King of Spin Part 2

Here as promised is Warnie's Great 8, the flippers to Alec Stewart and Richie Richardson and the leg break from around the wicket to Chanderpaul are as good as you'll ever see.

The King of Spin

I have been out of action for a while but The Top Spinner is back with avengeance with an exclusive for my loyal readers. Here is the first of three special videos which will be going up over the next three days. This first one is a leg spin tutorial found only on a seemingly rare DVD, you may recognise the format as it has been used for the live tutorials Warnie has been giving for the last few years in the lunch break of some Test Matches. You'll have to come back tomorrow to see the next video "Warnie's Great 8".

MCC Masterclass: Leg Spin with Richie Benaud

After much pain staking effort to retrieve the footage The Top-Spinner is proud to present the long lost coaching video series created by the MCC back in 1994. There are many various sections I will be uploading over the coming months including Batting with Viv Richards, Left Arm spin with Bishan Bedi and Off Spin with Ray Illingworth but naturally we will be starting with Leg Spin:

Rediscovery & Regrets; A Cricketing Legacy

I owe my love for cricket and whatever meagre talents I possess to both my Uncle, who played for Worcestershire, and my Grandfather, who never played professionally but was an accomplished cricketer nonetheless. All three of us share the same name, Robert Lanchbury, though we do not share exactly the same talents. Robert John Lanchbury (my Uncle) was a batsman and Robert Stanley Lanchbury (my Grandfather) was a wicket keeper so its apt that I, Robert William Lanchbury, complete the trio by being a bowler. Unfortunately my Grandfather passed away last year after a long battle with Alzheimer's. I greatly regret the fact that he was not able to watch me playing as a grown man. Obviously as a young boy he watched me often but between the ages of 15 and 23 I completely fell out of the game, persuing different ahem 'pastimes' such as girls, booze, music and just about everything I probably should not have been doing. 

I did not pick up the game again until I went to university and the cricket bug really bit me hard. I owed this new found passion almost purely to leg spinning, I was fascinated by the spinning ball and all the permutations thereof. As a young cricketer I had bowled medium pace swingers to some great effect (my best figures in this first phase were something like 8-30) but even though I could still swing a ball the pace was, shall we say, not great, and it now lacked that element which had previously held my attention. Cue endless watching of Terry Jenner and Shane Warne videos combined with a feverish flipping of the ball. I drove my housemates insane with my constant practice. Suffice to say I have never looked back. 

Four years later I found myself searching through the books my Grandfather had tucked away and discovered an absolute gem in the form of an MCC coaching manual from 1952. I was given a copy of the 1994 version by my Grandfather which I spent hours poring over as a child, unsurprisingly it was Richie Benauds leg spin section which I thumbed through the most even if I could not bowl it at that age. But what I now notice is just how poor it is in comparison with the 1952 version, especially the spin section. Benaud tends to just skip over vital points and barely explains the variations at all. I believe it is essential to the proliferation of this wonderful game that skills are passed along by generous souls, be it through a family, by coaches or by the more modern method of the internet. So in the spirit of a continuing cricket legacy through a shared knowledge I have scanned in the Leg Spin section just for now but if I get enough requests I will gladly do the off spin section.

You can find it here.

Enjoy!

 

County Previews 2010 Club by Club Spin Guide

The County competions have a decidedly extravagent feel to them this year, a sort of natural fallout from the effects of the IPL. It could have been the year which saw Sachin Tendulkar return to the championship, albeit this time with Middlesex, but that fell through and instead they have snapped up the considerable talents of Adam Gilchrist and David Warner for the 20/20. Hampshire are evidently following the path laid out by their former Captain, Shane Warne, with their signings, but I will come to those later. Glamorgan have signed 'The Wild Thing' Shaun Tait, Malinga Bandara is going to Kent, Ross Taylor and Albie Morkel to Durham, Herschelle Gibbs to Yorkshire. I could go on. Personally I welcome this raft of overseas talent, it adds a real zest to the proceedings, a lift that county cricket badly needs. I would suggest that whilst to many fans these overseas stars would be considered a new face amongst the familiar to many others who will watch because of them they will be a familiar face amongst strangers. Anyway the point of this guide is to take you through the multitude of spin kings we have on offer this year, I've only included those counties which have spinners I believe are the most interesting, so don't expect a large section on Shaun Udal, but trust me our cups runneth over.

