To add to Philip's erudite post...
In cricket, there are two notional 'sides' to the wicket (or pitch, the strip between the batsman and the bowler). The 'off' side is the side on which he/she holds the bat. The 'leg' side (also called the on side) is, therefore the side where his/her legs are.
An off-break, therefore, is a ball bowled so that, when it pitches (bounces) it spins from the off-side towards the leg side. (In practice, it is an off-break even if it pitches on the leg side and then moves even further towards leg.) The leg break, by analogy, is a ball that does the opposite.
The googly is such a famous ball because, as you may understand, a bowler has to hold the ball in a distinctive fashion to bowl either an off break or a leg break. Good batsmen watch the bowler's hand to figure out what sort of ball to expect. In a googly, however, the action looks like one type of ball, but the spin is the opposite to what one would expect. The current master of legspin, Shane Warne, has a good googly, but the most legendary googly I ever remember was the one 'patented' by the Indian spinner Chandrashekhar (playing in the '60s and '70s).
I agree with Philip that cricket certainly taxes both tactical skills and stamina (how many other games are regularly played over a five day period?), but I am not sure of the claim that it is tactically 'superior' to baseball. I just think the tactics are different.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
