We don’t take spin seriously in England: Graeme Swann

Graeme Swann has taken a rather pessimistic stand against England for their upcoming series against India stating that he completely expected the Indians to complete a whitewash against the Brits in their upcoming series against India.

Swann lashed out and bemoaned that the spin in the country was not being taken seriously. Swann was famously part of the squad that beat the Indians 2-1 on their previous tour of the subcontinent.

Swann claimed, “We don’t take spin seriously in this country and then bemoan the fact that we haven’t got world-class spinners when we go to the subcontinent. We’ve got a bloody good team with bloody good cricketers but we will lose in India because of what has happened 20 years before. We are hamstrung by the fact that we treat spinners as third-class citizens.”

Swann also went on to state that Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were top-class spinners. In spite of the fact that they are not massive turners of the cricket ball, they manage to pick wickets in tandem, something that earned them the praise of Graeme Swann.

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He gave a warning shot to his batsmen by alluding, “I don’t think we’ve got a cat in hell’s chance seeing how (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Ravindra) Jadeja bowl. Jadeja doesn’t spin the ball, he doesn’t try to. He just bowls straight and lets Ashwin do the work. Ashwin isn’t a massive turner of the ball. He rarely bowls his carrom ball, but he’s very, very accurate. Every Test in India he goes into, he believes he’s going to win it.”

Swann noted, “There is no sort of system in place to provide the backing that spinners need (in England). From the day they arrive in county cricket to the day they play in Tests, it’s not there. It is for batting, for bowlers, for fielding, for fitness, for nutrition but not for spin bowling. And because of that, we are bad players of spin. It’s a whole melting pot.”