Thursday, March 09, 2006

Don’t let on that tennis balls are for girls




US President George W Bush was hit by a ball at the heavily-guarded US embassy in Pakistan - as he tried his hand at the country's national sport, cricket.

The baseball-loving leader was shown how to bat and bowl by members of Pakistan's national team, using tennis balls instead of harder cricket balls.

"I don't quite have the skills yet," Mr Bush said later, when asked if he had enjoyed his first brush with the game.

He hit two deliveries from the crease, and was struck on the shoulder by one.
The US leader has been touring India and Pakistan.

Cricket remains an obsession in both countries, where the sport - introduced by the British more than a century ago - is a spur for national pride and fierce regional rivalry.

The Pakistani captain said the president had been looking for "a comparison between cricket and baseball".

Mr Bush told a dinner party on Saturday that he had been bowled over by a "googly" - a type of ball where the bowler seeks to surprise the batsman.


As I’m sure everybody is perfectly well aware, a googly is an off-break disguised as a leg-break bowled with a wrist-spin action by a right-arm leg-spin bowler to a right-handed batsman.

Not to be confused, of course, with a chinaman, which is also an off-break bowled with a wrist-spin action to a right-handed batsman, but by a left-arm unorthodox wrist spin bowler.

And only the greenest schoolboy could mix up either of these with the doosra, which is a leg-break disguised as an off-break bowled with a finger-spinning action to the right-handed batsman by an orthodox right-arm off-spin bowler.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

What about the spitball?

Nice advert for the Daily Duck!