Spin-attack: India crafting the changing face of World Cricket

India’s greatest strength over the last two years in International cricket has been what has been our traditional weapon, spin. There are two main reasons for that, one that India has played a lot of cricket in the sub-continent and now on the slow turning pitches in the West Indies. The second reason is that spin has risen enormously in stature in general over the last couple of years. This might be because of the coming of T-20 and teams realizing the economical role that spinners can play. Spinners have been used as death bowlers, as opening bowlers and as wicket takers. They have assumed and fulfilled every role to perfection.

Traditionally teams like the West Indies, England and New Zealand did not have quality spinners and it was very rare that they played more than one spinner. In fact some-times part time bowlers used to fulfill that role in the team but now things have changed. England have been playing two spinners in test cricket and in their one-day team recently and Graeme Swann is arguable considered the best off-spinner in the world. No-one can forget the rage that Monty Panesar was in England but for his poor fielding. South Africa have been blessed by a bowler of as high quality as Johan Botha is, an excellent exponent of spin in the T-20 format especially.

This change has however not gone down very well with cricket lovers and fast bowlers. It is highly enjoyable to watch a quality spinner like Anil Kumble, Shane Warne or Muttiah Muralitharan bowl although it is an infinitely good experience to watch a steaming pace bowler run in with a bouncer. The latter image has been diminishing from world cricket. That is not all. Even the spin department has suffered in terms of match winning wicket takers – the mind-set that has come into play is that spinners look to contain in limited overs cricket and not attack. This might also be the reason of alarming extinction of quality leg-spin bowling in cricket.

There is a further cause to these changes that are not necessarily good for the game. With the limited over formats dominating the game of cricket, pitches are being prepared customized for batsmen who like to play free flowing shots. These pitches are spinner friendly but only to the extent that they turn. Bounce and pace of the wicket have almost disappeared thus the lack of wickets. Consider the example of Harbhajan SIngh, who has been showing tremendous economy in his bowling but he goes wicket-less or with a rare wicket in ODI’s.

It is not to be argued that India have the greatest spin arsenal in the world at the moment with the likes of Amit Mishra, R.Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh. They are also by a good fortune the world champions which is not a mere coincidence. There is another reason that i may devilishly trace in this context. The increasing dominance of India in world cricket and the centre shifting from England-Australia to the sub-continent and rivalries like India-Pakistan is another reason for the diminishing fast bowlers in world cricket. The pitches in the sub-continent are tailored to the choice of batsmen-heavy sub-continent sides and thus support spin as well. Mr. Tony Greig asserted in meaning, that India is a super-power to say so in world cricket now and the board of Cricket Control in India the monitoring body than the International Council. These may seem pretty exaggerated but the shift is truly marked.

The consequences of such a change are not just negative but grey. India enjoys the love of 120 crore cricket crazy fans and the commercial nature of sport has forced the transformation. From TV viewership rights, to pitches, to the selection of a side – everything affects the game in a certain way. Whether we like it or not, we will see an increasingly morbid phase in cricket if spinners become ‘economists’ and fast bowlers keep wrapping their fingers around the bowl now and then. The ICC must alert itself of these embryonic demons and get rid of such partial pitches. The upcoming series between India and England in England will be a throwback to the bygone ages as their will be a contest between spin and quality pace. That is one series cricket fans should not miss a ball of.