Cricket: Leggie Walker about to to join exclusive club

By RICHARD BOOCK

POTCHEFSTROOM - A drought of more than 28 years is about to be broken when leg-spinner Brooke Walker bowls his first delivery against South Africa in Bloemfontein.

With Paul Wiseman unfit to play and New Zealand almost certain to include a slow-bowler in their line-up, Walker will become the first specialist leggie to bowl for New Zealand since Jack Alabaster in 1972.

The Auckland wrist-spinner had already written himself into the record books when he bowled in the one-day international in Benoni, in the process becoming the first leg-spinner to be selected in a New Zealand ODI side in 358 games.

His inevitable selection in Friday's test team comes five years after Greg Loveridge was selected in the New Zealand team to play Zimbabwe, only to suffer the misfortune of sustaining a hand injury while batting and being forced out of the series without bowling a ball.

Walker, who in a roundabout way replaced the injured Daniel Vettori on this tour, will join a small and select group of specialist leg-spinners who have bowled for New Zealand in a test.

Bill Merritt played six tests between 1929 and 1931 and took 12 wickets, Alec Moir snared 28 wickets in 17 tests between 1950 and 1959, while Alabaster was arguably New Zealand most proficient leg-spinner, taking 49 wickets between 1955 and 1972.

Alabaster, selected for the 1955-56 tour to Pakistan and India before he had made his first-class debut, ended his test career with just one wicket against the West Indies at Port of Spain, although the one he took had a nice ring to it - "G. S. Sobers b Alabaster 9."

While Walker has been a late inductee to the ranks of leg-spin, only starting when he was 18, he has developed his style and expanded his reportoire so that he now mixes up a conventional leg-break with a couple of wrong-uns and a flipper.

He bowled tidily in his first-class outing for New Zealand at Paarl, taking two for 38 off 17 overs, and one off just 1.3 overs in the second innings, but was given very little opportunity in the match against North-West, bowling only 10 overs while picking up one wicket.

"I haven't had as much bowling as I would like, to be honest," he said after the win over North-West.

"Ideally, I'd like to get through a couple of 20-over spells so that I can find some rhythm and get used to the feel of the ball coming out. It's all very well bowling in the nets, but it's a different ball-game out in the middle."

Walker has been pleasantly surprised to find most of the tracks conducive to spin, with an encouraging measure of purchase, bounce and pace.

The 23-year-old toured England last year without being given much opportunity, but has been happy with the way this season has been developing, even if his googly has been something of a mixed bag.

"I've just been trying to land my leg-spinner - that's been hard enough at times," he joked. "It was good to get a wicket with the wrong-un at Paarl because it hasn't been coming out that well."