Editor's Blog

Get us a beer i'm parched...

Once upon a time, India’s conveyor belt of spin-craft churned out unrivalled amounts of technicians. So prolific, they used to jump off the shopping shelves quicker than a Nintendo Wii.

Brought up watching the likes of Bisham Bedi, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, students of spin bowling weren’t just interested in how the great Bedi orchestrated the revelations or switched between deliveries - the critic at the other end was equally as crucial.
 
Nowadays, in the era of all-action Twenty20 cricket, India’s pace and attitude towards spin has visibly changed. No longer dedicated and driven by subterfuge, guts and manual labour, the brisk path to stardom has overtaken the desire for courage.

Observing the way Messrs Tendulkar, Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman & Co capitulated to the two Sri-Lankan artists Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis in the first Test, sounded the alarm bells. Have India given up on spin?

Whether through a lack of preparation against top-quality bowling or just following the wicked way of the cricketing world, India’s batsmen were intent on pursuing the aggressive line, charming the viewers and entertaining the billionaires with million-dollar cricket shots.

Even if India had reserved a third or fourth innings, they still wouldn’t have surpassed the 239 needed to make Sri-Lanka bat again.

Fine, Anil Kumble is not what he once was - he is pushing on - relying too heavily on his change of pace, and Harbhajan Singh’s form fluctuates like the British weather, but where is the next Kumble? This is a country with no historical issues of chucking a 17-year-old leggie in at the deep end.

Patience was once a virtue associated with cricket. Harbouring your wicket through tiring tribulations and tortuous battles with expert bowlers such as Shane Warne was a victory in itself.

India’s batsmen displayed as much courage as a playground bully against Murali and Mendis, merely chasing titles on the sixes league, practicing for the next Twenty20 cup, or worse still, the pot of gold at the end of cricket’s cash-ready rainbow.

Should we be concerned?

What's happening to English cricket? There are more South African's playing county cricket than the amount of beers David Boon can skull on a 24-hour flight, or so it seems anyway.

Leicestershire are sitting nervously in the dock as the biggest guilty party, fielding five South African's, a West Indian and an Aussie (with an English passport) all under the dreaded Kolpak rule. It's become such a taboo subject that even the mention of the word is like an informant in World War Two discussing the enemy front-line position down a dark back alley.

Numbers have almost doubled since last year and there is even a worrying alert that New Zealand and Australian cricketers could soon be making their way to English pavilions next summer.

While the county championship has marginally improved and the rumblings over stifling young English talent continue to echo loudly from every national newspaper, puritan and ECB employee in the land, surely those entrusted with harnessing our beloved national sport should do something about it.

Here's an idea! Start flooding the non-Test venue counties with some extra wedge so they build up their academies or recruit from the pool of international-fringe players such as James Dalrymple or Usman Afzaal rather than losing out to the likes of Nottinghamshire as was the case with Stuart Broad. Just a thought?

The counties with the big problems such as Leicestershire and Northamptonshire could find themselves in a pickle in the near future, especially considering the clear majority favours a cull in the number of counties that are barely scraping an English side together.