GRAEME SWANN's RETIREMENT : Its impact on the world of spin
Shortly after Australia regained 'The Ashes' on 17 december 2013 by Defeating England in the 3rd test at Perth, England's star spinner Graeme Swann announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket. The news shocked the cricket enthusiasts around the world as it was the second blow to the English team, which was defending the urn down under, since their most experienced top order batsman Johnathan Trott left the tour midway, before the start of the 2nd test, citing stress. The already horrifying series for the visitors continued to haunt them till the very end as their abysmal performance led them to a 5-0 defeat to the Aussies, who were seen as the underdogs before the start of the series.
Graeme Swann's retirement is a big blow not only to English cricket but also to the world of spin. With Swann's exit from world cricket the quality of spin bowlers from outside the sub-continent has plummeted further and the onus of improving the reputation of such bowlers is now on bowlers, like Nathan Lyon (Australia), Robin Peterson (SA), Sunil Narine (WI), Monty Panesar (England) etc, who themselves are unstable in their respective teams.
The 34 year old off spinner from Northampton made his Test debut in 2008 and has been an integral part of the English team since as he played an instrumental role in its success and the concomitant reward that saw England usurping the throne from India as the number 1 test team in August 2011. In 2012, when Swann reached 194 test wickets, he became the most successful spinner ever to have spun the cricket ball for England beating Jim Laker's 193 wickets, a record set up way back in 1959. Swann retired with 255 wickets in 60 tests.
Swann was ranked among the top bowlers for the 6 years that he played international cricket. What made this spinner, from a place where fast bowlers are preferred over spinners, leave his marks on the world of spin over a short span of 6 years?
Greame Swann was more of an orthodox spinner who did not have variety of deliveries up his sleeve while the spinners around the world relied more on those varieties than on anything else. Swann's success was in the variation of pace in his deliveries and his arm ball that he bowled occasionally. His ability to drift the ball in the air apart from the spin that it would attain after pitching was exemplary and that led to the accolades that he has received around the world. If we look at the trend, the top spinners of the world relied more on their variation deliveries than their stock balls. Muralidharan was far away from being called an orthodox bowler, Shane Warne had the ability to bowl 6 different types of deliveries. Saqlain Mushtaq (the inventor of doosra) and Harbhajan Singh relied more on the ball that spun away from the batsman. The current best spinner in the world, Saeed Ajmal is famous for bowling his doosras and now the teesra as well. Graeme Swann preferred bowling the stock deliveries i.e the orthodox off spin and winning matches while bowling text book off spin had put this bowler in line with one of the best from this field. The best for England at least.
The world of spin bowling is bifurcated, where all the spinners from the sub-continent are on one side while the ones from outside the sub-continent are on the other. Since sub-continent pitches are spin-friendly, the former group dominates the world of spin. Shane Warne for a long time waged a lone battle against this domination by the sub-continent spinners and succeeded. In 2007, when Shane Warne retired from international cricket the baton of spin bowling had to be passed on to someone. Spin bowlers in countries outside the sub-continent have failed to find a permanent spot in their respective sides. They have been in and out of the team and forced to quit rather than retiring on their own volition. Shane Warne, Daniel Vettori and now Graeme Swann are some exceptions to this. Currently Graeme Swann was the only spinner from outside the sub-continent to feature in the top rankings of 2013. Now that he has announced his retirement, Nathan Lyon becomes the highest ranked spinner from outside the sub-continent, ranked at 18th.
Graeme Swann's retirement would have more impact on the world of spin outside the sub-continent than it would on the world of spin as a whole. England after a long time found a quality spinner in the name of Swann but his untimely retirement would certainly cause instability in the team. Swann showed the world that modern day cricket can be played and excelled by orthodox measures and I wish him all the best for his life off the field.
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