My late father once asked the greatest spinner of all time how to bowl the perfect off/leg, googly, chinaman etc etc.
He was Hugh Tayfield...Hugh told him there is no secret you simply turn the ball.
Spinning a cricket ball is not difficult but to get it like Warne or Tayfield is supreme above another level.
These guys had the ultimate innate skill...I too could spin a ball but not anywhere in this league.
I'm not much of a cricket fan ... but if there's one man that kept me glued to the screen every time he played, it was Shane Warne.
He was a wizard and could do things with a cricketball unseen before.
Pure genius.
There is a big difference between an off spinner and a leg spinner.
The off spinner uses his fingers to impart spin on the ball while a leg spinner uses his wrist.
Off spinners like Hugh Tayfield, Alan Kourie, Tim Shaw, Pat Symcox, Tim May, Jim Laker, Nathan Lyon, Ravi Ashwin and Graeme Swann didn't put a lot of spin on their deliveries and relied more on variations in line and length to get wickets. They were all containers rather than wicket-takers and they bored the batsmen out with nagging accuracy rather than the amount of spin they put on the ball.
Leg spinners like Shane Warne, Denys Hobson, Paul Adams and Abdul Qadir were wrist-spinners who put a lot more spin on the ball. While a wrist spinner gets a lot more spin, he also has a lot less control so is usually a lot more expensive than an off spinner but takes more wickets. Shane Warne is the notable exception and the reason he is such a legend of the game is because he got the ball to spin a lot while maintaining incredible control of his flight and placement.
Before anyone takes me to task, there are a few exceptions to what I said above. Obviously a left-handed wrist spinner is effectively bowling vicious off-breaks to a right-handed bat while a left-handed off-spinner is bowling balls that pitch on a right-handed batsman's leg stump and deviate slightly to middle.
Other exceptions are Muttiah Muralitheran who is an off-spinner who gets significant turn (due to his double-jointed elbo w along with a questionable technique) and Indian leg "spinner" Anil Kumble who hardly got the ball to spin at all and relied on the off spinner's technique of boring the batsman to death coupled with a well-concealed top spinner or flipper.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, if Tit's dad was asking Hugh Tayfield for tips on leg spin then he was asking the wrong person. Hugh Tayfield was an off spinner and a typical one at that . . . the type who would bowl maiden after maiden without really attacking the batsman . . . just like Alan Kourie, Graeme Swann and all those other boring off spinners I mentioned. Tayfield's claim to fame is therefore unsurprisingly not the number of wickets he took, but the number of consecutive maidens bowled . . . and he holds the record for the most maiden overs bowled consecutively when an over was still 8 balls. He probably spun the ball less in those 119 deliveries than Shane Warne or Abdul Qadir spun a single delivery.
Wow!!! I didn't realize that you were such a fan of the sport.
Bores me to tears. Especially test match cricket. I don't have it in me to watch endless uneventful overs been churned out.
No doubt Sebastien will thank you for setting him straight. He probably came aboard to impress us with his knowledge ... and ended up making a "tit" of himself.
I was a leg spinner in my playing days. Had nothing but contempt for off "spinners".
Well done ...I could bowl the odd leg spin every now and then...,definitely harder for most...leg spinners are oddities (in a rare way) to deliver a ball from the back of your hand/wrist is a unique skill.
Good leg breakers are rare...Warnie was the king but Warne could do others as well.
He was best bowler in cricket.
"WOW" Indeed.......a gem of a post. Although there's one or two things I disagree with I'll try and add to the post.
Koosie, you neglect to say that Warnie never bowled a loose ball, sure he bowled with control but with his accuracy the batsman was on notice from his very first delivery, the other thing I would mention is that before the operations to his shoulder and finger he bowled with a lot of variation and highly notable was that he bowled with bounce the likes we've never seen. I believe it's the accuracy and bounce which created the aura around him. He was leg spinning icon so I think it's a bit harsh to use him as a comparison vs mere mortals like Swann and the likes.
There were and there are great attacking off spinners eg Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin who didn't/ don't bowl to contain.
Still, your post is interesting and food for debate.