DURHAM:

Scott Borthwick is a different prospect altogether for a club which is usually associated with pace men. This lad had basically gone under my radar (which was honing in on another young English leggie over at Yorkshire) until last year when I saw James Foster larrop him for five sixes in an over in the Pro40. It was at that moment I decided that I really liked him, having had the same thing happen to me two season beforehand. Seriously though, he's good. He took eight wickets against the MCC and has been away in New Zealand all winter which will have prepared him well. Don't expect to see much of him early on and if you talk about him please whisper. Let's not build up another young leg spinner just to see him fail. Cough Salisbury, cough Schofield, cough possibly Rashid. Ahem you'll have to excuse me I don't know where that coughing fit came from...

ESSEX:

Ah good old Danish Kaneria. You know where you stand with a war horse like him. Expect long spells and excellent run control. He hasn't really got the respect he deserves over the years, at least on an international level. Did you know he is Pakistans highest wicket-taking spinner? But even with a majestic if overused googly its hard to mention him in the same sentence as Mushtaq Ahmed and Abdul Qadir, he just doesn't have the personality for greatness.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE:

Vikram Banerjee is a player I know almost nothing about. He's left arm orthodox and has 'fingers like Paul Daniels' apparently. Whether that means they're pure magic or spend a lot of time up Debbie McGee I'm not sure...but you'll probably like him, not a lot, but you'll like him.

HAMPSHIRE:

Shane Warne has blazed the trail for rampant capitalism and set up his old county's connection with the Rajesthan Royals which will see Hampshire both pinch the 'Royals' suffix from a far superior County team and bring in some really big names this year. For the first half of the season they have acquired the services of the current Sri Lankan second spinner Rangana Herath. Perhaps not as well known as Murali but he should not be underestimated. He's been around for a long time and has bowled excellently for his country this year, most notably against India who are of course very good players of spin, one would suspect better than most on the county circuit. He is a teasing bowling who never sacrifices flight, sometimes to his detriment, but when it starts dipping watch out. He has an arm ball which he uses sparingly and has also shown off the left handers version of the doosra which was quite a shock for many of the indian batsman. But he's only here for the first half of the season, hurrah! shout the batsmen. But Ajantha Mendis is coming for the second half. Ah, bugger. Mendis has lost some of his potency at international level. It seems a long time ago that he was bamboozling Rahul Dravid at Columbo (he dismissed him twice in the same game). This is purely down to the advent of television, the world class batsman have realised that he doesn't turn the ball a great deal and are less unsure of what he is going to bowl. He has also lost some of his nagging consistency, perhaps a symptom of trying to bowl so many different deliveries. In some games this has seen him use less variation, and of course without variation he loses some of his effectiveness, his standard off break just isn't that good. However. Many of the batsman at county level will never have faced him before, and no amount of video will prepare them for him. Expect wickets to fall aplenty and many confused faces to be seen trudging back to the clubhouse.

Oh and did I mention they also have Shahid Afridi for the 20/20, fresh from ringing for the Emirates XI in his hyper cool aviators. Bastards.

SURREY:

You may have seen a little of Piyush Chawla in 2007 when he was troubling Kevin Pietersen with his googlies in the ODI series against India. Or you may have heard about him bowling Sachin Tendulkar, again with a googly, before he had even played his first first-class game. Most likely you will have seen him playing for the ailing King's XI Punjab, his performances have been solid if not match winning but he has a better stock leg break than he had in previous years and his variation makes him a potential threat.

SUSSEX:

It's a fresh start for Monty Panesar. From Cult Hero to Ashes Hero to Practically Zero. That can basically sum up his progression over the last few years. His performances at both international and county level have declined with wickets in short supply. But he took 3-20 off 14 overs including 5 maidens in the first game of the season against Glamorgan. Yes they were all tail enders but spinners thrive on confidence and if he gets that up high again I can see no reason why he shouldn't have a terrific season, making hay in the long, hot summer (hopefully) and get himself on that plane to Australia come the winter. For Gods sake Monty, just develop an arm ball and keep bowling that delicious stock ball. Its enough!

WARWICKSHIRE:

They are such a small, insignificant county I was almost tempted to leave them out, but I shall include them on the list purely because it will please a certain friend of mine and because they have again brought back Imran Tahir as their overseas player. He's a leg break bowler who never really ignites the imagination but always does a very good job, very much like Kaneria in fact. He has had an interesting year, getting called up by the South African national side and then being told he is ineligible to play all in the same day. He will be eligible from December this year, but after their tour to India when he would have been the most use. Personally I hope this was not just one of those embarrassing Darren Pattinson style affairs and that they call him up again because if have to watch just one more over of Paul Harris I will be forced to hang myself from the nearest willow tree.

