Seldom are Chinese products sworn by guarantee, if one lasts long then trust your good deeds. China has always been around us, from toy guns to real ones, from spies to spies, China has a love-hate story going on with us forever. China was never into cricket, with one theory going around that it would be impossible to differentiate between who is going out and coming in to bat. The same one might turn up again after getting out!! Keeping the slapstick humor aside, China now actually plays cricket and is an associate member of ICC since 2017. They also have their own cricket league. However, the Chinese aren't new to cricket, in fact, the first Chinese-origin guy to play cricket led to a very important name in this game -Chinaman.

'Fancy being done by a bloody china-man'- These were the exact words spoken by English batsman Walter Robins when he was out stumped in the 1939 Old Trafford Test to a bowler named Eliss “Puss” Achong, who incidentally was the first man of Chinese origin to play cricket on record.

Although Achong represented the West Indies in cricket and used to bowl left-arm spin the other way around that is the opposite of the orthodox way. He was a left-arm wrist spinner who turned the ball into a right-handed and away from left-handed primarily. Since he originated from China, so the term 'chinaman' uttered by the outgoing English batsman Robins, stayed on.

Charlie 'Buck' Llewelyn, a South African all-rounder, who played circa the end of the 19th century, laid claim to inventing the china-man delivery. But the term is more traditionally accredited to the Old Trafford incident mentioned above. Since then china-man spinners have been rare as it's a difficult art to tame. Those who have been fairly successful in the international arena, add the flipper or arm ball along with the googly to their armor.

When Kuldeep Yadav was handed his test debut cap at Dharamshala, he became the first Indian china-man bowler to play test cricket. He isn't the first Asian though, Sri Lankan Lakshan Sandakan has that honor. Of course, Gulam Bodi was born in Gujrat, but he represented South Africa in cricket. Later, Preeti Dolly Dimri played 2 tests,23 ODI, and a solitary T20 for India in women's cricket. Kuldeep Yadav became the 30th china-man bowler to have played Test cricket and not all of these 30 china-men have been specialists. Out of these, only 18 were changed bowlers which includes Garry Sobers as well. Of course, Sobers doubled up as a medium pacer and finger spinner as well depending on the conditions and his mood!!

South African player Tabrez Shamsi is another recent addition to the specialist chinaman bowler list. Some other specialists are Chuck Fleetwood-Smith, Lindsay Kline, David Sincock, Inshan Ali, Paul Adams, Brad Hogg, Beau Casson, Dave Mohammed, and Michael Rippon. Please note we are talking about more than 140 years of international cricket here!!! So you can imagine the rarity.

It is anyway difficult to play a chinaman bowler and if that bowler was Paul Adams, whose action suggested as if he had seen a ghost in diapers and didn't want to see the face, he was a nightmare for batters all around. Sadly he could not play long due to injuries but was a treat to watch. He ended up with 134 wickets for South Africa from 45 matches averaging 32.87. One of the most successful china-man bowlers in white ball cricket is Australian Brad Hogg picking up 156 wickets at an average of 26.84 in 123 games. He was quite instrumental in Australia's World Cup-winning campaigns of 2003 and 2007. He is also the only player over 40 years of age till now, to take 100 wickets in the T20 format.

Kuldeep Yadav till now has featured in 8 tests for India picking up 34 wickets at an average of 21.55. He has played 78 ODI's, picking up 130 wickets at an average of 27.49 till now. His T20 includes 28 matches till now with 46 wickets to his name at an average of 14.47. He is the only one to have taken two hat tricks for India in international cricket, both in ODI's versus  Australia and West Indies.

Rare people develop rare talents and going by the count, china-man bowlers are difficult to find, which is why one can see the support being lent out to them generally. Hope that Kuldeep Yadav's torrid times are over and he becomes the go-to match-winners for India. It would be great to see some more china-man and china-woman bowlers grace the international stage as we would all love some more variety in cricket. Now it is up to the cricket lovers for their comments.