"I am miffed that I am not involved" – Graeme Swann keen to work with England spinners

SIMON HUGHES: Swann, England’s most successful off-spinner of all time, says that the coaching of England’s spinners is all wrong and they are using the wrong strategies. He is keen to help and mystified that his knowledge has never been utilised

England have plenty on their plate right now with trying to remain ‘safe,’ and keeping the show on the road. But not far away is an even greater challenge – not just existing in a bubble off the field but also a trial by spin on it. The batsmen are currently practising on specially dried out pitches in a tent in Loughborough, but of more immediate worry is the state of England’s own spinners.

Graeme Swann, England’s most successful off-spinner of all time, says that the coaching of England’s spinners is all wrong and they are using the wrong strategies. He is keen to help and mystified that his knowledge has never been utilised.

In a typically candid interview with the Analyst Inside Cricket podcast, he elaborated on the problem. “England’s spinners don’t bowl straight,” Swann says. “They don’t bowl to hit the stumps; they bowl to get outside edges. If they spoke to the right people they could correct that. Bowling straight (with DRS) was a massive weapon for me.

“England off-spinners are taught to hold the ball wrong – between the front knuckles of index and middle finger. That’s codswallop. They’ll never really spin it or get drift bowling like that. They should hold it between index finger and back knuckle of middle finger and really flick it (see images below). It gets far more revolutions.

“Then they can come over the top and land it on the seam and make it turn, but also it only needs a tiny adjustment to release the ball slightly later and come underneath and it comes down like a flying saucer and might turn but is more likely to go straight on.

“That’s a great ball, especially against left-handers. I got taught that by [former Australian off-spinner] Ashley Mallett. No one in England had ever taught me that. I have never seen a young spinner in England since try to bowl it or understand it. It’s very simple to bowl and very hard to pick. It hurts, you have to really squeeze it out, and you get a great big hole in your knuckle. But it’s worth it for the spin you impart.”

^{Dom Bess is currently England's No.1 Test spinner}

Swann is more than a touch disappointed that he hasn’t had any face to face contact with England’s resident off-spinner Dom Bess. “I have never worked with him,” he says. “The only time I’ve spoken to him was on a Zoom call on Sky Sports with Rob Key. He bowls a lot in straight lines – he sort of pushes it out.

“Off-spin should be bowled coming across your body, like an outswinger action. All off-spinners should be able to bowl a decent away swinger. Bess gets two or three balls right every so often and pitches it perfectly. But it’s an almost an accident. It’s not hard to fix. He just needs to change his body position and alter his arm height and come right across his body and he’d spin it twice as hard as he does now.”

Swann believes his dramatic rise was in spite of coaching rather than because of it.

“I never listened to coaches growing up. They were wrong. The reason Monty (Panesar) and I did so well in India in 2012 is because I never listened to coaches and Monty never understood coaches. We won’t win in India without a proper specialist spinner. Spin is not a part-time occupation. English cricket has to get away from that mentality if they hope to move forward with bowling spin or batting against spin.

“I am miffed that I am not involved. The second you finish playing is when you’re most valuable as a coach. You know the game, the players intimately. If Jimmy Anderson finishes playing and they make him coach Lancashire’s second team to get his stripes that will be the biggest crime in the world. Arguably as soon as I finished, I should have been asked to coach the spinners. That was when I was most relevant, knew the players and the game inside out.”

^{Swann demonstrates the traditional off-spinner's grip (top) and the technique that he advises (bottom)}

“A couple of years after I’d retired, Straussy phoned me up and said: ‘Right Swanny, let’s talk about this off spin coaching role then.’  I said: ‘Finally Straussy – its only taken you two years!’ and he said: ‘Well, how do you think Saqlain Mushtaq would get on?” I said: ‘Really?’ and he said: ‘Yes!’ I said: ‘I’m sure he’ll do great.’ And Saqlain became spin coach.

“I love Straussy to bits and he wouldn’t have realised what he was doing. He didn’t realise I really wanted to get involved. I’ve always wanted to impart something back. I really don’t get why you need all these Level 3 and [Level] 4 coaching badges and tick boxes and get told how to bowl off-spin. It’s all absolute nonsense. I’d love to help the spinners.”

Perhaps Swann is regarded as too big a personality, only interested in extending his media profile. But it’s not the impression he is giving off at the moment and Bess, keen, enthusiastic, but still very much a work in progress, would surely benefit from Swann’s input.

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