Spin Twins Sparkle By The Sea

By JMB
September 15 2006

Mark Lawson and Adil Rashid, Yorkshire's two young leg-spinners, shared all Middlesex second-innings wickets at Scarborough. The emergence of Rashid, who took 6-67 on his first-class debut against Warwickshire earlier this season, and Lawson has excited Yorkshire cricket fans.

David Parsons, the ECB's specialist spin coach is enthusiastic about English spinning talent. He makes no attempt to hide his excitement as he relays the thoughts of Terry Jenner, Shane Warne's mentor and coach and arguably the world's authority on the art of leg-spin.

“If you listen to somebody like Terry Jenner, who has been helping us with our leg-spin programme in the last few years, he says we've got the best young spinners in the world," Parsons told ecb.co.uk. "He has coached all over the world, so for him to say that goes to show that we have got plenty of talented spinners out there."

There is, however, a rider. "We need to get these players early because that's when they've got more chance to develop,” added Parsons, and that is just what Yorkshire are doing. Some would say that the county has been forced to look to youth due to poor form and disappointing results. However Rashid and Lawson have got their chance there is no debate on whether they have taken it with both hands.

Yorkshire's Director of Cricket David Byas said "They are an exciting and brilliant pair of youngsters and they bring a new dimension to the balance of the side," he said. "To produce two quality leggies' is a real fillip for Yorkshire cricket and playing both of them in the same side gives you some insurance in that you would hope that at least one of them would get it right. Both of them did so and it made for fascinating cricket for the spectators to watch."