Sunil Gavaskar has a very funny story to relate, about that great leggie of yesteryears, Abdul Qadir.

During the Indian team's tour of Australia, says Gavaskar, both he and Mohinder Amarnath irritated Qadir no end by shouting "Googles" each time the leggie bowled the wrong 'un, and dancing down the wicket to despatch him over the infield.

As the story goes, an exasperated Qadir finally went up to Gavaskar

and said words to this effect: Sunny-bhai, I don't mind you hitting me about -- but must you add insult to injury by yelling "Googles" each time I try the wrong one?

Qadir, an acknowledged great of the game, had as little success (27 wickets in 16 Tests at an average of 51.52) against the Indians as his successor, Shane Warne, is now having. And Warne's googly is, if anything, easier to spot than Qadir's.

Techniquewise, Warne fails to disguise his googly better for one simple reason. Keep in mind that he is effectively attempting to bowl an off break with a leg-break action -- however, his action when bowling leg breaks is so pronounced that the difference, when he tries to turn it the other way, becomes easy to spot.

Warne's had a lot of success with this delivery against left-handers, since for them, the googly would be the ball turning away from the bat, where they are looking at it coming in to them. However, Saurav Ganguly in Calcutta picked the wrong 'un quickly off the hand whenever Warne tried it, and either drove him crisply into the covers, or flicked to midwicket, against the spin, off his pads.

For the Indian right handers, the Warne googly has been a 'gimme' ball -- easily spotted, easily thumped off either foot, and on either side of the wicket.

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