WORCESTERSHIRE:

Last but certainly not least, in the spin stakes anyway. Every reviewer has written off Worcestershire's chances of winning anything this year. Probably with good reason as well. We've lost Simon Jones and Kabir Ali which reduces the pace stocks. Gareth Batty has moved on as well, but its not all doom and gloom. A long, hot summer is predicted which will hopefully keep those vengeful floods at bay and give the wicket a chance to dry out for Shakib Al Hasan who is joining the Worcestershire ranks for the Championship campaign. He comes off the back of a good series against England and will be hoping that all Englishmen have as much trouble with left arm spin as KP does. His bowling style is unthrilling but also unflichingly accurate and he is currently ranked the number three all rounder in the world, so his batting is pretty handy as well. He could well be the star man this summer. In the 20/20 stakes Worcester have sprung a little surprise by landing young Steven Smith who The Top Spinner has of course written about before. He has a long way to go but he has proved he has the guts to get there and he's a dab hand out in the deep field, as he showed with some stunning catches for his country against Pakistan. Don't expect miracles in the Warne vein but do expect a very keen and exciting young leg spinner who'll bring a little flair to New Road.

Up The Creek Without An Adil

I have been meaning to write this article for a while now, the moment the England team was announced for the tour of Bangladesh in fact. But whilst the rest of the world has been discussing Andrew Strauss and his little holiday I was more concerned with other areas of the team selection. In fact I was horrified at the choice of backup spinners, only James Tredwell made the sheet and Adil Rashid has been sent back to his county for pre-season training. It seems my last article has proved somewhat prophetic. The BBC had only this to say:

"Surprisingly overlooked is Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid, the 21-year-old who has played five one-day internationals and five Twenty20 matches for England."

Surprising it is indeed, one could even call it a bloody travesty. The lad has been dragged around the world for the best part of three years and not once has been played in the format of the game which would most suit his talents and provide the best possible platform for him to progress, namely Test cricket. At least Adam Mountford had a marginally longer sentence on the subject:

"I feel a bit sorry for another Yorkshire player Adil Rashid, who after bowling in the nets all over the world in the past few years is not included on a tour where he may have had a real chance of playing in a Test."

Well at least he's a bit sorry. I for one am extremely sorry, I really thought that against a lesser Test country and in a spin friendly environment we would finally get to see Rashid on the big stage, bowling plenty of overs and showing us how good he could be. I was thrilled at the prospect of seeing his wares, the perfect leg break zipping from outside leg stump,  seeing which other balls he selected from the whole bag of tricks only the leg spinner knows. He has a lovely googly but he never has the time to set a batsman up to use the damn thing. I was to be sorely disappointed by the England  selectors. The real question is why? Naturally there has been huge expectation surrounding him as an English leg spinner, everyone gets excited at the thought we might have our own Shane Warne at long last, an unreasonable expectation at the best of times. The most obvious answer to his omission and probably both the truest and the bleakest is that his performances have simply not been good enough. As Bob Willis put it so succinctly 'they just don't fancy him'. 

He was given his longest run in the 20/20 World Cup last summer but in that crash bang wallop style of the game we never had to chance to really see what his bowling is all about. More recently he got a disastrous run against South Africa (see previous article) but again it was in the shorter forms of the game. As I argued before this is asking a man to run before he can walk. Some might argue that this is the way it is done these days, other spinners manage to come through the ODI teams and make it into the Test side. But I believe that every player is different, especially in the case of spinners, and what may suit one character may not suit another. 

Let us compare Rashid's fortunes with that of another young, talented leggie, Steve Smith of New South Wales and now Australia (he played his first 20/20 in the thriller against Pakistan last week). Smith is being touted as the Next Big Thing in Australian spin. God knows the Aussies love a leggie and they are really hoping this one can last longer than his predecessors. No matter how much Nathan Hauritz's reputation grows, which it has appreciably, they will always be on the hunt for a proper replacement for Shane Warne. And with that chubby face and shock of blonde hair Smith may be just that. His leg spin is classical, with an unfussy run up and a good seam position. I mention this mostly because I feel that a major fault in Rashid's bowling is his seam position, he releases the ball with a kind of gyroscopic effect. Consequently he is sacrificing drift by having a scrambled seam, you'll notice how rarely he beats a batsman through the air. 

