A spin doctor gets his turn

29 May 2015 - 02:23 By Telford Vice

Eddie Leie wore a chain as thick as a cigar around his neck to the Gauteng Cricket Board awards last May. It glinted grand and gold, and was teamed with a crisp white shirt and a sharp dark suit that made him look like a classy hip-hop mogul.But that is where the stereotypes end with Leie, who has been named in South Africa's T20 squad to tour Bangladesh in July.He is a leg spinner in a cricket culture in which bowling means seam up and fast. Moreover, leg spin is harder to master than any other flavour of bowling, or batting anywhere in the order, or keeping wicket. What made Leie choose it?"It's more like leg spin chose me," he said."As a kid I played mini-cricket where you basically run up and bowl. But one day, when I was nine or 10, I was sent to the shops."While I was there I started playing around with some stones. I bowled one with a leg break action and it turned. I bowled another one and it also turned. I was bowling stones onto an uneven surface, so they could have gone anywhere. But they turned!"The next day when I went to cricket practice I started bowling leg spin."He has stuck with his slippery discipline well enough to take 59 wickets at an average of 39.61 in 21 first-class matches for the Lions.But of the 84 players capped in Tests by South Africa since unity only two have been wrist spinners.One, Imran Tahir, learnt his craft in Pakistan. That means South Africa's only homegrown specialist Test wrist spinner since 1992 is Paul Adams.Said Leie: "In first-class cricket I still have to grow in terms of consistency and making the transition from the white ball to the red ball when it comes to things like length."But Test cricket is in my plans. This is just the beginning. I want to stay at this level and learn as much as I can. For me it's not about money. Playing for the national team is much more important - I'd pay money to play for them."Whether or not he wants to be, Leie will indeed be paid. Perhaps even enough to put genuine gold chains around the necks of nice young fellas from Potch...

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