Spinners turn to Jenner (3 February 1999)
THE first tangible sign that England are taking genuine steps to catch up rival nations in the match-winning art of wrist spin bowling came yesterday with the news that two talented 16-year-olds are to go to Australia for specialist coaching
03-Jan-1999
3 February 1999
Spinners turn to Jenner
By Christopher Martin-Jenkins
THE first tangible sign that England are taking genuine steps to
catch up rival nations in the match-winning art of wrist spin
bowling came yesterday with the news that two talented
16-year-olds are to go to Australia for specialist coaching.
The two right-handed leg-spinners, who have both been on the
fringe of England under-17 teams, were chosen after a sifting of
more than 300 young bowlers organised throughout last year by the
England and Wales Cricket Board.
Geraint Bowers from Crickhowell in Powys and Matthew Gitsham from
Wembdon, Somerset, will travel to Adelaide on two £3,000
scholarships awarded by the Brian Johnston Memorial Trust. They
will spend two weeks at the Australian Cricket Academy where
Shane Warne refined his art under the eye of the former
Australian leg-spinner Terry Jenner.
Jenner was one of the experts who helped English coaches to
evaluate the young talent recommended to the ECB last year by the
first-class and minor counties. The young bowlers thought to have
particular ability were invited to attend regular sessions with
specialist wrist-spinning coaches such as Robin Hobbs and Mushtaq
Mohammed. The process is continuing this year with a view to
sending two promising bowlers to Australia each year.
Brian Johnston scholarships and awards are normally given to
young cricketers in financial need or to schools in deprived
areas needing equipment but Chris Atkinson, the chief executive
of the Trust, said that in view of the urgent need for
leg-spinners and for batsmen to play with and against them, these
special awards would pay dividends for all concerned.
Tim Boon, the former Leicestershire batsman, now the ECB's
national coach in the south, will accompany the boys, partly to
gain experience of the methods used at the Adelaide academy.
He said: "These two boys have tremendous promise and we are
hoping that before long we will find a 'freak' like Warne: a once
in a century bowler."
It is probably significant that both bowlers attend schools with
a cricketing pedigree: Gitsham is at Queen's, Taunton and Bowers
at Christ College, Brecon.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)