Damn my darling Doosra

Sports writers' descriptions of the spin bowler evoke images of a side-show alley at a carnival. The spin bowler is a contortionist; an arm tucked behind the head, wrist cocked at an unnatural angle and torso twisted like a tightly wound spring. The spin bowler is a magician, conjuring startling movements out of a cricket ball. The spin bowler is a trickster, carefully shielding the position of seam and fingers to deceive the batsman. Such descriptions appeal to an artist like Gareth Sansom, who is himself fond of disguise and deception. Masks and costumes have played an important part in his work, as have looming, contorted bodies. Magical deception is the theme of Damn my darling Doosra (2009-10). Painter and spin bowler alike are trickster-magicians; both weave spells. The doosra is a fiendishly elusive ball invented by the Pakistani cricketer, Saqlain Mushtaq. Delivered with an off-spinning action it turns in the 'wrong' direction, from leg- to off-stump. The unleashing of this secret weapon is accompanied by a strange slow-motion ballet; Sri Lanka's prime exponent of the doosra, Muttiah Muralitharan, twists and contorts before releasing a ball that seems to defy the laws of physics. A spin bowler himself, Sansom has only admiration for the doosra. The structure of Sansom's painting - divided into a cricket oval on the left and an other worldy realm on the right - is reminiscent of ancient legends in which mischievous gods watch over humans.