Shane Warne says young spinners are being coached the wrong way
Shane Warne has suggested quarantining promising young spinners from T20 cricket until they learn the patience required to succeed in the Test arena.
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Shane Warne believes Australia should consider a radical selection plan to find its next Test leg-spinner to counter white-ball coaching methods which have turned the craft upside down.
It’s 12 years since leg-spinner Warne bowled the last of his 40,750 deliveries in Test cricket and had it not been for the emergence of off-spinner Nathan Lyon, Australia’s slow-bowling depth would have been cruelly exposed.
The exasperating search for new leg-spinners goes on with none anywhere near Test selection despite the emergence of the occasional promising youngster such as Tanveer Sangha, 17, who this week signed a Big Bash contract with the Sydney Thunder.
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Warne says the toughest thing for young leg-spinners is they are taught a method which is a complete contrast to the way he and many other famous leg-spinners before him learnt their craft.
“The hardest thing in Australia now for any young spinner is that when we were growing up in the 1980s you were taught to bowl the same ball time and again and the challenge was to have more patience than the opposition,’’ said Warne, who will commentate for Fox Cricket this summer.
“These days youngsters are taught never to bowl the same ball twice. When you bowl in the Big Bash or any other white ball cricket you bowl a different ball every ball.
“But when you start training for Test cricket you cannot bowl a different ball every ball. You need patience. It is about building a plan but they just never practice it.’’
Warne believes there is an argument to temporarily insulate top young spinners from the world of perpetual variety which is part of the white-ball scene.
“Part of me thinks we should be developing the next best spinners whoever they may be and saying ‘here is a big contract, you are not playing T20 for a year because we are concentrating on Tests’.
“If they are taught that way it would be easier for them to eventually adapt to the white-ball game but it’s very difficult to adapt the other way around.
“My leg-spinner was my stock ball. You have to be able to bowl that ball under pressure when you are being smashed. If they hit a good shot to a good ball, so be it.’’
Many young spinners such as Nepal’s outstanding Sandeep Lamichhane have watched Warne’s work closely on You Tube and tried to learn his tricks.
“When I heard that I thought ‘sheez’,’’ Warne said.
“But I look at my kids growing up and everything is on You Tube so there are going to be more kids coming through and learning from other bowlers like that as well.’’
Originally published as Shane Warne says young spinners are being coached the wrong way