1.
Bowling (cricket)
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In the sport of cricket bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batsman. A player skilled at bowling is called a bowler, a bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder, Bowling the ball is distinguished from throwing the ball by a strictly specified biomechanical definition which restricts the angle of extension of the elbow. A single act of bowling the ball towards the batsman is called a ball or a delivery, bowlers bowl deliveries in sets of six, called an over. Once a bowler has bowled their over, one of their mates will bowl an over from the other end of the pitch. The Laws of Cricket govern how a ball must be bowled, if a ball is bowled illegally, an umpire will rule it a no ball. If a ball is bowled too wide of the striker for the batsman to be able to play at it with a cricket shot. A spin bowler delivers the ball quite slowly and puts spin on the ball. In the early days of cricket, underarm bowling was the method employed. Many theories exist about the origins of cricket, one suggests that the game began among shepherds hitting a stone or a ball of wool with their crooks and, at the same time, defending the wicket gate into the sheep-fold. A second theory suggests the name came from a low stool known as a cricket in England, there is also a reference to criquet in North-East France in 1478 and evidence that the game evolved in South-East England in the Middle Ages. In 1706 William Goldwyn published the first description of the game and he wrote that two teams were first seen carrying their curving bats to the venue, choosing a pitch and arguing over the rules to be played. They pitched two sets of wickets, each with a milk-white bail perched on two stumps, toss a coin for first knock, the called play and the leathern orb was bowled. They had four-ball overs, the umpires leant on their staves, the first written Laws of Cricket were drawn up in 1744. They stated, the principals shall choose from amongst the present two umpires who shall absolutely decide all disputes. The stumps must be 22 inches high and the bail across them six inches, the ball must be between 5 &6 ounces, and the two sets of stumps 22 yards apart. There were no limits on the shape or size of the bat and it appears that 40 notches was viewed as a very big score, probably due to the bowlers bowling quickly at shins unprotected by pads. The worlds first cricket club was formed in Hambledon in the 1760s, during the 1760s and 1770s it became common to pitch the ball through the air, rather than roll it along the ground. This innovation gave bowlers the weapons of length, deception through the air and it also opened new possibilities for spin and swerve
2.
Spin bowling
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Spin bowling is a bowling technique in cricket and the bowler is referred to as a spinner. The speed the ball travels is not critical, and is slower than that for fast bowling. A typical spin delivery has a speed in the range 70–90 km/h, there is virtually no overlap between the two basic biomechanical techniques of wrist spin and finger spin. Off break – Right-handed with finger spin technique, left-arm orthodox spin – Left-handed with finger spin technique. Leg break – Right-handed with wrist spin technique, left-arm unorthodox spin – Left-handed with wrist spin technique. Depending on technique, a spin bowler uses either predominant wrist or finger motion to impart spin to the ball around an axis that is at an oblique angle to the length of the pitch. This sort of spin means it is possible for the Magnus effect to cause the ball to deviate sideways through the air. The combination of drift and spin can make the balls trajectory complex and this variety of trajectories achievable by a spin bowler can bewilder inexperienced or poor batsmen. Spin bowlers are generally given the task of bowling with an old, a new cricket ball better suits the techniques of fast bowling than spin bowling, while a worn one grips the pitch better and achieves greater spin. Spin bowlers are more effective later in a game, as the pitch dries up and begins to crack. This again provides more purchase for the ball and produces greater deviation. Both finger spin and wrist spin bowlers use a range of different angles of spin to confuse the batsman, many of these variations have direct equivalents in the other discipline, but the names used for the various deliveries may be different. In recent times, spin bowling has been a forte of the bowlers from the South Asian sub-continent, the primary reason for that is that the pitches in the sub-continent provide more help to the spin bowlers. The faster the pitch degenerates, the earlier the spinners come into the picture, australian and South African pitches are usually very hard and bouncy, helping the fast bowlers more. They do not break up very much during the duration of the match, in contrast, pitches in the sub-continent are not that hard. They are not usually held together by the grass as much, hence they break up more quickly, in general, leg-spinis considered to be one of the toughest types of bowling in which to keep control of the ball, but it is very effective in picking off wickets. It is customary among cricket commentators to describe and judge the quality of spin bowling in terms of the flight, turn, bounce, drift. All these are arts to deceive the batsman and require lots of practice, the basic trajectory of spin bowling is two-lines-at-an-angle, but the above characteristics modify this normal trajectory into more complex shapes
3.
