The Googly: Cricket's Most Deceptive Spin Delivery
The googly's invention, its history, and how it works — the leg spin delivery that turns the opposite way to deceive batters worldwide since the early 1900s.
Who Invented the Googly
BJT Bosanquet invented the googly around 1897 while experimenting with a billiard ball. He refined it at Middlesex and England, first using it internationally in 1903. South Africans became so enamoured with the delivery that their players invented their own word for it — 'bosie' — still used in Australia today.
How a Googly Is Bowled
A standard leg-break is bowled with the wrist rotating so the fingers come over the top, spinning the ball from leg to off. A googly reverses this — the wrist turns further, releasing the ball from under the hand with the fingers going underneath, creating the opposite spin direction. The delivery looks identical to a leg-break out of the hand, making it exceptionally hard to detect.
Great Googly Bowlers in History
Shane Warne could bowl a googly but rarely used it — he preferred his mastery of the stock leg-break and variations. Anil Kumble bowled a top-spinning googly. More recently, Adil Rashid of England and Yuzvendra Chahal of India are among the most effective googly bowlers in white-ball cricket. Pakistan's Shadab Khan uses it as a match-winning weapon.
Detecting the Googly as a Batter
Elite batters try to pick the googly from the wrist position at point of delivery — the tell is a slight extra turn and the seam pointing toward slip rather than leg side. But the best googly bowlers disguise it so well that even after years at the highest level, batters often admit they cannot consistently pick it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a googly and a doosra?
A googly is a leg-spinner's off-break — bowled with the wrong wrist action by a leg-spin bowler. A doosra is an off-spinner's leg-break — the off-spin bowler's equivalent, turning the opposite way to the standard off-break. Both confuse batters by breaking in the unexpected direction.
Can left-handed bowlers bowl a googly?
Yes — for a left-arm wrist spinner (chinaman bowler), the equivalent of the googly is a ball that turns from leg to off for a right-handed batter. The delivery is sometimes called a wrong-un and is one of the rarest deliveries in professional cricket.