Is there any off spinners that have their own type of variation that they wouldnt mind sharing with me? Its just that i still can any bowl the stock off spinner and the only variation i have is to differ the flight which usuallyy gets me at least 2 or 3 wickets per game. If I had another delivery I would be sure that i could easily achieve another 5 wicket haul. I have only ever got 4 because in my under 17z league we can only bowl a maximum of 4 overs. Can anybody please help!!!!!!

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I'm not sure that you need a mystery ball. As long as you can bowl the normal off spinner and arm ball you should be able to take plenty of wickets by varying the flight, loop, length and turn. But you must have appropriate field placements to take advantage of a batsman's mistake. Please read the info in the following two links which should help you understand the field placements for an off spinner.

http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2002/aug/11diary.htm
http://rediff.com/cricket/2002/aug/07field.htm

Oh right thanks. The thing is that even though i am bowling to a good field I just think i can get more wickets if I did have a mystery ball. Just something I could use if I was getting hit. Thats what my 1st team are looking for. Another type of bowler who can trick the batsmen. Do you have any tips?

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Okay, let's not consider the doosra at this stage because it takes a lot of practice to bowl it without appearing to chuck. So, how about bowling an off-cutter or a leg-cutter?. Apparently, Harbhajan Singh has a "good 'leg-cutter' and this makes things very difficult for left handers. The same ball however is much easier for the right handers to play as he doesn't really deceive them in the air."

How to bowl the off cutter
Learn the leg cutter

Other articles worth a look at:

http://www.cricketweb.net/coaching/spintowin.php
http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2002/sep/23vet.htm
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/c...ry/110522.html

Recent quote from Mark Ramprakash:

"There must have been a few raised eyebrows when the England boys turned up at Trent Bridge to see a dry, white surface, perfect for spin, with Muttiah Muralitharan playing. But England were done by a solid performance and everyone, bar the England batsmen, would have enjoyed watching Murali, one of the best spinners of the modern era, doing his stuff.

It was a wonderful performance and a privilege to see his mastery and range of skills. The key ball in Murali's armoury is his doosra. It is important to remember that he taught himself how to bowl it and that is a great message for young cricketers: The world's best look to keep improving and stay one step ahead of the rest.

The stand-out thing about Muralitharan's performance was his accuracy. All spinners must be accurate in the modern game because batsmen look to sweep, slog sweep, reverse sweep and run down the track to bowlers. Murali also bowls at different paces and turns it both ways so that makes him a real handful.

From England's perspective, when you chase 300 in a fourth innings it seems a long way away because of the pressure. It is hard to describe, but the batsmen know that if they play a poor shot - for instance, get stumped - they run the risk of some heavy criticism. England didn't know whether to graft or play big shots.

That is why I admired Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe so much because they always played their natural game no matter what the situation. They were aggressive and tried to score: live by the sword, die by the sword. Someone with Mike Atherton's temperament would have enjoyed that pressure on Monday. When we knocked off 260 against South Africa at Trent Bridge he hit a brilliant 90. He enjoyed and revelled in that type of pressure.

It brings me to something I have learnt at Surrey. Saqlain Mushtaq and Ian Salisbury, our two spinners, use the dust from the pitch on their hands to put on the ball and they don't shine one side. The ball then gets dull and it becomes difficult to read which way it will turn if you don't pick it from the hand.

In this way Murali is massively different to Shane Warne, who ticks all the boxes for accuracy and has a big personality and a good cricket brain. Warne, however, gets big turn and shines the ball. The shine helps him to get drift, which is where he differs from Murali. I can't split the two, though, it is impossible to say which of them is the better."

Oh right tahnks. Ill try that when I go practise today. As were still on the subject do you have any help on how to bowl the arm ball?

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I can sympathise here: I know full well that in terms of effectiveness you are unlikely to need variation... and would quite probably be best advised to stick to the basics... but just as the joy of batting lies in having a go at every shot in the book... the joy of bowling lies in running through the full repertoire of different deliveries.

As a tennis player I looked to mix up topspin, slice and flat groundstrokes, to change my pace, to include some inside-out shots and to look for every opportunity to approach the net or draw the opponent into the net so that volleys and lobs came into play. The result? At best, mixed, because I was rarely able to do all the above with equal facility.

Would I have been better sticking to my strengths? I might have won more... but essentially no: I didn't actually mind losing so long as it was trying to play "total" tennis.

With all that said... you need a coaching manual not answers on a messageboard.

The arm-ball should not turn. So, it will be tricky to disguise it. It's used mainly to get LBWs, edges to first slip or top edge to a sweep shot. It should be a surprise delivery so bowl it sparingly. Having fielders around the bat would help to inhibit the batsman from smashing the ball to the boundary. Since the ball is a surprise it should be a little quicker and fuller. If you bowl a long hop the batsman has time to read the non-spin after it pitches. I found a couple of useful explanations. Apparently, there are some variations to how an arm-ball is bowled. Just find one that you are confident won't be picked by the batsman.

Arm ball: 1st version
An arm ball is a variation delivery of the cricket ball by an off spin bowler.
In contrast to an off break, an arm ball is delivered without rolling the fingers down the side of the ball on release. This means the ball has little or no spin on it, and it does not spin appreciably off the pitch. Instead, it travels straight on "in the direction of the arm" - from which it derives its name.

The arm ball is best used as a surprise variation by a bowler who is turning his off breaks considerably. A complacent or poorly skilled batsman playing for the expected spin can be taken by surprise and end up edging the ball with the outside edge of the bat, possibly offering a catch to the wicket-keeper or slips fielders. Saqlain Mushtaq and left-armer Daniel Vettori use the arm ball to good effect.

This delivery starts with the same grip, but no spin is imparted and the ball is allowed to glide out of the hand, guided by the first finger only. It will bounce straight-on after pitching.

image: http://hobby.rin.ru/eng/articles/html/257.html

2nd version:
The 2nd variation of the arm ball is gripped and delivered in the same way a swing bowler would bowl an away-swinger. Thanks to the generally side-on nature of finger-spinner's action, they can often obtain a small degree of swing in the opposite direction to the way that they would naturally spin the ball. Even in the case where the ball doesn't actually swing, the fact that it isn't released with rotations mean that it doesn't turn either, and it's still possible that this - coupled with the extra speed that the bowler can create due to the fact that he hasn't put rotations on the ball - can be enough to deceive the batsman.

I'm also wondering whether it would be worthwhile to develop a kind of vocal expression of effort, like Warnie, with your normal off-spinner to indicate a big effort has been made to impart a lot of spin on the ball. By employing the same "grunt" to an arm-ball you may fool the batsman into thinking it's one of your normal spinners.

cheers mate. ill try them variations. do any of you know if there is a contact place where I can get information on how to bowl the doosra? I realy would love to do it. And as I have just finished school I would a lot cof spare time to try and learn how to bowl it. Please can someone bring forward any information they have. Thanks.

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I've been bowling off spin about 5 years now, i'm only 16 but i'm yet to see off spinners who take more wickets, this season i'm my school teams leading wicket taker and i only use arm ball, stock delivery and variation in flight in matches, i've taken lots of wickets this way. What has helped is the ability for drift and good flight but even without this you can take wickets. Murali took something like 4 years to perfect his doosra. I've started practicing the Loudon method of the wrong'n but i don't feel it's needed!