Cricket: Nethula handed a lesson in patience

Tarun Nethula. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The timing of the call to discuss his international prospects could have been better.

Up-and-coming leg spinner Tarun Nethula had just come off the Village Green in Christchurch after Canterbury had posted 386-6 against the Auckland attack on the opening day of the Plunket Shield.

Nethula had figures of none for 86 from his 13 overs.

The 26-year-old said: "It's been a long day. It might be best to start afresh tomorrow."

Such is the life of those who tweak their wrist in New Zealand cricket. It can be a fickle art, reflected in the fact so few legspinners of note have been produced.

Only Greg Loveridge and Brooke Walker have been selected to perform that speciality in tests since the country's best exponent, Jack Alabaster, last played in 1972.

Loveridge never bowled a ball after breaking his finger batting in his solitary test against Zimbabwe in Hamilton in 1996.

In Walker's five tests, he took five wickets with a shade under 80 runs conceded between each of them.

Yet Nethula shapes as a contender after taking 28 wickets, the most in the State Championship last year, at 34.60.

He's since performed soundly on the Emerging Players tour to Australia and the "A" tour to India before finding himself under the tutelage of Black Caps spin advisor Saqlain Mushtaq last week when the Invitation XI played Pakistan in Queenstown.

Nethula took 2-61 from eight overs in the solitary innings and says: "Saqlain gave me plenty of helpful advice over two-three days. We didn't really get into the technical side of things but he worked on getting me differentiating between confidence and belief.

"Belief is knowing you can put the ball in a certain area while confidence comes from performances in previous games. He stressed that as long as the ball is in your hand, you're in control."

Helping the tourists warm-up for the series against the Black Caps also enabled Nethula to get a close look at arguably the world's premier legspinner now Shane Warne and Anil Kumble have retired.

Danish Kaneria has 232 wickets at 34.57 from 54 tests although that wasn't enough to earn selection for the test on a more seamer-friendly wicket in Dunedin.

"It's been interesting watching Kaneria up close. Most of the balls I played in that game were off him so I took pride observing how he operates. He'd be my favourite legspinner going around at the moment. The amazing thing was his control and the pace he bowled at. Six different balls in a row, by and large in the same area, with the exact amount of pace he wanted."

Nethula is also helped by having former Zimbabwean test leg spinner Paul Strang as his provincial coach at Auckland.

"I'm blessed in a way because Paul can understand days like these [against Canterbury] and John Wright was similar with the A side, he understands leg spin has its good and bad spells."

Strang says Nethula knows it's tougher in his trade than many others and he's got to upskill constantly.

"He's getting plenty of advice and, while he should take that on board, he needs to retain his own identity. A concern is the need to be patient because it is a real art in control.

"He needs a captain who understands he might get hit for a few from time to time. He also needs a decent fielding team to keep the pressure on. But, if a side gets bowled out for under 200, his effectiveness is reduced."

As a relatively regular feature of New Zealand teams in 21 tests between 1955-72, Alabaster is upbeat about seeing a leg spin coach-player combination emerge.

"It's advantageous having someone in charge who knows what the business is about. Strang will know what the deliveries are like and how persistent you have to be. You have to have more than one delivery in your armoury but still stick to your knitting, because that's what you've set a field for.

"On the whole it's slower, so if you pitch the ball short you can't cover the holes in the field.

"But you need sympathetic handling. For instance, I have one or two young lads who come to me for advice these days. I ask them how many overs they had last week and they say: 'I didn't get a bowl'.

"You can't expect to keep leg-spin bowling alive with that sort of attitude."