After years of enduring the likes of Eddie Hemmings and Nick Cook (remember him? The one that couldn’t actually let go of the ball) it still seems bizarre that we’ve got the world’s number one slow bowler. Spinners used to be the ones that tormented us, not the other way around.
Some of you might have been alive during the days of Hedley Verity, or perhaps more realistically, Jim Laker, but back then I was just a glint in wannabe popstar’s eyes. Since the 1950s, the story of England and spin bowlers matched that of my Dad’s rock band, which promised much but ultimately failed to achieve their dreams; their best song reached an agonising forty one in the charts.
A number of spin bowling pretenders like Keith Medlycott and Chris Schofield have come and gone since. They were dubbed ‘the next great hope’, but their careers floundered due to the burden of expectation and, alas, like Joe Joe Cook and the Protection Racket, a lack of talent.
But now, finally, it’s a different story. After a brief flirtation with Monty Panesar, who proved to be another false prophet (or are Sikh prophets called gurus?), we now have Graeme Swann. We love him. His teammates love him. And now reportedly one of India’s favourite sons loves him too.
After taking seven wickets in an innings in India’s deciding test against South Africa recently, Harbhajan Singh attributed his success to watching videos of, you guessed it, the architect of the Sprinkler Dance.
I won’t repeat everything the Asian turbanator said – you can read the full article here http://es.pn/eBplnt – but Harbhajan was certainly Singhing Swann’s praises. After describing England’s most famous cat owner as ‘a very smart bowler’ who has ‘a very nice action’ and ‘gets good loop’, Harbhajan said that Swanny showed him exactly the right way to bowl in South Africa i.e. wicket to wicket.
After struggling to take wickets in the first test, Harbhajan decided to copy Swann and bowl full and straight. It wasn’t rocket science, but it forced South Africa’s batsmen to play somewhat inside out if they wanted to drive through the offside, or sweep straight deliveries if they wanted to hit boundaries to the leg – which obviously brought lbw into play. As a result, Singh produced match swinging performances at Durban and Cape Town.
Harbhajan’s comments delighted me because after the retirement of Shane Warne, and the deterioration of Murali’s skills, I consider Singh to be the best spinner currently playing the game.
Whenever I heard Sir Beefy describing Swann as the world’s number one slow bowler during the Ashes (usually after Mike Hussey has just smashed him for another boundary), I always cringed because deep down I’ve always thought that Harbhajan was the better bowler.
However, the news that Singh is now copying Swann makes me think that Sir Ian might have been right – for once. With the World Cup on the horizon, Swann has the chance to prove he’s the best once and for all. The conditions should be tailor made for slow bowlers – and all the world’s best spinners, and Mike Yardy, will be on display.
Although I rate Swann highly, and I’d back him to perform at the World Cup, we should probably be a little cautious. Lots of bowlers have had purple patches in their careers, when the ball comes out beautifully, but then return to mediocrity soon afterwards. Remember the fanfare when Shahid Afridi emerged? He wasn’t the messiah, he was just a haughty boy.
Although I for one am expecting Swann to rediscover his form after an indifferent Ashes series, perhaps we shouldn’t expect too much. There are those who claim that Swanny is a good bowler, but not the world class operator us England fans think he is.
Maybe they have a point? Would Swann have been so effective ten years ago, when umpires refused to give batsmen out LBW on the front foot? I’m not sure. One thing’s for certain though, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and if Graeme Swann is good enough for Harbhajan Singh, that’s good enough for me.
James Morgan
I remember Swann’s first Test match at Chennai in December 2008 (we Indians love remembering that Test match!)… I also vividly recall his very first over in Test cricket, where he got an in-form Gautam Gambhir and an out-of-form-yet-formidable Rahul Dravid out.
To tell you honestly, I didn’t think much of Swann then. India is not a place to judge foreign spinners. While a Shane Warne and a Muttiah Muralitharan get clobbered here, a Jason Krejza picks up 12 in his debut Test and a Michael Clarke picks up a 6 for 9! So I reserved my judgement on Swann for later.
As it so happens, over time, I actually started thinking of Swann as better than Harbhajan Singh. Swann was flighting the ball well and bowling good lengths all the while… whereas Harbhajan had become a ‘quickish’ off-spinner and sporadic with his performances. I still hold that view today!
But as far as Swann in the World Cup is concerned, I am not too sure. I don’t think that Strauss will be able to use Swann well in the sub-continental conditions. And as I have already told you, the sub-continent is, more often than not, a less-than-successful place for outside spinners!
Thanks for your comments Shridhar, I think you could be right – although I do hope that Swann has a good tournament. Foreign spinners’ lack of success is one of the reasons why I’m tipping India for the World Cup. We all know the Indian team can be a little erratic at times, but I just can’t see other teams matching their ability to contain batting sides with slow bowling.
I think Australia’s lack of a quality spinner will hurt them. Although they beat a tired and injury ravaged England team at home in the CB series, I am not surprised that they have struggled in their warm-up matches thus far.
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I am now afraid of counting the Australians out. I made this mistake before the 2007 World Cup, when they were coming on the back of a 5-ODI losing streak. But then, they had Gilchrist and McGrath back then. Haddin is not, and will never be, Gilchrist… and as for McGrath, do they even have a replacement?
The Australian strategy of going in with a pace-pronged attack has a lot of my interest. But I don’t see how they can play Johnson and Tait in the same XI. I mean, from the Quarterfinals onwards, one bad day of one of them can spell disaster. Put two such bowlers together, there has to be at least one bad day from three.
As far as India is concerned, I know we have a very strong team. But I just don’t see our bowlers handling the pressure of the occasion when the big matches arrive. And the problem with this format is that there will be three big matches. I know that Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan would be wiser from the finals experience (as will be a lot of our batters, including Sachin Tendulkar)… but this will be a different ball game with the crowd pressure, level of expectation and the stage where they will be performing.
All valid points. The Indians will indeed be under a great deal of pressure, but after the year that Tendulkar has had, I wouldn’t bet against him scorring a century in the final and lifting the World Cup. It’s the fairytale that would cap his career – and something he deserves to achieve. That’s my inkling anyway!