Cricket
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Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket at each end. One team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a number of overs have been completed, the innings ends. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, at the start of each game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play. The striker takes guard on a crease drawn on the four feet in front of the wicket. His role is to prevent the ball hitting the stumps by use of his bat. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the end of the pitch near the bowler. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces him, the bowlers objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. An over is a set of six deliveries bowled by the same bowler, the next over is bowled from the other end of the pitch by a different bowler. If a fielder retrieves the ball enough to put down the wicket with a batsman not having reached the crease at that end of the pitch. Adjudication is performed on the field by two umpires, the laws of cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council and the Marylebone Cricket Club. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball. Although crickets origins are uncertain, it is first recorded in south-east England in the 16th century and it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the mid-19th century. ICC, the governing body, has over 100 members. The sport is followed primarily in Australasia, Britain, the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa, womens cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. A number of words have been suggested as sources for the term cricket, in the earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598 it is called creckett. One possible source for the name is the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, in Samuel Johnsons Dictionary, he derived cricket from cryce, Saxon, a stick
4.
W. G. Grace
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William Gilbert W. G. Grace, MRCS, LRCP was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest-ever players. Universally known as W. G. Right-handed as both batsman and bowler, Grace dominated the sport during his career and his technical innovations and enormous influence left a lasting legacy. An outstanding all-rounder, he excelled at all the skills of batting, bowling and fielding. He is held to have invented modern batsmanship, usually opening the innings, he was particularly admired for his mastery of all strokes, and his level of expertise was said by contemporary reviewers to be unique. He generally captained the teams he played for at all levels because of his skill, Grace came from a cricketing family, E. M. Grace was one of his elder brothers and Fred Grace his younger brother. In 1880, they were members of the same England team, Grace took part in other sports also, he was a champion 440-yard hurdler as a young man and played football for the Wanderers. In later life, he developed enthusiasm for golf, lawn bowls and he qualified as a medical practitioner in 1879. Because of his profession, he was nominally an amateur cricketer. He was a competitive player and, although he was one of the most famous men in England, he was also one of the most controversial on account of his gamesmanship. W. G. Grace was born in Downend, near Bristol, on 18 July 1848 at his parents home, Downend House, and was baptised at the local church on 8 August. He was called Gilbert in the circle, except by his mother who called him Willie. His parents were Henry Mills Grace and Martha, who were married in Bristol on Thursday,3 November 1831 and lived out their lives at Downend, where Henry Grace was the local GP. Downend is near Mangotsfield and, although it is now a suburb of Bristol, it was then a village surrounded by countryside. Henry and Martha Grace had nine children in all, the number as Victoria and Albert –. Grace was the child in the family, he had three older brothers, including E. M. and four older sisters. Only Fred, born in 1850, was younger than W. G. Grace began his Cricketing Reminiscences by answering a question he had frequently been asked, i. e. was he born a cricketer. His answer was in the negative because he believed that cricketers are made by coaching and practice, though he adds that if he was not born a cricketer and his father and mother were full of enthusiasm for the game and it was a common theme of conversation at home. All nine children in the Grace family, including the four daughters, were encouraged to play cricket although the girls, Grace claimed that he first handled a cricket bat at the age of two
5.
John Major
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Sir John Major, KG, CH, PC is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. A cabinet minister from 1987, he served Margaret Thatcher in the Treasury, Major was Member of Parliament for Huntingdon from 1979 to 2001. He is currently the oldest living former Prime Minister, following the death of Thatcher on 8 April 2013, at the beginning of his premiership, Major presided over British participation in the Gulf War in March 1991 and negotiated the Maastricht Treaty in December 1991. Shortly after this, even though a supporter of the ERM. This event led to a loss of confidence in Conservative economic policies, Major went on to lose the 1997 general election months later, in one of the largest electoral defeats since the Great Reform Act of 1832. After defeat, Major resigned as Prime Minister and was succeeded as Leader of the Conservative Party by William Hague and he went on to retire from active politics, leaving the House of Commons at the 2001 general election. Major was born in 1943 at St Helier Hospital in Sutton, Surrey and he was christened John Roy Major but only John was recorded on his birth certificate. He used his name until the early 1980s. He attended primary school at Cheam Common and from 1954 he attended Rutlish School, in 1955, with his fathers garden ornaments business in decline, the family moved to Brixton. He also credited a chance meeting with former Prime Minister Clement Attlee on the Kings Road shortly afterwards, Major left school at the age of 16 in 1959 with three O-levels in History, English Language and English Literature. He later gained three more O-levels by correspondence course, in the British Constitution, Mathematics and Economics, Majors first job was as a clerk in the insurance brokerage firm Pratt & Sons in 1959. Major joined the Young Conservatives in Brixton at this time, Major was almost 19 years old when his father died at the age of 82 on 27 March 1962. His mother died eight and a years later in September 1970 at the age of 65. After Major became Prime Minister it was misreported that his failure to get a job as a bus conductor resulted from his failing to pass a maths test and he had in fact passed all of the necessary tests but had been passed over owing to his height. After a period of unemployment, Major started working at the London Electricity Board in 1963 which is incidentally his successor as Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He later decided to undertake a course in banking. Major took up a post as an executive at the Standard Chartered Bank in May 1965 and he was sent to work in Jos, Nigeria, by the bank in 1967 and he nearly died in a car accident there. Major was interested in politics from an early age, encouraged by fellow Conservative Derek Stone, he started giving speeches on a soap-box in Brixton Market
6.
