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.