The former England cricketer Graeme Swann opened up on his long-term desire to coach the England team as he feels that the English spinner needs the right guidance. The veteran off-spinner, who retired in 2013, is disappointed to have not worked with current off-spinner Dom Bess.
“I have never worked with him. 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,” Swann said, as quoted by The Cricketer.
“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 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.”
‘We Won’t Win in India Without a Proper Specialist Spinner’- Graeme Swann
Swann and Monty Panesar were one of the major reasons behind England beating Team India in India in 2012 after a gap of 28 years.
Swann said that the major reason behind his and Panesar’s success was that they never listened to the coaches in their formative years.
“I never listened to coaches growing up. They were wrong. The reason Monty (Panesar) and I did so well in India in 2012 is that 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,” he added.
“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.”
Former England cricketer Graeme Swann is disappointed that he never got a chance to coach English spinners after his retirement.