Lord's
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Lords, also known as Lords Cricket Ground, is a cricket venue in St Johns Wood, London. Lords is widely referred to as the Home of Cricket and is home to the worlds oldest sporting museum, Lords today is not on its original site, being the third of three grounds that Lord established between 1787 and 1814. His first ground, now referred to as Lords Old Ground, was where Dorset Square now stands and his second ground, Lords Middle Ground, was used from 1811 to 1813 before being abandoned to make way for the construction through its outfield of the Regents Canal. The present Lords ground is about 250 yards north-west of the site of the Middle Ground, the ground can hold 28,000 spectators. Proposals are being developed to increase capacity and amenity, as of December 2013, it was proposed to redevelop the ground at a cost of around £200 million over a 14-year period. The current ground celebrated its two hundredth anniversary in 2014, to mark the occasion, on 5 July an MCC XI captained by Sachin Tendulkar played a Rest of the World XI led by Shane Warne in a 50 overs match. The White Conduit moved there from Islington soon afterwards and reconstituted themselves as Marylebone Cricket Club, in 1811, feeling obliged to relocate because of a rise in rent, Lord removed his turf and relaid it at his second ground. This was short-lived because it lay on the route decided by Parliament for the Regents Canal, the Middle Ground was on the estate of the Eyre family, who offered Lord another plot nearby, and he again relocated his turf. The new ground, on the present site, was opened in the 1814 season, the earliest known match was MCC v Hertfordshire on 22 June 1814. This is not rated a first-class match, MCC won by an innings and 27 runs. The annual Eton v Harrow match was first played on the Old Ground in 1805, there is no record of the fixture being played again until 29 July 1818, when it was held at the present Lords ground for the first time, Harrow won by 13 runs. From 1822, the fixture has been almost an annual event at Lords, in 1987 the new Mound Stand, designed by Michael Hopkins and Partners, was opened, followed by the Grandstand in 1996. Most notably, the Media Centre was added in 1998-9, it won The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize for 1999, the ground can currently hold up to 28,000 spectators. The two ends of the pitch are the Pavilion End, where the members pavilion is located. The main survivor from the Victorian era is the Pavilion, with its famous Long Room and this historic landmark— a Grade II*-listed building— underwent an £8 million refurbishment programme in 2004–05. The pavilion is primarily for members of MCC, who may use its amenities, which include seats for viewing the cricket, the Long Room and its Bar, the Bowlers Bar, at Middlesex matches the Pavilion is open to members of the Middlesex County Club. The Pavilion also contains the rooms where players change, each of which has a small balcony for players to watch the play. The only cricketer to hit a ball over the pavilion was Albert Trott, another highly visible feature of the ground is Old Father Time, a weather vane in the shape of Father Time, currently adorning a stand on the south-east side of the field
7.
