While England will be thrilled at how well Graeme Swann has bowled for the past 2½ years, why was he not good enough to play Test cricket until the age of 29? Shane Warne, Harbhajan Singh and Muttiah Muralitharan were winning matches for their countries in their early twenties but English spinners have taken longer to develop than those from other countries.
This is an issue England are seeking to address under the leadership of Peter Such, a former Test off-spinner and the ECB’s main spin coach. As part of England’s drive to become the best team in the world, Such has built a team of 14 scouts and mentors whose task is to accelerate the development of young spinners in what he describes as the hardest of all cricket disciplines.
“Young spin bowlers require support,” said Such, who made his England debut at 28. “They must be shown faith. But this isn’t easy. We talk to counties about the need for patience but these are difficult conversations. A spinner needs time to learn his trade, certainly longer than a fast bowler. We want to speed up the process.”
Arguably, bowling spin is a tougher business now than it has ever been. Big bats and the Twenty20 format have helped batsmen prey on any young spinner not on his mettle.
An additional problem has recently arisen. With counties encouraged to invest in youth by the ECB’s performance-related fee payments, there are fewer old heads in dressing rooms to dispense advice, making the work of Such’s team more important. John Emburey, who looks after the southeast for Such, said: “It is great in a way that counties are picking youngsters but there are fewer senior players around who can pass on what they know — and knowledge and experience are vital ingredients.
Advertisement
“We can’t force counties to pick a spinner but we try to encourage county captains and coaches to look after them. This applies to second XIs too, where many captains are youngsters themselves who sometimes don’t know much about handling spin bowlers and may be as interested in winning matches as bringing on players.”
The brief for Such’s team, which includes Eddie Hemmings in the north and Jack Birkenshaw in the Midlands, is to monitor all spinners between the ages of 17 and 26 in their areas and send the best to the ECB’s “spin factory”, the high-performance programme at Loughborough. “A big part of our job is talent identification but we are there to mentor too, tell them the importance of gameplans and patience and — if we can — get them ready for England at 26 rather than 29,” Emburey said.
Swann reckons years of bowling are needed simply to acquire the strength in fingers and wrist to consistently give the ball a rip. Of the 21 specialist spinners introduced by England since 1977, only seven were younger than 26 and only two (Phil Tufnell and Monty Panesar) had produced match-winning performances by that age. Some, such as Ian Salisbury, Chris Schofield and Richard Dawson, never recovered from being exposed to Test cricket too early and even Panesar subsequently suffered a decline that suggested he still had plenty to learn.
Emburey is confident that Panesar is now back on track after his move from Northamptonshire to Sussex last year and could return to the England fold for the winter’s tours of the subcontinent and Middle East. Apart from performing well in the championship, Panesar has been one of the leading bowlers in the Friends Life t20.
“Monty started out playing on helpful pitches at Northampton, where he was always dominant, and then got hit around during a tour of Sri Lanka,” Emburey said. “Shane Warne said some harsh things about him having learnt nothing since his first Test, which were untrue, but spin bowling is partly the art of survival and with the help of some people at Sussex, including Murray Goodwin, Monty is managing that.”
Advertisement
Such maintains that one of the biggest problems for young English spinners is getting sufficient exposure at first-class level. Most counties are reluctant to field more than one specialist spinner.
Panesar’s arrival at Sussex, for example, proved a setback to Ollie Rayner, who often found himself surplus to requirements in championship cricket and began this season on loan to Middlesex. When Middlesex then signed Jamie Dalrymple from Glamorgan, Rayner returned to Sussex, where he continued to find opportunities limited, although he made a first championship appearance of the season at Arundel last week. “Ollie is a very talented cricketer and if he is not getting games, maybe he should think of moving,” Emburey said. To broaden the experience of some of his charges, Such took a group to India in February and foresees a similar mission this winter, when the England Lions squad shadow the senior team in Sri Lanka.
