Brad Hogg urges CA to prepare spin friendly tracks for first-class games

Australian cricket was blessed with one of the greatest spinners of all time. Shane Warne was a wizard with the ball in hand. It was his own talent that got him to scale unparalleled heights in Australia and world cricket. He wasn’t spotted, nurtured and developed, Warne had enough potential that got him through all that but it isn’t everybody’s cup of tea and some might give up or miss out. This is one of the major reasons why Australia hasn’t been able to find the spinners who can fill in for Warnie.

It isn’t lack of players but the ignorance on the part of the authorities to not give importance to the spinners. The pitches either aid the faster bowlers or are batting paradises, no other reason we see the Australian team skip a heartbeat whenever they travel to the subcontinent and play on wickets that turn.

Australia’s very own, chinaman Brad Hogg feels that the flat wickets rolled out for first-class matches is obstructing the growth of prospective spin bowlers in domestic cricket. “If you’re saying it’s a batsmen’s game I think the wickets have got a lot to do with that,” Hogg said. “You look at the first-class wickets, especially in Australia, they are becoming very similar across the board. The WACA has still got a bit of pace in it, Queensland still has that bounce and seam in it, but the other wickets have lost their characteristics,”

It is not just the batsmen but the Aussie spinners have also failed to deliver even if the surface offers assistance. With a lack of practice on such wickets, they find it difficult to get their line and length right. This was the case with Nathan Lyon and Steven O’Keefe in the Test series in Sri Lanka and things didn’t change for Adam Zampa when he played the ODIs and also the recently concluded series in South Africa where Australia were thumped 5-0. While Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi made life difficult for the Australian batsmen, Zampa wasn’t quite able to impose his impact in the series.

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“Cricketers have got to be adaptable as well and they’ve got to take ownership of it. When you do go over to India you’ve got to make sure you make the most of it,” Hogg said. “To have to adjust the rules to allow spinners to bowl, you’ve got to ask questions about the facilities that are being produced, the wickets being produced,” he added.

He picked the correct point and said if the players aren’t given conditions to play and bowl spin, their struggle in the subcontinent will continue. “If you can’t bring the spinners into the game because the wickets are not conducive to spin they are not going to learn. I think that’s why we struggle sometimes over on the subcontinent.” Hogg concluded saying.