Cricket Diary: Warne's warning over Aussie spin worries

By Richard Gibson

The dearth of homegrown spinners in Australia has been highlighted just days after their best of all-time Shane Warne published his vision for their future development.

Just two Australian-qualified spin bowlers were selected across the six state teams in the penultimate round of Sheffield Shield matches, in a move that railed against Warne’s call for them to learn their trade in the first-class environment.

Legendary leg-spinner Warne believes it would be better for their development to shun Twenty20 in favour on four-day cricket yet only the left-arm duo of Western Australia teenager Ashton Agar and Steve O’Keefe, of New South Wales, were selected. Queensland and Tasmania opted for all-pace attacks in their clash at the Gabba while the spots for the top two teams in the Shield standings Victoria and South Australia are occupied by Pakistani Fawad Ahmed and South African Johan Botha respectively.

On his website www.shanewarne.com Warne urged states to invest time in young talent and insisted their primary target should be to spin the ball, not look to contain.

It came in the wake of English counties considering offering financial incentives to counties who fielded two frontline spinners in matches.

"The problem lies in what we expect from our young spin bowlers and the way they are handled at domestic level by their captains and coaches,” Warne wrote.

“The attitude should always be about taking wickets and not about economy rates: 4 for 100 off 25 overs is a good result and better than 2 for 60 off 25 overs.   

“They also need to play under a captain who is prepared to back the spinner and play them in all 10 Shield games, not just in Adelaide or Sydney where the ball spins. This way, the spinner gets experience in all the different conditions and the good spinners will adapt and find a way to be successful.”

Of the top 20 most prolific bowlers in the first eight rounds of Shield matches this winter, 19 of them were pacemen with O’Keefe punctuating the list at number 17.

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It is perhaps no wonder then that there is talk around the Australian game of Pakistani Ahmed being a serious contender for back-to-back Ashes series this year.

Leg-spinner Ahmed, who has represented both Melbourne Renegades and Victoria since being granted political asylum last November, becomes available for selection from August 18 – the date at which he will have satisfied the International Cricket Council’s residency criteria of living for a minimum period of 183 days per year in the adopted country for a period of four consecutive years.

However, the 31-year-old would qualify sooner if Cricket Australia manages to expedite his collection of a passport. A Cricket Australia spokesman said: “We note that should Fawad be granted Australian citizenship and an Australian passport before that date, he would be immediately eligible for consideration for national selection.

"Players like Fawad from non-traditional backgrounds competing ...... possibly in the future at a higher level will reinforce that cricket is a sport for all Australians.”

A clause exists in Australian law for elite sports people to be fast-tracked – one which has been used frequently in recent years to allow recent immigrants to represent Australia in the Olympic Games.

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While one cricketer has been welcomed into the Australian system, there are moves afoot to stop another parachuting out – and it could spell trouble for Glamorgan.

Western Australia coach Justin Langer is determined to dissuade fast bowler Michael Hogan from joining the Welsh county on a two-year deal as planned.

Hogan, 31, holds a British passport and would forego being able to play in Australia as a local should he complete the move, which he has already delayed once. His original arrival date was scheduled for midway through the 2012 English season.

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Date: 07/03/2013 11:29:58 by Richard Gibson
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