The tombstone of Willes at Sutton Valence Churchyard.
by Abhishek Mukherjee
On 16 July 1822, John Willes of Kent became the first cricketer to be called for an illegal action in First-Class cricket, resulting in much drama.
Underarm bowling used to be the norm until the end of the 18th century, and rightly so. The uneven, bumpy pitches were hardly fit for playing.
Moreover, cricket of the era was dominated was dominated by amateurs, who were almost always batsmen. There was no way they would allow anything that would make batting difficult.
Tom Walker of Hambledon was the first known cricketer to have experimented with roundarm bowling, at some point between 1770 and 1790. Here, unlike overarm, you are not allowed to raise your arm above your shoulder. Think Lasith Malinga or Kedar Jadhav, with an even lower release point.
Walker was no-balled several times, but never in First-Class cricket.
Roundarm found a way back in the early 19th century. Willes was one of its exponents. I should mention here that Willes could bowl fast underarm as well, and was good enough to play the first two Gentlemen vs Players matches in history.
There is a story that he picked up the idea from his sister Christina. We have all seen hoop skirts (the ones with enormous width). Christina played some cricket (but not much), and when she did, she found bowling underarm difficult in those skirts. So she had to bowl roundarm. However, historians have pointed out that hoop skirts were not in fashion during the era.
John Willes made up his mind. Like Waller, he was no-balled several times, but he refused to give in.
Then, in 1816, they passed a new law in 1816 that ran: "The ball must be bowled (not thrown or jerked), and be delivered underhand, with the hand below the elbow. But if the ball be jerked, or the arm extended from the body horizontally, and any part of the hand be uppermost, or the hand horizontally extended when the ball is delivered, the Umpires shall call, No Ball."
This virtually ruled out roundarm, but Willes continued, and decided to offend the most orthodox authorities in the sport. He chose the match against MCC at Lord's.
When asked to bowl, he bowled roundarm and was promptly called for illegal action.
He left the ground immediately. He mounted his horse ("parked" outside the ground) and left, much to the confusion of everyone, never to return to cricket.
PS
The effort did not go in vain. About three years later, George Thomas Knight took to roundarm. In 1827, three trial matches were organised between MCC and Sussex under the conditions that players would be allowed to bowl roundarm.
Armed with roundarm bowlers Frederick Lillywhite and Jem Broadbridge, Sussex went 2-0 up in the series. Several MCC stars (including Fuller Pilch) attempted to opt out of the third, but good sense prevailed. And MCC won the third match, Knight playing key role with his roundarm bowling.
In 1835 roundarm bowling was legalised. And in 1864, overarm bowling, which is what we see today.
As for Willes, he became a reputed amateur boxer and was widely acknowledged as the best shot in Kent. As for his contributions to cricket, he mentored Alfred Mynn, the man they called the Lion of Kent.