Spinners in the mud

A question that resurfaced during the recent Sri Lanka tour of the West Indies is why spin bowlers have not found a space of comfort on West Indian teams. It is an old debate that circles issues of power, ethnicity and nationalism

West Indies cricket came to glory through its fast bowlers and locked itself into an alignment that equates power with speed. Although the speed has lost its pace, the power base it constructed will not let it lose its place.

After Ambrose and Walsh retired, the team never mustered a strong bowling attack. A few have come and gone; there are a couple promising ones now like Jerome Taylor, but nothing like a pack hunting at any one time.

Worldwide, flat wickets have become the trend, some say to ensure five days of cricket, others to give fast bowlers a harder time – like over rates. Pitches at Bourda and Queen's Park Oval had been traditionally flat, Sabina Park and Kensington Oval were fast, but now there are complaints that even those have flattened considerably.

Spinners are more prevalent in world cricket, and there have been some outstanding ones who really take wickets. Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, come easily to mind, but there have been so many, one wonders why spin has remained so low
on the West Indies list despite its own high quality players like Gibbs, Ramadhin, Valentine, and Sobers.

The answer lies somewhere within the realm of power bases. For if the climax of West Indies cricket spurted out of the palace of pace, then this was the seed of its power. And when a power base feels threatened, the instinct is to defend it.

The power of pace has largely been epitomised in players of African descent, and according to one observer, in this West Indian culture, spin bowling has not been seen as "manly" and this may be a factor in why it has not been absorbed across the board.

Spin has traditionally been the forte of players of Indian descent, mainly from Trinidad and Guyana, and Indian players, it must be remembered were invisible on the West Indies Test team for nearly a quarter of a century before Sonny Ramadhin appeared.

While it would be fair to say that none in the recent past have shown any more outstanding ability than any fast bowlers have shown, it would also be reasonable to see that more fast bowlers with promise have been given more chances than their spinning counterparts.

President of the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) Dinananth Ramnarine, the best spinner of recent times, feels that "spinners have to work doubly hard to justify their selection. They play one match in, one match out; there is no way you can develop as a Test cricketer like that. You ought to play 25 matches to have a real appreciation for Test cricket."

"I think spinners should be a critical part of any West Indies team now. Wickets are not conducive to fast bowling, we need to find the balance for the attack. A lot needs to be done for spinners. The art ought to be encouraged, there should be specialised training for them."

Rangy Nanan agrees that spinners have not had a fair chance on West Indies teams, and that it is primarily because selectors and captains are too impatient.

"Nobody got a long run, to play Test after Test," he says, and he feels it is also because "captains of West Indies teams didn't really know how to set fields for spinners".

"Now we don't have the quality fast bowlers, but fast bowlers still get on the side. The spinners today are not of outstanding quality too, but you have to motivate yourself to train hard and how much can you do without a chance?"