There is a very interesting fact about the Cricket bowling action with respect to the Bowling Action.
I am not talking about the Noodle Strap dresses of Mandira bedi nor the shaking assets of the Dancing girls of Twenty 20 cricket..I am talking about the very rules of the game were shaped by women playing cricket in the 19th century
..Read On
In the olden days of Cricket the Underarm bowling was Legal and the Overarm bowling was considered NoBall.Even bowling Round-Arm under the shoulder was considered a No-Ball.
It was ladies cricket that changed the way bowling was done.
In Ladies cricket (during the 19th century),women used to play by wearing Skirts which caused a miscomfort while doing underarm bowling.Due to which Round-Arm(under the Shoulder) bowling was legalised for women’s cricket alone.
Must have been THE days of Ladies cricket; Ladies who never used to wear pants and only Skirts 🙂
Legalizing Round-Arm action influenced the Men and they also started using Round-Arm action(but under the shoulder).It was not until 1835 when
players like William Lillywhite made efforts to legalize Round-Arm (but under the shoulder) action in Men’s cricket , round-arm action was still considered No-Ball.
Legalising Round-Arm bowling started to influence some innovative bowlers to raise their arm above the shoulder level to invent new ways of bowling.
It was not until some bowlers became umpires and chairmen of the cricketing boards in the later part of their career when there was a huge support to legalize Over-Arm action.
It was in 1864 , when MCC changed the “Laws of Cricket” and said Under-Arm is No-Ball and Over-Arm is Legal.
Today we have so many types of bowling
Full toss/Beamer Fast bowling Bouncer Indipper Inswinger Leg cutter Off cutter Outswinger Reverse Slower ball Yorker
Spin bowling Arm ball Chinaman Doosra Flipper Googly Leg break Off break Slider Topspinner Teesra
Hence , it started with Ladies cricket from legalizing Round-Arm action that finally led to Legalizing Over-Arm action.
Nobody could have ever imagined Cricketing actions would evolve to such an extent before 1835.
Pinastro 