Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SPIN’S IN THE BINS
Swann: Value my art... or be Test flops
GRAEME SWANN has called on English cricket to start taking spin bowling seriously – and warned they can never become the world’s best Test side until they do.
The former Ashes hero has accused the England hierarchy of failing to harness spinning talent at county level.
Swann – second only to Derek Underwood in the all-time list of Test wicket-takers among English spinners – laments the attitudes towards his art that he sees operating in the English game.
As Joe Root & Co. prepare to head out to Sri Lanka next month, they do so with the largely untried Dom Bess, 22, leg-spinner Matt Parkinson, 23 and yet to play a Test, plus 10-Test ‘veteran’ Jack Leach, 28, as the spin options.
Swann (right) said: “The English game is riddled with spinning potential – but we don’t unlock it.
“No one single individual is to blame for this – rather there’s an institutional misunderstanding of how to treat spinners.
“I honestly believe there are county captains who just don’t understand spin bowling or its value. Even club captains have a better grasp of it.
“I heard commentators the other day moaning that Matt Parkinson was bowling too slowly during the one-dayer against South Africa.
“It was his first international and he was doing so without any guidance.
“You’d be very, very lucky in your first game if you can pick up the pace of a wicket – that takes years of experience. But there was no recognition of that, certainly not in the commentary box and these are seasoned ex-internationals.
“They were the same people who used to criticise my bowling without any true understanding of what was going on.
“In my own career, I took a lot of wickets in my first over.
People thought it was just some sort of happy chance. Nothing of the sort. I was able to attack much more.
“I’d worked out that
90 per cent of the game at
Test level was in the head so pressure played a massive part.
“But ex-colleagues laugh even now when I tell them there was a method to how I approached that first over.
“It’s a small point maybe – but it speaks volumes about how spin bowling is treated in this country.”
Swann believes that relative rookies Bess and Parkinson both have the ability to be frontline bowlers of huge value to England’s Test team – but worries if they will truly ever scale the heights. He said: “Dom Bess could be a really good bowler. He has a repeatable action and does a decent amount with the ball.
“He has the basics. Now he needs the education.
“Parkinson is a work in progress but how old is he? He needs time to learn but that takes more than visiting a spin clinic in India for a few weeks.
“But I believe a few of the county captains could do worse than head over there to be tutored by the likes of former India skipper MS Dhoni in how to get the best out of spinners. “If England want to get back to the top of the Test rankings, they must do more than rely on Ben Stokes, or bowling out teams at home on seamer-friendly pitches.
“You can’t go to places like India without a credible spinner and expect to beat these teams.”
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