Unravelling The Southpaw Batsman

My Facebook update some days ago lamented the lack of grace in today's left-handed batsmen. I removed it, only to be told by an old, very dear friend that I really shouldn't be scrubbing my wall with such regularity.

So the lament is reborn. As a note.

Growing up playing club cricket, one would watch the team's resident left-hander bat, and listen to the grey hairs of the team talk about something called 'left-hander's grace'. I would resent it, being a fairly cavalier strokeplayer myself, and that too against the new ball. But almost immediately, the teen-age green monster in me would nod its head at the irrefutable fact that there was indeed something other-worldly about a left-hander's cover drive. And being at the receiving end of Woorkeri Raman in my college days merely confirmed the fact.

There was something about his batting that seemed lazy, and almost insolent.But yes, the shots would sting, especially at cover and short mid-wicket.

It would remind me of my days as a kid, watching a Ranji Trophy match between TN and Delhi. Coming away with the impression that Venkat Sundaram, the leftie Delhi opener, had something that the rest of us right (or wrong) handers did not.

Over the years, watching left-handers like Kallicharan, Gower, Lara and the comparitively less sung about Aussie Graham Yallop merely confirmed that. Batting was definitely easy for these guys who batted the wrong way 'round.

And of course, the legend grew when older players spoke about Sobers and Ajit Wadekar. I started trying to unravel this great mystery, the day I gave my trusty Super Tusker and Slazenger away, in an effort to make the game richer by my departure from it.

The penny dropped one day when I was watching Saeed Anwar bat. The reason was so simple. Having kicked myself in the fundament for not having spotted it earlier, I sat down to watch Anwar bat via a mirror (it's easy to decode when you can watch him bat right-handed!). There was ample opportunity, as the classy Pakistani tore into the Indian attack.

The reason was simple. The left-hander's footwork was different. The body balance was not always into the ball, but slightly away from it. In common parlance, it is what commentators refer to as 'playing away from the body'. But the best thing was the leftie's technique to the ball pitched short of a length. They don't really get behind the line. Rather, shots are played from 'beside the line'. My brother told me about this, referring to Gundappa Vishwanath's game, years ago.

And over the years, I have watched via the trusty mirror, Sadagopan Ramesh, the Indian left-hander, Saurav Ganguly, Adam Gilchrist and Yuvraj Singh all demonstrate this approach to footwork. They all could flay through the off-side. All vicious cutters to balls that would to a right-hander, be too close to the off-stump. And yes, they were all exponents of playing away from the body. But the textbook be damned, they all looked bloody elegant.

The only departure from this style of batting who still not only managed to look elegant but also had results to show for it was Brian Charles Lara. And we will leave him out of the discussion because he was and is Brian Charles Lara.

But take a look at all the left-handers in the game today. With the exception of Yuvraj Singh and Sangakkara, none of them can be called elegant, nor can the term 'left-handed grace' be applied to them.

A possible hypothesis is that a majority of the finishing school coaches are right-handed, and therefore think right-handed and pass this on. And the coaches who leave a batsman's batting alone are a dying breed. Control and adherence to theories are the order of the day.

I have no data. But I have a hunch that this might be the case. And somewhere deep down, hunches aren't as dreamy as they seem.

Your comments please.