8 Greatest leg spinners of all time

4. Arthur Mailey, Australia:

Like I said in the introductory part, a leg-break bowler is generally supposed to give away some runs before trapping the batsmen in his web of spin. Arthur Mailey took that thought so seriously that Ray Robinson once said, “Mailey bowls like a millionaire!”

Arthur Mailey, the Australian leg-spinner who took 10 wickets for 66 runs against Gloucestershire and later named his autobiography “Ten for 66 and All That”, was one of the funniest men the game ever saw. Mailey concentrated more on spinning the ball than pitching it at a good length (one reason why he’d never have been friends with Anil Kumble). He believed that a well-spun long hop or half volley was always better than a good-length delivery. It often resulted in very bad bowling figures for him but his googly got him wickets and that was all that mattered to him. Arthur Mailey’s googly was the most unreadable ball for the batsmen of his era, and many experts still call it the most lethal googly of all time. The millionaire bowler had 99 wickets in 21 Tests at an average of 33.91.