Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

49 Chapter Eight West Indian summer By the summer of 1957, Edwin was 23 and an established county cricketer. He had developed his skills over a six-year apprenticeship and had especially adapted them to the changes of the lbw law. When he started his career, the batsman had to be hit on the pads in line of the stumps to be given out lbw, the ball itself having pitched there. It gave little margin for spin and the adaptation of the law, to allow an lbw decision for a ball pitching outside off stump where the batsman had played no shot, was welcomed by off spin bowlers throughout the country, as Edwin explains. On a good wicket, like those at Derby, I would get in close to the stumps and my bowling hand would come over middle stump. If I pitched just outside off stump, I only needed a little turn to get them out lbw, or bowled if they didn’t play it right. If it was turning, I would bowl around the wicket, again aim just outside off stump, but allow the angle to make the batsman play and bring the short legs into the game. I had a lot of success with it, but gradually realised that I needed something more to get out the top batsmen. That ‘something more’ was an arm ball, that was around five years in its creation and became regarded as among the best in the game. Later county stalwart, Alan Hill, maintains that he saw no one bowl a better arm ball than Edwin. It is more often today given the magical name of ‘doosra’, a term that makes Edwin laugh. It is an arm ball variant, nothing more, nothing less. I started working on mine in 1952, in the nets at Derby. I used to take a tin of balls and bowl it, for hour after hour. Essentially, I was turning the seam and letting the ball swing, rather than turn. Turn wasn’t what I wanted. I was looking for a different ball from the stock off spinner. I had a top spinner as well, but that could sometimes turn a little. This arm ball had to swing and put the batsman in two minds, as well as bring the wicket-keeper and slip into play. I worked on it for a long time before I brought a batsman in to face it. Then I bowled it to them, mixing it with the other deliveries I had and didn’t try it in a match until 1957. By that time, I reckoned that I had it perfected and could by and large put it in the right areas whenever I wanted to. A classic example of Edwin’s arm ball came against Worcestershire at