Spin bowling is my passion.  Nothing gets the juices flowing like seeing an artist at work, bedazzling batsmen with his craft.  The art involved in spin bowling is nothing like the other skills of cricket.  For a start most captains find it difficult to regard the spin bowler as an integral part of his strike force and utilize the bowler as a ‘buyer’ of wickets.  This is very demoralizing to the bowler and also points to a glaring lack of insight by captains as to the role that the spinner can play.

A spinner is also laid bare before opposing batsman.  His lack of pace  makes him susceptible to collecting a multiplicity of air miles if he strays from line and length.  The lack of pace means that the spinner has to have other means of beating the bat.  The most important of  these is spinning the ball.  This is the mainstay of your arsenal as a spin bowler.  Without spin you are only a slow bowler who will meet with limited success.

My  advice to young spin bowlers echoes that of  Terry Jenner in Wisden (UK) of April 2005:  “Don’t sacrifice spin early in your career to bowl line and length to satisfy the captain”. This is difficult for any developing talent as you need, and want to make the team and bowl well.

So, do you accept playing in the lower leagues where you can afford to be a bit wayward but are slowly developing the ability to bowl accurately with much spin, or do you want to play in the first team as early as possible and risk seriously hampering what could have been a flourishing career?  This is a pertinent point and one which can be very difficult to decide on if the correct mentorship is not available. The young player also needs to be mature enough to see the vision for his development – This is easier said than done!

At SASA the support system for all young spin bowlers have been set in place and can assist and guide in the aforementioned scenario.  Lets develop spin bowling in South Africa so that it can take it’s rightful place as the ultimate cricket skill!

Keep practising and keep in contact!