Isn't this more about when we play abroad though? We always tend to struggle with our bowling over in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka don't we. We never seem to have enough spin options. Swanny's gone. The only decent options we have are Ali and Rashid?
No argument about the shortage of spinners mate, no arguments at all but Warne took 800 (?) wickets on pitches made for the Thompson & Lillee types. Daniel Vettori was another. I was just wondering if it was more about coaches than pitches.
I've obviously only heard half the story and decided to make the rest up!! I agree with the fact we need more spinners but I'm not so sure it's the best way to go about it. Kind of agree with grandpops that we need to do more at a lower level with the juniors who'll end up coming through. Greame Swann was saying its to do with the coaching as they're being coached out of giving it a good old rip.
True that. In other countries the wickets are more consistent and won't change anyway near the amount that pitches over here seem to. Spinners are an equal asset in most other countries and its not that uncommon for them to open the bowling in some matches. It gives teams more options. Over here it has always been the case that we open with our seamers and only once the pitch starts to break up during the course of the test match, do we bring our spinners on. Sometimes, we don't even see any spin bowling until the 2nd innings. We prioritise pace bowling and it looks like the ECB want to encourage more spinners and the way we view/approach the game. This will give us another dimension.
I can understand absolutely we need better spinners. The last one before Swann would be Ashley Giles? My concern is that changing the pitches to do it might be to the detriment of the quickies and they`re our bread and butter. I`m not convinced it`s more of a coaching problem tbh.
