Googly

The googly is not a variation of the typical off spin type of delivery, in that the cricket ball is presented from the bowler's hand in such a way that once the ball pitches; instead, it deviates in the opposite direction of a leg spinning type of delivery (i.e. towards the leg stump rather than the off stump).

He first employed it in July 1900, during the second innings of a County Championship match between Middlesex and Leicestershire at Lord's.

The bowler achieves this change of spin by bending the wrist sharply from the normal leg break delivery position.

When the ball rolls out of the hand (from the side near the little finger, as in a normal leg break), it emerges with a clockwise spin (from the bowler's point of view).

Together with rotation of the wrist, the index and middle fingers are involved in imparting spin on the ball and can achieve a very high number of revolutions.

As with the more conventional grip, all the various deliveries can be bowled with the same level of success and the wrist and fingers must also be relaxed.

In a scene from John Boorman's 1987 film Hope and Glory, David Hayman plays a father who, before leaving to fight in WWII, passes on "the secret of the googly" to his young son.