The rise of `Left-Hand Bat`

by kingraf Thu 10 Jan 2013, 3:36 pm

When Malcolm Marshall and Dennis Lilee crossed the 300 wicket barrier, lefties made up about 15% of their wickets. For Dale Steyn & Glenn McGrath the number is 30%! Where do all these southpaws come from?

by Stella Thu 10 Jan 2013, 3:41 pm

Good question. There do seem to be more now than yesteryear.

by Pete C (Kiwireddevil) Thu 10 Jan 2013, 3:49 pm

Stella wrote:Good question. There do seem to be more now than yesteryear.

Do you think it's a legacy of old-fashioned attitudes to left-handedness in society - when learning to write, I had an old fashioned teacher who insisted on switching my writing hand from left to right, which no longer happens. As a result of the switch I started batting and bowling right handed. I kick left footed though, and when I took up squash a few years back I discovered I was better left handed than right - though in fairness the arm motion of a left-handed backhand is nearly identical to the left-arm part of a right-handed cover drive, my favourite shot.

by Stella Thu 10 Jan 2013, 3:54 pm

I've never come across or heard of a person being asked to write etc right handed, although in Football at least, managers do like a few lefties, so it could work the other way, at least these days. Maybe cricket coaches go out and look for lefties? Sounds to far fetched.

by **seanmichaels** Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:05 pm

If you were a coach and had to choose between 2 equally talented batsmen, one a left hander and one a right hander, who would you give that contract to? Perhaps it is as simple as that.

by Stella Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:06 pm

True but you would have though it's always been like that.

by kingraf Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:07 pm

Stella wrote:I've never come across or heard of a person being asked to write etc right handed, although in Football at least, managers do like a few lefties, so it could work the other way, at least these days. Maybe cricket coaches go out and look for lefties? Sounds to far fetched.

by **seanmichaels** Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:13 pm

Stella wrote:True but you would have though it's always been like that.

Good point! Who would be a famous leftie prior to the likes of Gower, Border, Lara?

by Shelsey93 Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:16 pm

It is a most bizarre phenomenon.

In the cricket I play - Herts Div. 13 - there are probably a handful of lefties in the entire 20-team league. Many left-arm bowlers bat right-handed, but you don't come up across left-handers very often at all. When you do they invariably score an annoying amount of runs.

In international cricket, however, there are now practically as many left-hand batsmen as right-hand batsmen. My only suggestion for a reason would be that they benefit at an early stage from bowling sides not liking bowling at lefties, and that then aids their development.

But otherwise, I don't have a clue.

by Stella Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:16 pm

Sobers, Pollock, Harvey. Maybe not as many?

by kingraf Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:18 pm

Hmm comment broke down there- What I was saying is that I think coaches have also changed their outlook. old school coaches believed if you were left-handed, it was open or bust. I remember in my First year in my school first XI, my coach convinced himself that I had to open. I spent my year batting no lower than 2 or dropped. average that year? 5! The next year I covinced him I am a #3, average that year? 45! Last year it was 79 Battíng at 4!

by Mike Selig Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:22 pm

Graeme Pollock?

A lot of so-called lefties are actually right-handed people who bat left-handed: e.g. of the Australian 7 left-handed batsmen in the recent SL test I think only Starc was a "genuine" leftie - Warner, Hussey, Wade certainly bowl right-handed and I think Hughes, Khawaja and Cowan also throw right handed.

Given that your top-hand should ideally be your strongest hand, I expect this will become more and more prevalent, which is why we see more and more lefties making the grade - simply a lot of right-handers who pick up other sports first (in particular racket sports) will naturally hold the bat in a left-handed way.

As a coach I'm happy to have a leftie to break up the bowling, but I think it's overrated by some (at my level at least) who think it's a vital thing. All you are doing is forcing the bowler to adjust his line, and by having variation in your batsmen you are doing this anyway, so bowlers always have to adjust between batsmen (the Cowan-Warner partnership is a good example of this).

