England and the chase for left-arm seam

Since 1950 England have struggled to find southpaw seam. Most other countries have found a few.

For ten years from 1982, England bowled 55 overs of recorded left-arm seam. 53 of those were John Lever, and then batter Neil Fairbrother delivered a couple of overs of his slower version. And that is it.

This is when cricket started to notice that southpaw quicks were quite handy. Australia had Bruce Reid, who - when fit - was one of the best bowlers in the world. Pakistan launched Wasim Akram, who was so popular that an entire cricket world tried left-arm pace at least once. And then Chaminda Vaas arrived in Sri Lanka giving the finger spinners a few breaks.

The ideal location for left-arm spin would of course be England, or New Zealand. Because the main skill they possess other than using the less common arm is the fact they can swing the ball. And yet England have found almost no one do bowl consistently for them since Bill Voce.

If you don't know who Bill Voce is, he bowled in Bodyline, so 1933/34. He played his final Test in 1947. He only played 27 in total, and yet he still has the most wickets ever by a left-arm seamer for England. Number two on this list is Ryan Sidebottom, who really should have ended up with the most. But England asked him to bowl 90 miles per hour, and it ruined him.

John Lever was the man in 1986, he actually bowled a lot in the late 70s, but England never stuck with him for long. George Hirst played his last Test in 1909. And Alan Mullally had a spectacularly weird career around the turn of the millennium. And that is it for England bowlers with 50 test wickets bowling seam with their left arm. Sam Curran will join this list, and he's still young enough to actually end up as number one. But unless his batting comes on, I can't see him with 200 wickets in Tests.

Up until 1950, England actually had a decent amount of southpaw seam. Only South Africa had a higher percentage in that period. And I don't use 1950 by accident.

That was the last Test year with no recorded left-arm seam delivery. That's not quite true, as there were mixture bowlers, and some bowling types weren't registered. But that was certainly a period with little.