“Spofforth became famous because of his stellar performance in the 1882 Test, where he inspired the Australian team to an unlikely victory from a seemingly hopeless position.” ROSS FITZGERALD and DICK WHITAKER look at swing bowling’s powerful history.

 Today most top-class cricket teams boast at least one bowler, who can move or “swing” the ball from its initial line in the air, making it difficult for the batsman to survive at the crease, let alone to score runs

One of the earliest exponents of swing bowling was the great Australian paceman Frederick “The Demon” Spofforth (1853-1926), who began his spectacular Test career in 1877 at express pace, but later switched to variation in his bowling, including a mean in-swinger that produced plenty of wickets.

Spofforth became famous because of his stellar performance in the 1882 Test at The Oval, where he inspired the Australian team by telling them: “This thing can be done”.

It triggered an unlikely victory from a seemingly hopeless position. He took seven wickets for 44 runs in the process. As Spofforth demonstrated, swing bowling can turn a match.

Known as “swerve” in the 19th century, swing was further developed over the years and is now recognised as one of the main weapons in the arsenal of the fast medium bowler.

The English quick James (Jimmy) Anderson is recognised as one of the great swing bowlers of recent times. His best figures are 7/42 in the Third Test at Lords, against the West Indies, in 2017. English batsman Geoffrey Boycott once remarked of Anderson: “He has a gift from the Gods; he could swing an orange!”

There are three broad classifications of swing bowling – inswinger, outswinger and reverse swinger, each with its own special mode of delivery.

The basis of swing is to get one side of the ball to move through the air faster than the other, a situation that can be enhanced by polishing one side of the ball on the trousers, or rubbing sweat from the brow on to the ball. This can produce an asymmetric shine and an uneven speed movement of the ball through the air – just what the swing bowler wants.

Ball tampering is another way of achieving swing, with the infamous use of sandpaper a case in point when some members of the 2018 Australian side were disgraced during their tour of South Africa by using sandpaper to rough up one side of the ball. 

Factors producing swing include the bowler’s action, the speed of delivery, wear and tear on the ball and the weather. Prevailing atmospheric conditions such as temperature, humidity, cloud cover, together with wind speed and direction are also important issues.

The denser the air, the more swing is encouraged, so cooler air is a more fertile swing environment than warmer air.

Up until quite recent times it was also believed that high humidity helped in encouraging swing, but new research has revealed the rather surprising fact that cloud cover may be far more important.

In bright sunlight hot air rises from the surface of the pitch, creating a turbulent environment for the ball to pass through, which reduces swing. In overcast conditions there is less rising air, less turbulence and more swing.

All this means that cool, overcast weather is best for swing bowling and the swing can also be magnified if there is some component of the wind blowing across the wicket in the same direction in which the ball is swinging.

These conditions are met far more often in England than Australia where hot and sunny weather is the norm during the summer months, but on occasion good swing bowling weather can emerge here as well.

In southern capital cities such as Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney, this can happen in a southerly airflow following a cold front, when temperatures fall and cloud cover increases.

One of the greatest exhibitions of swing bowling ever seen was by the Australian Bob Massie in the Second Test at Lords in England during the 1972 Ashes tour.

In cool and cloudy conditions, Massie, coming alternately over and around the wicket, bent the ball through the air so prodigiously that many of his deliveries were virtually unplayable and the English batting was routed.

His figures over the two innings were 8/84 and 8/53, representing match figures of 16/137, the fourth-best Test match figures of all time.

The three ahead of him are legendary English spin bowler Jim Laker at Manchester, 1956, with 19/90; Sydney Barnes at Johannesburg, 1913, with 17/159; and Narendra Hirwani at Madras in 1988, with 16/136.

Massie’s display was a convincing demonstration of the tremendous potency of swing bowling, achieved when the bowler is on song and the atmosphere is just right for the purpose.

In more recent times Wasim Akram, the brilliant Pakistani left arm fast bowler, is recognised as one of the greatest swing bowlers in the history of cricket.

Known as “The Sultan of Swing”, Akram employed swing from both directions plus reverse swing. This, combined with variations in pace and bounce, comprised a fearsome arsenal of deliveries that produced a haul of wickets across his Test career, from 1985 to 2002.

Akram’s best Test bowling performance is 7/119, against NZ in 1994.

Swing bowling is well recognised as a separate subdivision of bowling, along with pace and spin.

A top-line swinger can produce confusion for the batsman and make it exceedingly difficult to accumulate runs and keep their wicket alive.

But even minor changes in the bowler’s delivery can result in significant differences in the trajectory of the ball. Dismissal can come from several different directions including LBW and clean bowled, but with caught behind being common because of frequent “edges” generated by the swing.

Ross Fitzgerald AM is emeritus professor of history and politics at Griffith University. His most recent book is Chalk and Cheese: A Fabrication (Hybrid) is co-authored with Ian McFadyen.

Dick Whitaker is a widely published author and lecturer in the fields of meteorology and Australian history.