Asit - thanks for that article. It was a most informative read. Many nuggets of information for the uninitiated and the initiated alike. My comments such as they are :
1) There was a tantalizing comparison between Cricket and Baseball. But that section appears to be left wide open and sort of incomplete to me. Did you want to go ahead and conclude in favour of one or the other game?
As an avid cricketer and a fan and also somebody who has played some baseball in the US, consider me properly biased towards cricket. But in my mind there is no comparison. Cricket requires far more skill.
The 'natural actions' aspect was very interesting. Take for example basketball. It is not natural for people to do the actions that a sport like basketball demands. Nor volleyball or any number of others. I hope cricket's actions not being natural are not held against it.
One small note - cricket does not require for a bowler to start with a fully stretched out arm. He can start with a bent arm, he can even finish his action with a bent arm. What he cannot do is straighten it at the point of delivery.
2) I personally use what I consider tennis logic for my batting grip. The objective is to use both hands to cover as much territory on the bat as possible - without losing traction on the bat handle as such. This would necessarily mean that the two hands are not held close together.
In fact I do not believe that modern coaching is done that way. Players are asked to maintain optimum distance between hands and fingers for both ease when swinging as also to even out the impact and even to promote a sense of timing in budding players.
Lastly, cricket is such a complex and involved game that a talk on grip has to be complemented by talks on stance, backlift and shot execution. In fact all these three along with the grip are what determine a batsman - in his totality. For example, a closed grip does not go with an open stance and so on so forth. The person holding both his hands close together cannot have a stance where he holds his bat high even before the bowler releases the ball (a la Graham Gooch).
I am really enjoying this stimulating conversation and consequently have exceeded the maximum allotted time with the laptop as per house orders
. Never mind though.