Lasith Malinga
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Separamadu Lasith Malinga is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer and 2014 ICC World Twenty20 winning captain. He was the captain of Twenty20 International side for Sri Lanka, until 7 March 2016, on 22 April 2011, he announced his retirement from Test cricket. He bowls around a speed of 140 km/h and his fastest ball was clocked at 155.7 km/h in 2011, which is still tied for the 4th fastest speed amongst active bowlers as of 3 January 2015. Malinga is known for his ability to bowl yorkers and slower bowls to restrict scoring in the overs of games. He is the second highest wicket taker in all Twenty20 cricket just after Dwayne Bravo, Malinga grew up in modest circumstances in Rathgama, a coastal village situated 12 km northwest of Galle. He often played cricket with friends on the banks and coconut groves by a river in his cricket-obsessed village. He had his education at three schools, namely Mahinda College, Galle, Vidyaloka College, Galle and Vidyathilake Vidyalaya, Malinga had his primary education at Vidyathilake Vidyalaya in Thiranagama, a school situated near by his village. After passing the grade 5 Scholarship Examination in 1993, he entered Vidyaloka College, Galle for his secondary education, here Malinga was discovered by former Sri Lankan paceman Champaka Ramanayake. Champaka, so impressed by Malingas raw ability, invited him to join the Galle Cricket Club, Champaka also helped him to join the first XI cricket team of Mahinda College, Galle. A short-lived attempt to make Malingas action more upright led to much reduced pace, Malinga promptly returned to his natural action with success, and with great encouragement from Ramanayake. Malingas action has attracted great comment, the cricket reference text Wisden has noted that Malingas delivery action is similar to slinging. Resulting to his nickname Slinga Malinga, Malinga has said that his unique round-arm bowling action was a result of learning to play cricket exclusively with a tennis ball. Typically, younger bowlers are encouraged to deliver the ball with their arm near vertical to remove or reduce direction variables, Malinga made his Test debut on 1 July 2004 against Australia at Marrara Oval In Darwin. He developed into Sri Lankas fastest Test bowler and a member of both their Test and One Day International sides. He has earned a reputation for troubling batsmen with his lively pace and he regularly bowls at speeds between 140 and 150 km/h and sometimes slightly faster. As time went by he started to lose pace clocking around 130 to 140 km/h and his slower off cutter was also menacing. He burst onto the test scene after ripping through the New Zealand top order and he announced his retirement from Test cricket on 22 April 2011 in order to prolong his career in ODI and T20 cricket. Malinga made his ODI debut in Sri Lankas opening match of the 2004 Asia Cup against the United Arab Emirates, easily winning the match by 116 runs, Malinga took the wicket of the Emirati captain, Khurram Khan to the finish the match with figures of 1/39
8.
Marylebone Cricket Club
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Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London, founded in 1787. It owns, and is based at, Lords in St Johns Wood, MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket both in England and Wales as well as worldwide. In 1993 many of its functions were transferred to the International Cricket Council and its English governance passed to the Test. MCC revised the Laws of Cricket in 1788 and continues to reissue them, since its foundation, the club has raised its own teams which are essentially occasional and have never taken part in any formal competition. Depending on the quality of the opposition in any match, MCC teams have held important match status from 1787 to 1894. MCC has never played in a List A match, MCC teams play many matches against minor opposition and, on these occasions, they relinquish their first-class status. Traditionally, to mark the beginning of each English season in April, MCC plays the reigning County Champions at Lords, the exact date of MCCs foundation is lost but seems to have been sometime in the late spring or the summer of 1787. Many of its members became dissatisfied with the surroundings and complained that the site was too public. They asked Thomas Lord, a bowler at the White Conduit, to secure a more private venue within easy distance of London. When Lord opened his new ground in May 1787, the White Conduit moved there, there was a match at Lords starting on 30 July 1787 titled Marylebone Cricket Club v White Conduit Club. The England touring team wore the red and yellow stripes of the Marylebone Cricket Club as their colours for the last time on the tour to New Zealand in 1996/97. The true provenance of MCCs colours is unknown, but its players often turned out sporting Sky Blue, until well into the 19th century. Another theory, which chimes with the origins, is that MCC borrowed its colours from the livery colours of a founding patron, Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond. Although MCC remains the framer and copyright holder of the Laws of Cricket, in recent times the ICC has begun instituting changes to match regulations without much consultation with MCC. Also, in moving its location from Lords to Dubai, the ICC gave a signal of breaking with the past and from MCC, changes to the laws of cricket are still made by the MCC. Any changes to these require a resolution of the MCC committee. MCC has long had an involvement in coaching the game of cricket. As of 2013 the clubs head coach Mark Alleyne heads an operation involving the running of an indoor-cricket school
9.
