What handed should we teach kids to bat and bowl?

[Toe Crusher]

Not sure if this belongs in this forum or not, but was really wondering, that when kids start learning sports and in this case cricket, how much part should we have in influencing how they play e.g. what handed they should bat and bowl?

my 2 and half year old, I've showed him how to hold a bat right handed, and he's started to swing... but when it comes to bowling, I noticed he can throw right handed but can also throw a little straight with his left hand as well..

now I wonder if we should take them down a certain path.. i.e. would love him to be the next Wasim and left hand great :) but could that impact things like his writing, and using his right (such as traditional things like eating with your right hand)..

I think not, and am sure there are cricketers that bat with one hand and bowl with the other?

thoughts?

[Obeid]

Inzamam was left handed and bowled left handed (both spin and pace in his youth), but batted right handed.

So it seems possible.

Salman Butt was right handed and bowled right handed but was a left handed batsman.

Michael Clarke I believe is also left handed, but bats right handed.

[KingKhanWC]

There are many cricketers who bat with one hand and bowl with the other. Wahab is one who bowls left handed but bats right handed. I was speaking to a coach about this very subject not long ago. His advice was to put the bat on the floor and let the kid pick it up. He would use it in the way which is natural to him.

On a side note, imagine if a batsmen could bat equally as good with both hands? A bit like Ronnie O'Sullivan in snooker, a batsmen who can bat both right handed and left handed would have a significant adavantage as he could change his stance depending the on the bowler and wicket.

[Adnan-KSA]

I Eat and Bat with Right Hand. The Rest is all Left. Even in my Family all are right hander.

[Boi]

I bowl with my left but bat with my right. I'm generally right handed as that is my stronger arm too. Don't know what got me into bowling left handed, but oh well :))

[pakistanalltheway]

my cousin was right handed batsman and bowler. Since we have got older he realized he was crap right handed so he now bats left handed. It took him a few years to bat really good left handed but he got used to it.

[Toe Crusher]

^^^^ so seems there are numerous examples of mixed usage... not necessarily a correlation between the 'lead' hand i.e. for eating, writing etc and how you hold and play with sports equipment i.e. a bat, racket etc... or which hand you bowl with...

so anything wrong with forcing or rather driving them to bowl or bat left handed? (while you would teach all other things with the right hand (eating, writing etc).

[MIG]

My 8yr old is a right handed for all things except batting! Maybe its my fault as I let him bat left handed as it always look more stylish !

However, as he has grown up, he is finding it difficult to hit the ball so I asked him to switch over and he is fine - able to strike the ball.

Left or right handed batsman? Depends on the power

[TheHK16]

let them chose

[Pakhtoon_Rules]

I think teach them football, more money more khushali,more zaramubadila,

Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk

[shokz1408]

I bowl with my right, and am a left handed batsman.

[Toe Crusher]

All those who bowl and bat with different hands, do you remember how you started playing with the 'other' hand (e.g. left handed batting), or is it a case of you've been doing it ever since you can remember? (and perhaps can't remember how)

[TheHK16]

make him bowl with his stronger hand and bat with his weaker

[AlizeeFan]

Players rarely "bowl" with wrong hand. It's generally batting where we see mixed usage. I'm not sure if I have seen any player not bowling with his natural throwing arm. I guess batting is slightly easier to mix as both hands are used and if practiced from young age, one can bat with other arm. Choose left handed batting in that case.

Bowling is always best with the stronger arm.


From Steven Lynch's column

I was playing in a Surrey league match last weekend and one of the opposition bowled right-arm for a while, then told the umpire he was changing his action and bowled very respectably with his left arm for a few more overs. I've never seen this before in many years of playing club cricket. Has it happened in any international match? asked Robert Parrington from Cheam


I don't think this has ever been seriously attempted by anyone in senior international cricket, although there might have been a few instances of someone doing so for a bit of light relief as a draw loomed. I believe that Hanif Mohammad of Pakistan bowled both right- and left-arm in Test cricket, and possibly England's Graham Gooch did too - he sometimes enlivened dead matches by impersonating other bowlers. One instance of it at a representative international level came in 2000, in the Lord's final of the Under-15 World Challenge event held in England that year (West Indies beat Pakistan by two wickets). Pakistan's Mohammad Naeem bowled slow left-arm to right-hand batsmen and right-arm offspin to left-hand batsmen (thus ensuring he was usually turning the ball away from all the batsmen). Sadly Naeem faded away after that - he has never played first-class cricket.

[Poison]

My dad isn't that into cricket and I started playing myself; bowling right handed and batting left handed. There was no parental intervention, just came naturally.

Following the above train of thought ... make your son a left hander. Give me a Saeed over a Misbah any day :anwar

[TheHK16]

teach him to bat and bowl with both hands so if he is struggling he can switch hands and therefore switch angles

[Toe Crusher]

yeah... worth a shot trying different things when impressions can be made at this early stage....

kinda love seeing him trying to run down and bowl with both arms... :)

will try to see what his left hand is like swinging a bat, at the mo am teaching him to grip with his right and also holds rackets with his right...

when it comes to footy, he seems to kick with right... I started off with my left and eventually trained myself on the right and became two footed... though this type of development can happen much later...

[Looney]

whichever comes naturally to them

[Looney]

My dad isn't that into cricket and I started playing myself; bowling right handed and batting left handed. There was no parental intervention, just came naturally.

Following the above train of thought ... make your son a left hander. Give me a Saeed over a Misbah any day :anwar

what about a certain :butt

[Desi_Joker]

Whichever hand they pick their nose from... trust me... it works...

True story. :asif