The search for the next Warne

From Michael Sheppard, Australia
Since the retirements of Shane Warne, Stuart MacGill and Brad Hogg, the search for the next Australian spinner has continued with little success. Cricket Australia are aware of the issue; indeed, they have recently appointed Shane Warne in a consultative role to discuss the art of spin bowling with the captains of the Australian States and to mentor young spin bowlers. It is far too early to pass any judgment on what this role will actually achieve, but it is clear that Cricket Australia are attempting to be productive.

This is evident in the fact that Daniel Cullen, Cullen Bailey, Daniel Doran, Beau Casson, Cameron white, Steven Smith, Stephen O'Keefe, Jon Holland and Aaron Heal have been invited to the Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence, which is run by Cricket Australia and the Australian institute of Sport, in the hope that one or more of the invitees would go back to their states with the armoury capable of allowing them to succeed. The Australian selectors briefly considered Daniel Cullen and Cullen Bailey sufficiently promising to confer upon them Cricket Australia contracts and, in more recent times, they have given Beau Casson and Cameron White contracts. The unavoidable truth for most of the above players is that after attending the Centre of Excellence (which they were selected to attend on their promise or on their merits as spin bowlers), they have all regressed.

In Daniel Cullen's first year, he spun the ball prodigiously and was not afraid to use his variations. He took an amazing swag of wickets and was talked of as the next test spinner for Australia after MacGill and Warne. Cullen Bailey aggressively flighted the ball and attacked - looking always for wickets. After receiving their respective contracts and attending the Centre of Excellence, however, the two Cullen (s) lost their way. Cullen Bailey was reduced to bowling in a net, with a rope tied half way down from one side to the other, so he could find the flight that had deserted him. Same too Daniel Doran, who leapt on to the first class scene, spinning the ball and claiming wickets like his hero, Shane Warne. After attending the Centre of Excellence and enduring the ignorance of Jimmy Maher (his Queensland captain), he also faded in the reckoning. Although Beau Casson has now been picked for Australia, performing adequately in the West Indies, his career stalled terribly after attending the academy. He was unable to gain a place in the New South Wales side and was forced to change his action.

In Ashley Mallett's excellent biography of Clarrie Grimmett, the wizardly leg spinner that played for Australian in the 1920's and 1930's, he describes how important Grimmett and his bowling partner, the fiery Bill 'Tiger' O'reilly, considered developing one's own style of bowling. The commentator Kerry O'Keeffe tells of the time he saw Cameron White play cricket as a teenager and being able to spin the ball the way in which he wanted - a skill which O'keeffe believes is less evident for Cameron White in present time. The question is, therefore, are the coaches tinkering excessively with the techniques of the young spinners entrusted into their care? Is this the reason Australia fails to produce bowlers like Muttiah Muralitharan or Ajantha Mendis, great bowlers but who possess a curious technique? Would Clarrie Grimmett be instructed not to keep his arm so low, or tiger O'Reilly told not to bowl so fast if they were beginning to spin today? I hope not, but I have my doubts.