Fast bowling
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Fast bowling is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners are usually known as fast or pace bowlers, quicks and they also often referred to as swing or seam bowlers to reflect their preferred fast bowling technique. A typical fast delivery has a speed in the range of 137–153 km/h, most fast bowlers will specialise in one of these two areas and will sometimes be categorised as swing or seam bowler. For simplicity, it is common to subdivide fast bowlers according to the speed of their deliveries. There is a degree of subjectivity in the usage of terms, for example, Cricinfo uses the terms fast-medium and medium-fast interchangeably. For comparison, most spin bowlers in professional cricket bowl at speeds of 70 to 90 km/h. The image to the shows the correct grip. The first two fingers and the thumb should hold the ball forward of the rest of the hand, the ball is held quite loosely so that it leaves the hand easily. Other grips are possible, and result in different balls – see swing, the bowler usually holds their other hand over the hand gripping the ball until the latest possible moment so that the batsman cannot see what type of ball is being bowled. A fast bowler needs to take a longer run-up toward the wicket than a spinner, due to the need to generate the momentum, fast bowlers will measure their preferred run up in strides and mark the distance from the wicket. It is important for the bowler to know exactly how long his or her run-up is because it must terminate behind the popping crease, at the end of the run-up the bowler will bring his lead foot down on the pitch with the knee as straight as possible. This aids in generating speed but can be due to the pressure placed on the joint by this action. Knee injuries are not uncommon amongst fast bowlers, for example, the pressure on the leading foot is such that some fast bowlers cut the front off their shoes to stop their toes from being injured as they are repeatedly pressed against the inside of the shoe. The bowler will bring their bowling arm up over their head. Again, the arm must be straight although this is a stipulation of the laws of cricket rather than an aid to speed, bending the elbow and chucking the ball would make it too easy for the bowler to aim accurately at the batsmans wicket and get them out. Fast bowlers tend to have an action that leaves them either side-on or chest-on at the end of the run up, west Indian bowler Malcolm Marshall was a classic example of a chest-on bowler, while Australian pace bowler Dennis Lillee used a side-on technique to great effect. While a bowlers action does not affect their bowling speed, it can limit the style of balls that they can bowl, although this is not a hard and fast rule, side-on bowlers generally bowl outswingers, and chest-on bowlers generally bowl inswingers. A variant on the fast bowlers action is the sling, where the bowler begins his delivery with his or her arm extended behind their back
10.
Alfred Mynn
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Alfred Mynn was an English cricketer during the games Roundarm Era. He was a genuine all-rounder, being both an attacking right-handed batsman and a right arm fast bowler. The noted cricket writer John Woodcock ranked him as the fourth greatest cricketer of all time, simon Wilde wrote of him, The speed at which Mynn bowled. and his life-size personality captured the imagination of the public in a way no cricketer had before. Mynn was born at Twisden, near Goudhurst in Kent, the son of a gentleman farmer. He was a hop farmer, and was married to Sarah and they had many children, five of his daughters survived to adulthood and Sarah Mynn outlived her husband by twenty years. He was a large man by any standard, bearing comparison with WG Grace. He was well over six feet tall and weighed more than 21 stones. He was known as the Lion of Kent and it was for Kent that most of his greatest feats occurred, though he played a substantial number of matches for Sussex, MCC. His brother, Walter Parker Mynn, was also a cricketer with the Kent team. Alfred Mynns first-class career, which excludes most of his AEE appearances, was from 1832 to 1859 and he played in 213 first-class matches. As a batsman he had 395 innings including 26 which were not out and he scored 4,955 runs at 13.42 with a highest score of 125*. He made only one century, scored for South v North at Leicester in 1836, as a bowler he was fast with a round arm action. With his arm never getting above shoulder height he was obliged to bowl around the wicket, william Caffyn described the field Mynn would bowl to. The wicket keeper would be stood up, as was the custom, there would be a long stop on the boundary behind him. There would two slips, one close in and one a fly slip, point was slightly forward and cover point almost behind him. There would be a leg and a long leg. Mid off and mid on were level with the wicket and no one was behind them. Mynn suffered an injury before the famous 1836 match
11.
