difficult art to master, the margin of error low. But this is more than compensated by the variations the wrist spinner can get and the natural bounce of the forward spinning ball. They also have the advantage of their stock ball, the leg break, turning from leg to off for a right handed batsmen, which is an obvious advantage as it can pitch on the blind spot of the batsmen.
Maybe the reason why the Left Arm Chinaman-Googly bowler did not flourish is because they turn the ball into the right handed batsmen (majority of the batsmen are right handed), while the normal left arm spinner turns it from leg to off, giving him an edge. In addition, with the added bounce offered by the Chinaman bowler, it is easy for a right hander to cut and pull if the bowler errs in length.
But this doesn't hold water really. Even the stock ball of the Chinaman bowler is not easy to tackle, as it comes in to the right hander, bounces more making him a sitting duck for a bat pad catch at short leg. And the left arm googly can take the ball away from the right hander, creating opportunities for a catch behind the wicket or a stumping.
With Cricket Academies flooding various countries, will be see a real world class Left Arm Chinaman-Googly bowler? I wish we do, because then it will inspire lot of young left arm spinners to take up wrist spin bowling and kindle the interest, just like how Shane Warne, with his bowling and personality, inspired a generation of leg spinners.
