Does Indian lack quality spinners?
It comes as a
whiff of fresh air when a senior India cricketer, who has been there and done
that, makes an effort to speak honestly about the game.
Sachin Tendulkar did that last season when he
spoke about the need for the Ranji Trophy knockout games to be played on a
home-and-away basis. This time, it is VVS Laxman who has gone on record saying
"India does not have any bench strength in the spin department and the
country is struggling to find quality spinners."
Laxman's worries deserve a hearing. For starters,
here's a bit of disturbing information that the board can check out. A young
spinner (who doesn't want to be named for obvious reasons) is in the Board's
list of 42 bowlers with suspect action.
The youngster feels he is talented but a victim of
board's unfair ways. At the age of 18, he is ready to argue that if Harbhajan
Singh's action is fine, then so is his. At his
age, he knows he's wrong but he is more adamant about why Harbhajan is where he
is while a young "aspiring" spinner is targeted.
Former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi guffawed
when asked for his views. "These are unpleasant discussions and nobody
wants unpleasant discussions," he says. "That's how the
administration is."
lull before the storm.
Player Facts
42: Number of players in the list of
bowlers with suspect action
Available talent
as per domestic records (2008-09, 2009-10): Piyush Chawla, Ravindra Jadeja,
Iqbal Abdulla, Mannan Sharma, Harpreet Singh, R Ashwin
Young spinners
in Ranji (Among top 10):
2009-10: Iqbal Abdulla and Piyush Chawla
with 32 wickets apiece
2008-09: Ravindra Jadeja (42), Mohnish
Parmar (41; suspect)
2007-08: None
Men in charge:
Ravi Shastri: Chairman, National Cricket Academy
(NCA)
R Sridhar: Spin bowling coach at the NCA
Raghuram Bhat: Spin bowling coach at MAC
Foundation, Chennai and former NCA coach
"Piyush
Chawla is good but he has a technical defect with his front-arm action. Someone
needs to spend time with him and work on his action," feels former India
spinner Maninder Singh.
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