Bouncer (cricket)
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In the sport of cricket, a bouncer is a type of delivery, usually bowled by a fast bowler. Bouncers are used tactically to drive the batsman back on to his back if he has been freely playing front foot scoring shots. To this end, bouncers are usually directed more or less at the line of the batsmans body, aiming at the batsmans head without bouncing on the pitch, known as a beamer, is illegal. A batsman may play a bouncer in either a defensive or an attacking way, if the batsman plays it defensively he aims primarily to avoid getting out, and secondarily to avoid being hit by the ball. For a head-high bouncer, these goals are achieved most easily by ducking under the ball, sometimes the batsman will need to jump into the air to gain the necessary height to defend with the bat. He may also sway out of the way, given these approaches, the bowler can hope to both intimidate the batsman somewhat, and possibly have the ball deflect off the bat at an awkward angle and produce a catch for a nearby fielder. Conversely, the bouncer can be a very productive ball for the batsman, the shot that is used to attack the bouncer is the hook shot. To play the shot the batsman moves his back foot backwards and towards the off side as the ball is being delivered. As the ball approaches, the batsman swivels from facing the off side to facing the leg side, the batsmans aim is to hit the ball at high speed towards, into or over the leg side boundary. However, despite their potential, hook shots frequently lead to wickets falling, particularly through balls hitting the top edge of the bat. Breaking of this rule can lead to bouncer wars – that is and these laws take into account the relative skill of the batsmen. During the 1970s to 1980s, bouncers were used as part of a teams intimidatory tactics, in 1991, the International Cricket Council introduced a one bouncer per batsman per over rule in an attempt to discourage use of intimidation. The ICC changed it to two bouncers per over in 1994, with a two-run no-ball penalty if the bowler exceeded two bouncers an over, the ICC reverted again to one bouncer per over in 2001. On 29 October 2012 the ICC increased the number of bouncers that could be bowled during a One Day International to two, the number of bouncers per over allowed in T20s was kept to one. This controversial tactic caused the Laws of Cricket to be reformed to prevent any recurrence, in 1954–55 in Sydney, England fast bowler Frank Tyson bowled bouncers at Australian Ray Lindwall, who returned the favour by hospitalising Tyson with one of his own. An angry Tyson returned with a lump on his head. In 1994 at the Oval Devon Malcolm was hit on the helmet by a bouncer from Fanie de Villiers, the incensed Malcolm told the South Africans You guys are history and took apart their second innings with 9/57. The bouncer is a delivery and the very nature of the delivery by a fast bowler and aimed at the head can lead to batsmen being hit in the chest
12.
Knuckleball
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A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the causes the ball to transition from laminar to turbulent flow. This transition adds a deflecting force on the side of the baseball, the origins of the knuckleball are unclear. Other accounts attribute the creation to Charles H. Druery. In 1917, Druery taught the pitch to Eddie Rommel who became successful with the knuckleball for the Philadelphia Athletics, as used by Cicotte, the knuckleball was originally thrown by holding the ball with the knuckles, hence the name of the pitch. Ed Summers, a Pittsburgh teammate of Cicotte who adopted the pitch and helped develop it, modified this by holding the ball with his fingertips and this grip can also include digging the fingernails into the surface of the ball. The fingertip grip is commonly used today by knuckleball pitchers, like retired Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield. There are other prominent knuckleball pitchers like Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, who had a very effective knuckler and knuckle curve, however, young pitchers with smaller hands tend to throw the knuckleball with their knuckles. Sometimes young players will throw the knuckleball with their knuckles flat against the ball, giving it less spin, regardless of how the ball is gripped, the purpose of the knuckleball is to have the least amount of rotational spin as possible. The asymmetric drag that results tends to deflect the trajectory toward the side with the stitches. Over the distance from the mound to home plate, the effect of these forces is that the knuckleball can flutter, dance, jiggle. A pitch thrown completely without spin is less desirable, however and this will cause the position of the stitches to change as the ball travels, which changes the drag that gives the ball its motion, thus making its flight even more erratic. Even a ball thrown without rotation will flutter, due to the apparent wind it feels as its trajectory changes throughout its flight path. Hitting a knuckleball is different enough from other aspects of baseball that players specifically prepare for the pitch during batting practice before games they expect it in. According to physicist Robert Adair, due to the limitation of human reaction time. If a knuckleball does not change direction in mid-flight, however, since it typically only travels 60 to 70 miles per hour, far slower than the average major league fastball 85 to 95 miles per hour, it can be hit very hard if there is no movement. One 2007 study offered evidence for this conclusion, to reduce the chances of having the knuckleball get hit for a home run, some pitchers will impart a slight topspin so that if no force causes the ball to dance, it will move downward in flight. Another drawback is that runners on base can usually advance more easily than if a pitcher is on the mound
