Cricket: Role of leg spinner waiting to be filled

By Chris Rattue

It is surely a case of when, not if, the New Zealand cricket selectors promote a leg spin bowler into the national side.

And for the moment, anyway, the spotlight in that department is hovering around Brooke Walker, the 21-year-old Aucklander from the Howick-Pakuranga club.

The rumour mill suggests that Walker may even be included in the squad which will play four tests in England this year, immediately after the World Cup finishes in June.

Whether that eventuates or not, it hints at the hankering New Zealand cricket has to produce their version of the lethal bowling weapon in world cricket today.

The leg spin revolution, ignited in the western world of cricket at least by Shane Warne, has hardly made an impact yet at the top level in this country.

While those involved with junior cricket report a swag of youngsters practising the most difficult bowling art, Walker is the only genuine leg spinner playing senior cricket in Auckland. And Central Districts' Tim Anderson is the only other wrist spinner close to finding a permanent place in a provincial side.

Until three years ago, Walker was a batsman and medium pace bowler at Howick-Pakuranga, where he has played since a kid. Inspired by Warne, he had dabbled with leg spin in the backyard, although the only time he unveiled the delivery in a match, for McLeans College, he got flogged.

He was bowling in the nets with Howick-Pakuranga's second side when their A grade captain Rowan Armour noticed him send down some leg spin and thought he looked like a natural.

He got Walker to bowl a few more, and the teenager landed his leg breaks and googlies right on the desired spots.

"The ball just comes out of his fingers naturally," says Armour.

After Walker was blooded into the top side, Armour took the risk of opening the bowling with him in one day games, a move Walker said gave him the confidence to push on with developing the skill which has seen him run through more than a few club batting lineups.

Where it will lead to is still anyone's guess, and history says that the chances of New Zealand producing a consistent match-winning spin bowler of any sort is slim.

In the past 50 years, the only genuine leg spinners New Zealand has played were Jack Alabaster and Alex Moir, who played together in the 1950s. (Greg Loveridge was promoted with indecent haste as the leg spinning hope of the 1990s but he fractured a finger while batting in his only test against Zimbabwe in 1995 and has hurtled into oblivion since.)

New Zealand's most-used finger spinners of recent times, Hedley Howarth, John Bracewell and Stephen Boock, averaged in the mid-30s, which is well below the strike rate of the top test spinners.

Walker and other prospective leg spinners face the unusual problem of not having coaches to turn to for guidance.

A former Australian leg spinner, Terry Jenner, who is called Warne's mentor, gave Walker and Anderson some guidance at a recent bowling academy in Christchurch, where Alabaster also had some input. But Jenner himself dislikes the Warne-mentor tag and says leg spinners are essentially born not made, and natural techniques should not be tampered with.

Walker says: "Basically I'm having to teach myself. I suppose it's because New Zealand doesn't have any real tradition of leg spin.

"I do feel a bit of pressure on me because everyone is looking for a leg spinner and apart from Tim, I seem to be the only one around.

"To be honest, I don't even know if I'm ready for first class cricket yet. I've still got a lot of developing to do and leg spinners really mature into their 20s and 30s. I'm nowhere near ready [for international cricket] at the moment."

But if hard work is the key to his progress, then Armour - the club captain who first spotted his natural talent - says Walker can be a winner.

"The great thing about Brooke is that he is working on all aspects of his game. He's not one-tracked on his bowling. And no one could have made the progress he has in such a short time without putting in a lot of hard work."

Caption: Aucklander Brooke Walker, largely self-taught in the art, could be the one to ignite the leg spin revolution in New Zealand. HERALD PICTURE / PAUL ESTCOURT