It isn't how, it's how many.

Watching the Rugby World Cup (and I hope the ICC were) showed the similarities between players' techniques in that game. So many kickers did the Wilkinson crouch then look to the posts: of course, nobody toe-ends it any more. Recycling the ball and line-outs all seemed to follow the same methods no matter which teams were involved. Tennis has become dominated by back court players and golf swings all seem the same to the naked eye (except Jim Furyk's).

But cricket (perhaps uniquely in this age of scientific sports coaching) still presents a huge variety of techniques, even at the highest level. Join me over the jump for some examples.

Watching re-runs of the 1975 Ashes, I urged my ten-year-old to look out for Jeff Thomson's unique delivery. "He's like Shaun Tait" he opined, and my kid was right. And yet Tait is as unlike his ex-new ball partner Glenn McGrath as Thommo was unike DK Lillee, who in turn had something of McGrath's front arm and straight lines in the delivery stride. Recently South Africa vs Sri Lanka has offered us the upright, close to the wicket orthodoxy of Shaun Pollock and the round arm horizontal seam unorthodoxy of Lasith Malinga. To compare Monty's almost liquid limbs as he approaches the crease and delivers the ball, to his predecessor as a regular England left-armer, Derek Underwood's flat feet and jerking body and head, is to compare chalk and cheese.

Approaches to batting are just as diverse. Michael Clarke's hyperactivity at the crease reminds me of Derek Randall, but contrasts sharply with the stock still Marcus Trescothick and the lugubrious Inzy. Two hard-hitting 'keeper-batsmen offer different ways to destroy the bowling - Adam Gilchrist enhances his long levers by gripping the bat at the top of the handle, whereas MS Dhoni shortens his already short levers by gripping at the bottom of the handle, the better to apply his right hand.

Fielding, as the secondary skill of most players, varies more in ability than technique, although keeping has no settled one best way. It is always fascinating hearing the experts explain why Matt Prior's technique is so different to Ian Healy's (to use the worst and best keepers I've seen in Test cricket).   

What's the moral of this tale? Just another reason to marvel at this wondrous game of ours and its unending capacity to surprise and entertain us.

[The Tooting Trumpet] [Image: Getty]