AT Lord’s when a Test is on one always expects to bump into well-known faces and especially cricketers of the past and even of today of which some of them make sure of showing their presence felt. Hospitality boxes feel privileged to have their presenceand so do the media boxes where now a host of former players work as writers and commentators for various organisations.

The galaxy of stars like Sunil Gavaskar, Shane Warne, Kapil Dev, David Gower and Mike Atherton were always in view as were our own Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq working as commentator.

One noticed however that though these men have hung their boots away saying goodbye to the game, their popularity hasn’t ceased to attract attention of their fans or that of the media men around them.

Now religiously inclined and sporting a tidy beard and a kind of skull cap that we usually see on top of the head of a religious priest, Saqlain’s presence has even doubled the interest of Indian journalists who in every convenient moment would hang around him to talk about the ‘Doosra’, a delivery which he is associated with as its purveyor or inventor. His name of course is synonymous with it.

‘Doosra’ is bowled with the same finger action as a normal off-break but the bowler cocks the wrist or one of the fingers to make the ball spin in the opposite direction to off-spin, an equivalent to a leg-spinner’s googly.

Former West Indian off-spinner Sonny Ramadhin is known to have bowled like Saqlain did when he along with his spin partner Alfred Valentine pulverised England in England to win their first ever Test in the 1950s.

The present facilities that of television and replays then were not available and hence not much publicity of the delivery which Ramadhin bowled.

“I have no idea about Ramadhin because he was not in my time nor have I ever seen him bowl but what I have learnt and discovered is my own brand of bowling which I perfected when playing on Pakistan’s domestic cricket and which mesmerised many a batsman even when I was noticed and picked to play for Pakistan,” Saqlain said.

Saqlain, who was the quickest to bag 100 wickets in ODI history and finished with 208 wickets in Tests and 288 in ODIs between 1995 and 2004, gives more credit to his team-mate and wicket-keeper Moin Khan than himself for the name ‘Doosra’ than himself because Moin, he stressed, would always prompt him from behind the stumps to bowl that delivery.

“Very often he would shout, ‘Saqi, Saqi, the doosra, doosra’, and then I would bowl one to dismiss the batsman. The delivery kept batsmen guessing, no matter where they came from,” Saqlain recalled.

“Players from England, Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the countries players except those from India wouldn’t understand what Moin shouted but then later all of them came to know what he was up to and what I would bowl,” he added.

“The word ‘Doosra’ meaning in Urdu language, the ‘second one’ or in cricketing terms ‘the other one’ gained immense popularity when I took 6 for 46 at Hobart against Australia in 1999 and in the press conference later that evening I described the delivery as ‘Doosra’ because I was not good at English language then and the word just came out which Moin always shouted from behind the stumps.

“Later, Muttiah Muralitharan talked to me about the delivery as did Johan Botha of South Africa, India’s Harbhajan Singh and my countrymen Shoaib Malik and Saeed Ajmal. Saeed I think has mastered it to perfection. I am glad that he bowls it so well.”

Shane Shillingford, Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree of the West Indies have all been at it having talked to Saqlain but the latest amongst his recruits is Moeen Ali, the England off-spinner of Pakistan extraction.

“I don’t mind passing on the skills to anyone interested and lately West Indies had employed me to work with their bowlers and they are quite pleased about it,” Saqlain stated.

In 2004, Saqlain claimed to have developed ‘Teesra’, the third one which is back spinner disguised as off-spin and he says that he used it in the Indian Cricket League and bowled with a slight round arm action. Later, Saeed Ajmal during a Test in the UAE claimed to have been doing it.

Now 37, Saqlain says he is eager to work at the game in Pakistan to help produce more off-spinners who are keen to make the grade.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2014