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Spinning out of control

While BCCI has opted for seamer-friendly tracks at home to help bowlers and batsmen get used to foreign conditions, the move has inadvertently resulted in diminishing its strength — art of spin bowling

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Harbhajan Singh—Mat: 2, Wkts: 2Piyush Chawla—Mat: 4, Wkts: 7Amit Mishra—Mat: 4, Wkts: 5
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This is one spin in the tale India would rather not have.

For long, spin bowling has been India's identity and strength. While the quartet of Bedi, Chandrashekar, Prasanna and Venkatraghavan produced a pleasing harmony on the field, the nimble-footed Indian batsman took many world-class spinners apart.

However, if one is following the ongoing series Down Under, the legacy of Indians as masters of spin, in both bowling and batting, seems to be a thing of the past. Bowlers are failing to get the bite and batsmen appear to have no clue about turners.

Rather, it is Australia that is dominating on this front. Off-spinner Nathan Lyon has outbowled his contemporary from India — offie R Ashwin. The Aussie has picked up 20 wickets from four games while the visiting bowler has eight from three.

To understand what's wrong with Indian turners, it would be worthwhile to look at the statistics of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season. There isn't a single spinner in the top-ten wicket-takers list.

Rather it comprises only seamers led by Rajasthan's Pankaj Singh with 24 wickets.

Dig deeper and there are just two spinners in the top-20. Tamil Nadu's Malolan Rangarajan (18) and Baroda left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh (19) are the only tweakers on the list.

So what could be the reason behind the decline of spinners? Some say it is the guidelines of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to have grass on the wicket that will help develop good fast bowlers and batsmen get used to the challenging conditions in England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

On Thursday, after the drawn match between Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh at the Wankhede Stadium, the debate of too much grass on wickets ensued. Seamers had most of the say and the batsmen found it easy from the second day onwards. There was nothing for spinners. Mumbai left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla, MP slow left-arm Ankit Sharma and offie Jalaj Saxena did not appear threatening at all.

Even India discard and off spinner Harbhajan Singh recently had criticised BCCI's initiative of preparing seamer-friendly wickets that gave "fake confidence" to the seamers.

"I don't have an issue with leaving grass on the wicket," Harbhajan told ESPNcricinfo recently. "But we shouldn't leave so much grass where even a 120-kph bowler appears like Malcolm Marshall. It is okay if someone bowling 120 looks like 125 but he shouldn't appear unplayable. Our wickets make such bowlers look unplayable. Some of these bowlers end up picking 50 wickets in a season. So you can't ignore them. When such a bowler is picked for international cricket, he gets exposed while bowling on a slightly drier surface. The ball doesn't reach the batsman."

The Mumbai team management is also unhappy with the wickets. "The wickets seems to be seamer friendly wherever we have toured. Spinners don't have a role to play. How can we play two spinners when the wicket has a lot of grass on it," asked an official of the Mumbai team.

When quizzed, one of the officials of the Wankhede Stadium's ground committee said: "We are following the BCCI guidelines and leaving three milimetres grass on the pitch. We are doing what we have been told to."
The BCCI's pitches and ground committee said it has given instructions to prepare sporting tracks.

"We stress on having sporting wickets. First day there should be some moisture that will help the seamers, then something for batsman and the wicket should help the spinners towards the end," said Daljit Singh the chief of the committee.

Meanwhile, another source said it was due to the delay in the tournament.

"Usually, Ranji starts from October. Due to the forthcoming World Cup, we started off with one-dayers moving the longer version to December. Then winter set in. The conditions are severe and bad due to weather. There is no sun and the wicket does not dry and the ball only swings. Only south India remains safe from this, where you will get good turning tracks" he said.

Former India leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani, who was here for the MP-Mumbai match, said he is upset that the spinners' role is getting diminished.

"What is this rule to have 3mm grass? From the first to the last day, the grass was there on the wicket. How would you expect the spinners to take wickets. The wickets should be sporting where everyone should have a say," said Hirwani. That apart, the spinners are not able to make use to the footmarks because there aren't any!

"First we thought that we don't have good fast bowlers then we started producing seamer-friendly wickets. Now the issue is we don't have wicket-taking spinners because there is no support for them from the wicket. Their turning skills on grass are not showcased because they don't know how to turn too," he said.

Former Mumbai skipper and off spinner Milind Rege, too, expressed concern. "Spin bowling was our identity. It was our strength. We were the land which produced Bedi, Prasanna, Raghavan and Chandrashekhar. Now we don't find any. We should change this. Seam bowling is not our strength and that we should realise," Rege said.

This problem is also affecting batting as the current Indian lot do not get to play against quality spin at the domestic level. One has to just look at how the visitors have struggled against Lyon to fathom this.

Lack of good results in away series may have prompted the BCCI to go for seamer-friendly tracks at home but the deterioration of spin is a side effect the board will have to avoid. And it is time for them to come up with a balancing act.

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