County Cricket / Andrew Hughes / 14 May 2008 /

This week, Andrew Hughes is sharing with us his disturbance at the demise of that most endangered of beasts: the English spin bowler.

Slowly, but surely, the English spin bowler is becoming extinct. That might seem a strange thing to say given that Monty Panesar is one of the world's best finger spinners and youngster Adil Rashid is making a name for himself at county level. Others might point to the careers of Tufnell, Emburey and Edmonds. But whilst it's true that there've been a handful of decent English spinners in the last thirty years; beyond those half dozen names, the spin bowling stocks have been dwindling steadily. In 1982 there were eighteen English qualified spin bowlers averaging under thirty in the County Championship. By 2005 that figure was down to six. Last year, there were just two; Michael Munday of Somerset and good old Monty.

So what is to blame for this decline? Well, like many endangered species, the English spinner depended on a fragile ecosystem. Our damp climate meant that the sort of bouncy, turning pitches you see in almost every other cricket nation were a rarity. Instead the English spin bowling tradition was maintained by the 'sticky' wickets that occurred regularly after rain fell on uncovered pitches. Finger spinners were almost unplayable on such pitches, making them essential members of any county team and giving the likes of Hedley Verity, Jim Laker and Derek Underwood the freedom to develop their skills on flatter pitches.

But from 1980 onwards, county cricket was played exclusively on covered wickets. With the elimination of damp pitches, the role of the spinner changed, from attack to defence. By the middle of the eighties, they were reduced to firing the ball into leg stump with packed onside fields to keep the runs down, an extension of their role in limited over cricket. Captains slowly forgot how to use spinners as an attacking option, and young twirlers were whipped out of the attack the moment they started to leak runs.

What is most dispiriting is that the last decade has seen a few developments that should have boosted the ranks of English spinners. Four-day cricket has seen an end to the farcical run-chases of the three-day game and given spinners more time in which to operate. Thanks to the likes of Warne and Muralitheran, spin bowling is fashionable worldwide once more, and the ECB has set up various initiatives to spot and nurture young spinners. Unfortunately, though the counties once more recognise the importance of the attacking spinner, they prefer to buy in the world's best, rather than nurture young English bowlers. Last season, Harbajhan, Murali, Warne, Saqlain, Kaneria, Murali Karthik, Mushtaq and Paul Harris were all employed in the County Championship.

In such an environment, we are fortunate indeed to have a bowler of Panesar's class. After a dream start, he had a harder time of it in 2007 as he struggled to work out what his role at international level was. There were so many people offering advice, he seemed to be overwhelmed by it and by the enormous expectation that comes with being a country's sole world-class spinner. But his attacking instincts need to be encouraged. England don't need another run-container. If he continues to flight the ball and believes in his ability, he has the potential to emulate his hero, Bishan Bedi and become one of the great finger spinners.

He has few rivals. Adil Rashid is an exciting leggie but the odds are stacked against him. Leg spin is a notoriously difficult trade to ply on flat English wickets. He has already remodelled his action after a stress fracture and with his batting blossoming, he may well opt for the easier and career prolonging route of becoming a batsman who bowls. Graeme Swann is a quirky character who has come through despite the system. But he gives the ball a fair rip and he is a useful lower order bat.

After that, there is a sprinkling of rookies but few get regular first team action. If counties see no benefit to picking young English spinners or are not forced to do so, then the current desperate situation will not improve anytime soon. We should cherish Monty while we can, because it might be a long wait till the next one.

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