As well as having a technical advantage Smith unlike Rashid has done well in the short formats, neither sacrificing flight nor spin along the way, as reflected in his figures in his first international match 4-0-2-34. one of those overs went for 18 and it was obvious he was a little awed by the occasion but he rallied and came back well never resorting to bowling a negative line. Clearly he is a tough character. One of his wickets was a real beauty with Rana Naved totally deceived in flight and stumped cleanly by Haddin. A joy to watch, especially in 20/20 when it so rarely happens. Did I mention he is also more than handy with the bat? Perhaps a little too handy, Peter Roebuck in his article Thirteen to Watch (http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/443682.html) thinks he will make it as an all-rounder rather than a specialist spinner. Let's hope not. I despise this focus on spinners being able to bat, if they can bat, great, but never let that overtake their bowling if they show real promise.

Roebuck also says that he 'has a sound father and a strong club and so can survive the hype' and that is what it is all about, surviving the hype and I am no longer sure that Adil Rashid can. Are England doing him a great disservice by not including him in the tour to Bangladesh? Or are they justified in their decision? Has the hype been so much hot air? I don't think so, I do think he needs to toughen up and that he needs to forget about the weight of expectation and just loosen up. Hopefully the media will forget about him and leave him alone whilst he goes off and does what every good spinner does, work on his craft and come back stronger. Just look at Graham Swann.  I personally believe they should have taken a chance on him for this tour, he may have proved to be their trump card or at least picked up some genuinely valuable experience. England are happy to leave without their Captain but unwilling to take a chance with a second spinner. As always England seem to have their priorities out of whack.

England win against SA, but at what cost?

Yesterdays match was one of the most English things I have ever witnessed. Not so much a testament to skill but to sheer persistence.It may sound harsh but in many ways it was a triumph of mediocrity over sheer ability. Collingwood is  the epitome of the hard grafter. Lets not take away the fact the guy actually is a talented cricketer, he's easily in the top three fielders in the world, but he is hardly the most stylish or powerful batsman, nor is he the the fastest or most guileful bowler. But he is a fantastically tough guy, he has come back from more knockdowns than any cricketer, or even human being, should rightfully have to sustain. There are many players out there who can learn from his example, far greater gifted players I might add (are you listening Bopara, Bell, Shah). If only they had his mentality perhaps they would still be playing regularly, or at all, for England. 
But enough about Colly, lets talk about Strauss. The commentators were piling on the praise for his captaincy yesterday, not so the case with his fielding but we'll forget that, and he deserved it. He recognised that the pitch was distinctly un-south african in its nature. Taking neither pace nor spin well.Step up Colly and Jonathan Trott. See what I mean? How English can you get? You've brought in your promising leg spinner and a pace bowler, and who gets a bowl? Your opening batsman and the number four. I cannot think of any team in the world that would do this apart from England, it was like watching the county championship at times.But it worked. Now there is no need to talk about why he left out Mahmood till the end, it was plainly not just that pace was failing miserably. He looks totally out of depth; no matter how much he blames the bad balls on cramp. As soon as Broad returns he will be back carrying the drinks, his time in international cricket really is finished.

I am more concerned about Adil Rashid. He is having a really tough time of it at the moment. He has finally been brought into the team this year after an extremely long period of waiting in the wings. He has not exactly set the world alight with his bowling and his confidence will have been dented by the four overs he has been afforded in the series so far. 25 from one over in the Pro20, 27 from three overs yesterday and not a wicket to show for it. The only decent ball he has bowled has been one good googly to Graham Smith. Does Strauss simply not trust him? Possibly. Leg spin is a difficult art at the best of times and on a non turning, tennis bally sort of pitch it can be a nightmare. So on the one hand he is protecting his young spinner but on the other he was worried that a few more costly overs could have cost England the game. This might be good captaincy in the short term but is Rashid going to be molly coddled like this in the future? He has to learn to bowl well on the difficult days, a leg spinner needs overs under his belt. Personally I would argue that he is being asked to run before he can walk. Naturally a leg spinner should make his start in test cricket where he can bowl a multitude of overs without the kind of pressure on accuracy and economy associated with the shorter forms of the game. This attitude towards spin is a symptom of the modern game, and a detrimental one. Rashid cannot get in to the test side because Swann currently occupies that berth, so he is restricted to ODI and 20/20. His batting aptitude would also suggest that this is a good place for him. But this kind of thinking is counter productive to the formation of a good leg break artist. England have to be extremely careful that his talents are not misused and, ultimately, wasted.