To answer Sean's question "who would i choose?" and assuming fielding is also equal, I would go for the player I think will score more runs (so you are looking at things like mental strength, work ethic, adaptability). I have never come across 2 entirely equivalent players, and I suspect no such thing exists.

by JDizzle Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:28 pm

Not strictly relevant, but Phil Mickelson is actually right handed and he only plays golf as a leftie because when his dad taught him he mirrored everything he did so he had to become left handed.

It's probably never happened to any cricket and doesn't help explain why there are so many leftie's nowadays but I though it was interesting!

It definitely does only seem to be at the top level as well, because as Shelsey said, at village level I barely play against any left handers (batsmen or bowlers).

by **seanmichaels** Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:30 pm

It was a hypothetical question where all facets are equal......

by **seanmichaels** Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:34 pm

In 13 years we've had 2 lefties playing for the 1st team. One was An Aussie who played whilst on holiday for a few weeks, the other a guy who played half a season.

It seems a trend that a lot of overseas players and qualified foreigners tend to be lefties in our league

by Hoggy_Bear Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:35 pm

I do think that a left-handed batsman seem to have more 'angles' against right-handed bowlers than right-handers do. Maybe this allows left-handers to attack a little more (most left-handers, historically, have been viewed as pretty aggressive. Hill, Paynter, Harvey, Pollock, Sobers,Gower, Lara, Jayasuriya, Gilchrist), which may have made left-handers more valuable in a period of one-day cricket and more agressive test match batting.

by Pete C (Kiwireddevil) Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:36 pm

JDizzle wrote:Not strictly relevant, but Phil Mickelson is actually right handed and he only plays golf as a leftie because when his dad taught him he mirrored everything he did so he had to become left handed.

It's probably never happened to any cricket and doesn't help explain why there are so many leftie's nowadays but I though it was interesting!

It definitely does only seem to be at the top level as well, because as Shelsey said, at village level I barely play against any left handers (batsmen or bowlers).

You get the odd interesting combination. Richard Hadlee bowled right arm, batted left handed, and played golf right handed.

by kingraf Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:36 pm

Interesting Mike- you say your bowling hand reveals which hand you are, as well as that most people are top-hand dominant So I have two questions- I bowl right-arm, but I shoot left, play golf left, tennis left and write left, am I right-handed? Im aware of genuinely right-handed people who convert, but It does not explain such #s. Second, that top hand bit doesnt seem to apply to right-handers, why?

by **Biltong** Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:38 pm

I batted left handed. But then I was decidedly poor, so I guess that doesn't count. Cry

by Stella Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:40 pm

Biltong wrote:I batted left handed. But then I was decidedly poor, so I guess that doesn't count.

Is that you Dean Elgar?

by **Biltong** Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:41 pm

Maybe...

by kingraf Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:45 pm

I do though think people who play racket sports are more likely to be skilled at reverse-sweeps and switch hitting- Kallis played squash and I havent ever seen miss a reverse, while ABDV played tennis at a high level, and can do whatever he wants.

by Stella Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:50 pm

I think most sportsmen/women are good at other similar sports............the b.......s

by kingraf Thu 10 Jan 2013, 4:56 pm

True, but I really have no other explaination as to how else ABDV toyed with Steyn in THAT over in IPL 5. Otherwise Im going back to my theory of AB being an ET.

by JDizzle Thu 10 Jan 2013, 5:22 pm

Pete C (Kiwireddevil) wrote:
JDizzle wrote:Not strictly relevant, but Phil Mickelson is actually right handed and he only plays golf as a leftie because when his dad taught him he mirrored everything he did so he had to become left handed.

It's probably never happened to any cricket and doesn't help explain why there are so many leftie's nowadays but I though it was interesting!

It definitely does only seem to be at the top level as well, because as Shelsey said, at village level I barely play against any left handers (batsmen or bowlers).

You get the odd interesting combination. Richard Hadlee bowled right arm, batted left handed, and played golf right handed.

I think when the whole KP switch hit controversy was in full flow, I am sure I heard he could only play it so well because he plays golf left handed. I think the answer is that some people are just freaks.

by Mike Selig Thu 10 Jan 2013, 5:47 pm

kingraf wrote:Interesting Mike- you say your bowling hand reveals which hand you are, as well as that most people are top-hand dominant So I have two questions- I bowl right-arm, but I shoot left, play golf left, tennis left and write left, am I right-handed? Im aware of genuinely right-handed people who convert, but It does not explain such #s. Second, that top hand bit doesnt seem to apply to right-handers, why?

