LAHORE:
Former Pakistan cricketer Tauseef Ahmed stressed on the spinners to add variation in their bowling armoury as the Pakistan Cricket Board Fast Track Coaching Programme got underway for the slower bowlers.
Ahmed, who played 34 Tests and 70 One-Day Internationals (ODI) for Pakistan, is supervising the camp for spin bowlers and said that emphasis needs to be put on variety and the ability to turn the ball.
“I have stressed the need to spin the ball on the first day,” Ahmed told reporters at the National Cricket Academy. “We have many bowlers here who can deliver the doosra with full command but one must be good in turning the ball as their primary delivery.
“The rest can be used occasionally.”
Ahmed picked up 93 Test wickets and 55 ODI scalps but played at a time when Pakistan’s spin-bowling was dominated by leg-spinner Abdul Qadir and left-armer Iqbal Qasim. Ahmed claimed seven wickets on Test debut and was crucial in Pakistan’s 16-run win over archrivals India in the Bangalore Test where he and Qasim equally shared 18 wickets between them.
Now 25 years later, Ahmed is training young spinners and said that the enormous talent possessed by Pakistan just needed to be nurtured.
“These players [in the camp] have good records and have performed well at regional levels,” said Ahmed. “They are good but lack the ability to spin the ball, which I feel is a spinner’s main weapon.
“This is why this camp is so useful as this is the best opportunity for them to learn and get better. I hope the boys, who are responding well with my own and Qadir’s input, can flourish.”
Ahmed pointed out that the reason behind former Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan’s success was his ability to turn the ball.
“I’ve stressed that turning the ball is important and I’m making the players work on that. Their bowling trajectory is flat and that’s not good. Take Muralitharan for example. He can bowl the doosra but he had an extraordinary ability to spin the ball.
“But nowadays it appears that bowlers have forgotten that they need to spin the ball.”
Ahmed further blamed the Twenty20 format for decline in spin bowling since the players are more focused on containing runs. “The art of spinning the ball has survived a little since the 50-over cricket is still going on.
“The bowlers are concerned with containing the batsmen and therefore deliver straight and flat.
“England’s Graeme Swann is good because he has variation. We have our own lethal spinner, Saeed Ajmal who is currently the world’s most dangerous bowler,” said the former spinner.
Ahmed, whose career spanned 13 years, was selected unusually on the recommendation of Javed Miandad after the off-spinner beat the former captain in the nets on various occasions.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2011.
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