A Spinner's plight.

Monty Panesar’s signing for Essex is another nail in the coffin of Tom Craddock’s chances of breaking through into the county game and is another indicator towards the growing trend of a lack of chances for 20 something English spinners in the county championship. Panesar was immediately replaced at Sussex by Ashar Zaidi, a 32 year old Karachi born naturalised Brit who is more an allrounder but bowls some round arm spin. Will Beer, 25, managed a couple of games before been sent back to the 2^nd xi. Craddock, 24, shows good control (moreso than his contemporaries in the English game, Borthwick and Rashid) and turns his leg break a decent distance.

 

Tom Craddock: Talented but struggling to get regular cricket. Path now blocked by Monty Panesar.

There is no doubt it is tough for a young spinner especially leg spin as in the case of Beer and Craddock. Conditions in England, contrary to the last ashes series are considerably more favourable to seamers. Counties are much more likely to favour a batsman who can bowl a little medium pace than an unproven frontline spinner. Benny Howell, Darren Stevens, Jim Allenby all contribute to their counties with 20 or 30 wickets a season barely bowling at speeds over 70mph. This bowling will never be required or used at international level should they be selected for their batting but it is vital for the counties on the green seamers that frequent county cricket and are especially prevalent in the second division. It is now true that unless you are an elite spinner (at county standard) like Simon Kerrigan or Monty Panesar chances are you’re going to need to contribute with the bat and in the field if you want to make the team as a spin bowler- something Tom Craddock knows too well.

Monty Panesar: An exceptional bowler at county level.

In a startling fact only 4 English spinners under 30 have taken 50+ wickets over the course of the last two seasons as shown in the table below.

Name	Matches	Overs	Wickets	Average	Age
Kerrigan	28	979.1	101	26.96	24
Ali	32	568.5	61	30.25	26
Wainwright	25	823.5	61	37.77	28
Rayner	23	562	56	26.55	28

The rest: Dockrell(48 wickets), Rashid(45), Borthwick(43), S Patel(40), Dawson(32), Rafiq(27), Briggs(27).

Until a spinner returns season after season taking lots of wickets it’s hard to be seriously considered good enough for test cricket. Monty Panesar and Simon Kerrigan are the only two Englishmen that can claim to attain to that standard - and we know how Simon Kerrigan's debut turned out; so county wickets alone is no guarantee of success at international level but until you start taking them you shouldn't be considered. Even in the YB40 and T20 this past season there was a distinct lack of young spinners taking wickets which actually goes against the general trend of the last few seasons where spin has played a key part. There are more opportunities in the shorter format with pace bowlers rested and wearing wickets but the past season was marked by how unimpressive and inconspicuous the spin bowling was, with much of it lacking aggression and guile and too many overs used up by part time spinners bowling flat darts. 

At present there is no imminent danger for England with Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar strong spinners but both are the wrong side of 30 and the time will come in a few years for them to both move on. Given the scarcity of current options, the lack of opportunities and weak performances from the current 20-somethings it could well be a worrying time. Even more worrisome is the doomsday scenario of Swann’s elbow causing a premature retirement and Panesar continuing his current decline and in 6 months England could be left in big trouble – let’s hope this doesn’t come to fruition any time soon. 

Graeme Swann: Vital to England

 If we did get to that point in 4 years time for instance with no outstanding spinner in county cricket they may be forced into some unconventional thinking and selecting a team without a frontline spinner. Moeen Ali and Scott Borthwick were two of the success stories of the 2013 season as both had career best seasons with the bat. Borthwick promoted to 3 shone in Durham’s championship winning season and played with good discipline and sound technique to conquer the fertile Chester-Le-Street wicket. Ali was more dominant but in the second division. Both have limitations as batsmen. This was only Borthwick’s 2^nd season at the top of the order and he needs continued success to forge a career in the top order. Ali struggled in the first division the previous two years and his adaption to the very slow and low wicket of Worcester (and many other second division wickets) could well prove a hindrance in proving his suitability for test batting. 

With that in mind both have improved their batting this season and with continued success they will push hard. Their spin bowling at this time is limited. Borthwick is too erratic and whilst he can be a wicket-taker he often strays on the full side and is expensive. Ali gets good turn but bowls quite slowly and can be hit out of the attack by a talented batsman capable of using their feet. Neither bowls an extensive amount of overs and Borthwick in particular can go weeks without a serious bowl.

England could be forced into a team such as this in 2018.

Cook, Root, Borthwick, Bell, Ballance, Ali, Bairstow, Stokes, Broad, Finn, Topley

In an ideal world a frontline spinner would be selected but if the options are limited England may be best hedging their bets by picking two average spinners who strengthen the batting and offer differing options with the ball. If they were both off-spinners or leg-spinners it wouldn’t work but the balance that playing two contrasting albeit limited spinners would be beneficial to the team in different conditions. 

Moeen Ali: Could he provide control as a spinner?

Scott Borthwick: A potential England No.3?

It’s a long way away but it’s as likely as any other scenario at present once Swann and Panesar are no longer options. Kerrigan has been comfortably the best spinner in county cricket over the last couple of years but his test debut will not be easily forgotten and it’s hard to see him getting an opportunity again whilst Cook is captain. You couldn’t pick any other spinner out of county cricket with any kind of certainty to play for England. There are decent prospects in Ravi Patel, Azeem Rafiq and Adam Riley as well as some talented youngsters like Miles Hammond, Tom Shrewsbury and Sam Wood but until any of them put together season after season of performances they are nothing more than vague prospects.

One only has to look at England spinners from past u19 world cups to see the fallacy of resting any hopes in an English spinner too young. Only Graeme Swann in the 14 years of 7 U19 world cups (let’s discount the 1988 version) has turned out to be a regular frontline spinner at county level. Allrounders such as Tom Westley and Liam Dawson of the 2007/08 edition have gradually became batsmen who occasionally bowl and many of the specialists such as Paul McMahon (2002) and Mark Lawson (2004) have dropped out of the game completely.

 

Mark Lawson: Now a spin bowling coach

To rectify the problem there may need to be radical thinking. Young spinners are simply not getting enough time or overs to bowl. As a country England players tend to be underdeveloped in comparison to other nations up to the u19 level simply because they don’t play enough and this is especially prevalent in spin bowlers who need years of practising their craft before they can maintain their consistency. Too often a young spinner sees no way of forcing their way into regular county cricket and lose their enthusiasm and are lost to the game. It’s easy and profitable to shove the ball to the fourth seamer rather than the spinner in county first and second xi cricket. Maybe there needs to be some incentive based system to promote spinners bowling overs- possibly only in the second division. Too strict a system where spinners are required to bowl a certain amount of overs will give the game an artificial look. English conditions aren’t such that there are no opportunities for spinners. In general it’s a better place to bowl spin that any of Australia, New Zealand or South Africa. Many overseas spinners come here and dominate and it has been no different in test cricket. There should be no reason why English spinners shouldn’t prosper; At least in the short term I’d settle for them bowling more overs. 

Hopefully a talent like Tom Craddock is given the time he requires to make it at first class level and he isn’t lost to cricket like so many other spinners who have fallen by the wayside. If he and other young spinners continue to do so England could be left short on talent and county cricket will be far less exciting.