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Ray · 12-05-2007, 00:53 AM

In cricket, there is a type of bowling called "C h i n a m a n".

Quote:

In cricket, left-arm unorthodox spin – often known as slow left-arm c hinaman and abbreviated to SLC – is a style of bowling. The bowler uses a wrist torsion action to spin the ball so that when it pitches it turns from off to leg for a right-handed batsman, i.e. from left to right from the bowler's perspective. The action and direction of turn exactly mirror those of a conventional right-handed leg spin bowler. Charlie 'Buck' Llewellyn, a South African all-rounder who played at the end of the 19th century, laid claim to inventing the delivery. Some c hinaman bowlers occasionally bowl the mirror image of a leg-spinner's "googly" (or "wrong'un" in Australia), which turns in the opposite way in order to trick the batsman. In this instance the ball turns away from the batsman, as if the bowler were an orthodox left-arm spinner.

The c hinaman style of bowling is very rare, as not only is it difficult to bowl accurately (in common with leg spin), but the turn into the right-handed batsman is seen as less dangerous than the turn away from the batsman generated by an orthodox left-arm spinner, so virtually all left-armers choose to bowl orthodox. On the other hand, the c hinaman bowler does have some compensating advantages. He can impart more spin than the finger-spinner, generally yielding more turn and bounce (a factor in Johnny Wardle's decision to use this style on pitches outside England, whereas the orthodox style was more effective on damp English pitches). The LBW law allows for a favourable decision even when the ball has pitched outside off stump, whereas it does not similarly favour balls which pitch outside leg (a factor in George Tribe's decision to use this style). In addition, the wrist-spinner can bowl the googly and topspinner with a comparatively modest adjustment in technique, allowing a wider range of deliveries.