Probably you're left-handed (tennis is probably a better guide than bowling, and writing is a good guide, although can be taught, but I doubt many get taught to write right-handed - I wouldn't take too much notice of golf) , and your bowling right handed is just a quirk.

Which hand do you throw with? I am fairly sure I'm right handed and I find I can bowl and bat with either hand reasonably, and even play the odd tennis shot and ping-pong left-handed but throwing left-handed feels incredibly awkward...

To answer your second question, a right-handed person who bats right-handed will usually be bottom-hand dominant if everything. But the thinking at the moment is very much that your top hand controls a lot of your batting, so it may be an advantage to bat with the opposite hand.

Hussey was right-handed in his very young days as a batsman, but switched to left-handed because he wanted to bat like AB.

Actually some studies have suggested that in some sports because your muscle memory is transmitted via your left-hand side, lefties have an inherent advantage. However that would suggest that it is in fact right-handed batsmen who are at an advantage, as their left-hand side is the forward one. This is very green research and I'm not sure how reliable it is.

by Pete C (Kiwireddevil) Thu 10 Jan 2013, 6:05 pm

I remember hearing one theory a few years back that if you had one eye significantly stronger than the other you were best to bat to position that eye closer to the bowler (so bat right handed if left eye dominant etc).

Which we all scoffed a little at

by Mike Selig Thu 10 Jan 2013, 6:08 pm

Surely your eyes are parallel so roughly equidistant from the bowler (if anything the right eye is slightly closer for a right-handed batsman to a right-arm over bowler who isn't Malinga).

by Pete C (Kiwireddevil) Thu 10 Jan 2013, 6:28 pm

Mike Selig wrote:Surely your eyes are parallel so roughly equidistant from the bowler (if anything the right eye is slightly closer for a right-handed batsman to a right-arm over bowler who isn't Malinga).

Hence why we scoffed. I think someone had seen a pic of someone standing side on in their stance and looking out to point.

by guildfordbat Thu 10 Jan 2013, 6:34 pm

When I was playing schoolboy cricket in the '60s, there was a fairly common perception that it was more difficult to have an lbw appeal upheld against a left handed batsman than a right hander. Not convinced that should have been the case but it often seemed to be so!

by kingraf Thu 10 Jan 2013, 7:47 pm

Guildford- Its still true today! I have only been adjuged Leg-before three times, wether at school, club, or regional. This is probably due to me standing at leg, but there have been many times where I almost felt like walking away (opening is a freakin mission), only to see the umpire not even ponder it. Scored a pretty big hundred as thanks a few times. Even as an offie, I have never trapped a leftie. I think umpires have difficulty looking at the change in angles.

by Corporalhumblebucket Thu 10 Jan 2013, 10:25 pm

Answer to original question - well known that left handers are naturally more creative. Very Happy

(And of course more people are left handed now that stigma against it has gone.)

by dummy_half Fri 11 Jan 2013, 11:12 am

Some interesting stuff here - I guess some people are pretty much ambidexterous*

Personally, I'm very right side dominant, and while I can bat a little left handed the positioning of my feet feels wrong - however, it could be that this is as much about practice as about 'nature'. Also, I'm quite short (1.70m) so used to play a lot of cut and pull shots, where having the right hand low on the handle helps with power and control. I was also quite strong through mid wicket/square leg and was weakest between cover point and mid-off, which fits with Mike's ideas.

I think throwing is really the thing that reveals handedness, as it tends to be an action you learn as a child before any coaching interferes (unlike with batting and bowling). My understanding (as a new parent) is that handedness doesn't really establish itself until between about 2 and 3 years old, and certainly my 10 month old daughter as yet seems to just use whichever hand is more convenient for picking things up rather than favouring either (both me and my wife are right handed, although my brother and her dad are both pretty much ambidexterous).

* The recently published QI book of facts introduced me to my new favourite word: Ambisinistrous. Means equally useless with either hand...

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