In Which Country Was the Googly Invented? Full History & Facts

If you’ve ever watched a leg-spin bowler completely fool a batsman with a ball that spins the “wrong” way, you’ve witnessed one of cricket’s cleverest inventions — the googly. But in which country was the googly invented, and who came up with something so deceptive?

The short answer: the googly was invented in England, created by English cricketer Bernard Bosanquet around 1900. Below is the full story — who invented it, how it happened, why it’s called a “googly,” and in Which Country Was the Googly Invented?

What Is a Googly in Cricket?

A googly is a delivery bowled by a leg-spinner that looks, from the bowler’s arm action, exactly like a normal leg-break — but turns in the opposite direction once it pitches. Instead of spinning away from a right-handed batsman, as a leg-break does, it spins in toward them. Because it does the opposite of what the batsman expects, the googly is also nicknamed the “wrong’un.”

In Which Country Was the Googly Invented?

The direct answer is England. Cricket historians credit English all-rounder Bernard James Tindal Bosanquet with inventing this deceptive delivery.

Interestingly, Bosanquet didn’t dream up the googly on a cricket field at all. By his own account, written years later in 1925, he was playing a parlour game around 1897 — which he called “Twisti-Twosti” — that involved bouncing a tennis ball on a table so an opponent sitting opposite couldn’t catch it. Practicing the same wrist-twist with a soft ball, then a cricket ball, he found he could bowl two deliveries that looked identical but broke in opposite directions.

The famous origin story comes from Bosanquet’s later writing. However, cricket historians, including his family members, have questioned some details. They doubt whether the game was really called “Twisti-Twosti,” as contemporary sources called a similar billiard-table game “Tisty-Tosty.” Still, the main point remains: Bosanquet developed the technique in England, away from the cricket pitch, before using it in a match.

Who Invented the Googly? Meet Bernard Bosanquet

Bernard James Tindal Bosanquet was born on 13 October 1877 in Enfield, Middlesex, England, and passed away on 12 October 1936. He attended Eton and Oxford before building a long career with Middlesex County Cricket Club.

He first tested his new delivery playing for Middlesex against Leicestershire at Lord’s on 20 July 1900. Batsman Samuel Coe, then on 98 and just two runs short of a century, was so deceived by the ball — which reportedly bounced four times — that he was stumped, becoming the first batsman ever dismissed by a googly.

For a few seasons, the delivery remained more of a curiosity than a genuine weapon. It wasn’t until the 1903–04 Ashes tour of Australia, led by captain Pelham “Plum” Warner, that the googly truly made headlines. Bosanquet made his Test debut at Sydney on 11 December 1903 and went on to dismiss some of Australia’s finest batsmen — including the legendary Victor Trumper — with the delivery. His finest performance came in the first Test of the 1905 Ashes, where he took 8 wickets for 107 runs to help England to victory. Across a brief seven-Test career he claimed 25 wickets, but his lasting legacy is the delivery itself, which reshaped spin bowling for good.

Why Is It Called a “Googly”?

Even historians don’t fully agree on where the odd name came from. A few theories are commonly cited:

• It may be a playful blend of “goo” (something soft and harmless-sounding) and “guile” (deception) — hinting at a ball that looks innocent but isn’t.
• It may have come from Australian slang of the era, used informally to describe something tricky or hard to read.
• A more romantic theory links it to Māori roots from Bosanquet’s 1902–03 New Zealand tour, though historians dispute this.

No single theory is universally accepted, but the name has stuck for well over a century regardless.

Other Names for the Googly

Depending on where in the cricketing world you are, you might hear the googly called something else entirely:

• Wrong’un — because it spins the “wrong” way compared to what the batsman expects.
• Bosie (or Bosey) — an Australian nickname coined in honour of Bosanquet himself.

How Is a Googly Bowled?

A googly uses the same grip and run-up as a standard leg-break — the disguise is entirely in the wrist. Instead of spinning off front fingers, bowlers twist their wrist to release a googly from the hand’s back. This spin reversal, combined with an unchanged bowling arm, makes the googly extremely hard to read.

Famous Bowlers Who Mastered the Googly

Once Bosanquet unveiled the googly in England, it spread quickly across the cricketing world:

• Reggie Schwarz, Bosanquet’s own Middlesex teammate, learned the delivery directly from him and carried it to South Africa. There, he taught it to three teammates — Bert Vogler, Aubrey Faulkner, and Gordon White — forming cricket’s famous “googly quartet,” which helped South Africa beat England for the first time in 1905–06.
• Clarrie Grimmett (Australia) built one of the great bowling careers of the 1920s–30s around the googly.
• Abdul Qadir (Pakistan) revived leg-spin and the googly in the 1970s and ’80s, when the art had nearly disappeared from international cricket.
• Shane Warne (Australia) and Anil Kumble (India) both used their own versions of the googly to devastating effect through the 1990s and 2000s, keeping the delivery alive for a new generation of fans.

Conclusion

So, in which country was the googly invented? The answer is England, thanks to Bernard Bosanquet, who turned a simple tabletop game into a delivery that reshaped spin bowling. From Reggie Schwarz’s quartet to Warne and Kumble, the googly has deceived batsmen for over 120 years.

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