The wounds inflicted upon the best Test team in the world are fresh, South Africa have lost the recently concluded Test series against Australia, at home 2-1. Their fast bowling department failed to contain the Australian batsmen and their own batting just couldn’t stand long enough in front of the Aussie pacemen. But there was this one department about which no one actually cared for, the spin bowling department. In fact whenever there is a series in South Africa, the role of a spinner is never really talked about. What is it that makes the rainbow nation colorless for spinners; foreign spinners have still tasted a little success but what about the spinners from this country?
Where are they?
A rescue team was sent to South Africa to find good quality spin bowlers that had been missing from the team since very long. They searched everywhere, through the forests of the past, through the metropolitans of the present and in the end came up with the following report.
“After wandering through the woods in the past, our team was unable to find any spin bowler that could be called world class. While searching we did find a few people who stomped their claims but their specifications did not meet with the ones we were looking for. Pat Symcox, Nicky Boje, Paul Harris were some of the names that came up but all three of them were average spinners, had they not been that they would not have gone into oblivion into the woods. One person who was different from all the rest was Paul Adams. His unorthodox action and style to bowl was noticeable to the world but then again the nation doesn’t really breed spinners here and he also drifted away from the main stream slowly.
When nothing was to be found in the forest, we thought of continuing our search towards the big cities of the present. We were expecting a lot from this place and we even got some clues that led us to Johan Botha first but as it turns out he is no where seen on the international front. For a brief amount of time when he was named the captain of the T20 squad, everyone thought that he was here to stay. Now the responsibility of this department is with the leg spinner Imran Tahir and the left arm orthodox Robin Peterson, who again are not the ones that can be called world class.
Since the team started to play again after the apartheid, South Africa have always been amongst the best sides in the world. By producing world class fast bowlers and batsmen, wicket-keepers and fielders, they have contributed heavily to the world of cricket but as per the search none of this contribution has been in the department of spin. When we analyzed the pitches that are available here are fast and bouncy but are not the ones that cannot harbor a world class spinner. Countries like England and Australia who have similar pitches have seen some great spinners but not South Africa. The current bowlers are highly criticized by the experts; Sunil Gavaskar for instance berated the Indian Team for getting out on a bowler like Peterson.
During the final stages of our search, we found Aaron Phangiso, a left arm spinner who showed some promise during the Champions League 2 years ago but since then he has been out of the picture. Playing for Highveld Lions Phangiso showed some real promise but adhering to the South African pattern in spin bowling, he also disappeared when we rooted him to be world class.
The team has always relied on the fast bowlers to do the job and this is one of the reasons why they haven’t yet produced a top level spinner. And for a nation obsessed with other disciplines, this one certainly takes a back seat.
So at the concluding part of this report our team can say that after an extensive search for a slow bowler in South Africa, we returned empty handed which has happened to the rescue team for the first time as opposed to the search missions in other countries but unfortunately we have to end the report with the bitter truth that in South Africa for a quality spin bowler there was ‘no result found.’ ”
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