by Abhishek Mukherjee
John Buchanan created quite a stir when he suggested ambidextrous cricketers. Less than two decades later, we have the likes of Yasir Jan, Akshay Karnewar, Kamindu Mendis, Shaila Sharmin, and Jemma Barsby.
Before Buchanan's statement there was Muhammad Naeem of Pakistan, who bowled with either hand in the 2000 Under-15 World Challenge final.
Four years before him, Hashan Tillakaratne bowled the first three balls of the inconsequential last over of the match against Kenya left handed before switching to right hand.
Decades before that, when Garry Sobers was on 364 (one short of the Test record), Hanif Mohammad had decided to switch to left-arm. He sought Sobers' permission, to which the great man responded that he was fine if Hanif bowled with both hands at the same time. I wish that happened.
There have been instances of Graham Gooch and, in Indoor Cricket World Cup, Sameer Nayak of UAE. Chuck Fleetwood-Smith claimed to have been ambidextrous till a fracture in his, but he was not even honest about his date of birth.
But none of these quite match what Kent part-time off-spinner Charles Rowe once did against Sussex at Hove.
Kent took a 141-run lead, but Sussex recovered well from 46/3 in the third innings. They neither collapsed nor declared, so the match approached a dull draw. Kent used eight bowlers. Rowe was the eighth.
Rowe bowled Geoff Arnold, but John Spencer and Chris Waller, the last pair, stayed put.
They added 25 for the last wicket before Rowe switched to Chinaman for the last ball of the tenth over.
It was a rank long-hop, but Waller hit it straight to Bob Woolmer at cover.
For the first – and to my knowledge, only – time in history did a bowler pick up wickets bowling both right- and left-handed *in the same innings in First-Class cricket*.
It was also the only ball Rowe bowled left-arm in First-Class cricket.
This happened on 30 May 1980.