New Delhi, Nov 3 (IANS) South African spinner Simon Harmer has questioned England's approach to developing young spinners, claiming a lack of specialist coaching is holding them back, and urged the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to appoint Carl Crowe as a national spin-bowling consultant.

Harmer, who has spent the last 10 seasons playing county cricket for Essex, believes England have enough talented spinners but are failing to provide them with the necessary guidance and resources to take their game to the next level.

"I just think there's a lack of spin-bowling coaches in England. I worked with Carl Crowe for the first time with Durban Super Giants in the SA20, and he is an absolute genius when it comes to spin bowling. He understands the game, he understands the biomechanics of spin bowling, and how he isn't being utilised more within the county system, I don't understand," Harmer told the Sky Cricket podcast.

The South African, who recently produced a match-winning performance against Australia with figures of 6/16 in the fourth innings at Newlands, argued that young spinners often struggle to receive specialised guidance when their county bowling coaches are primarily fast-bowling specialists.

"If you go and you play against a county and the bowling coach is a fast bowler, and he's there trying to help develop a young spin bowler. Now, for me as a spinner, I have certain transferable things that I could probably say to a fast bowler, but I certainly don't know how to make that bowler better or how to develop that bowler," he said.

Harmer stressed that the problem was not a shortage of resources but a lack of willingness to establish the right structures within county cricket. He believes Crowe, who previously worked as an assistant coach at Lancashire and is currently involved with three Super Giants franchises, could help address the gap.

"It's not a lack of resources. It's just a lack of want to get those structures into the county game. How you aren't using Carl Crowe as a consultant and going and working with different spinners…As a result of that, a lot of spinners feel isolated; they feel alone, they don't feel like they have the needs and the means for them to take their game to the next level," he added.

Harmer also identified Jack Leach, Dom Bess, Shoaib Bashir and Jack Carson as bowlers with the ability to represent England at the international level, but questioned how they were being developed outside the national team's set-up.

"It's something that needs to be looked at because if you look at Jack Leach, Dom Bess, Shoaib Bashir, Jack Carson, they are all good enough to play international cricket. But how are these guys being developed when they are not with the England national team?" he said.

While acknowledging that Jeetan Patel is involved with England's spin-bowling set-up, Harmer questioned the extent of his involvement in county cricket and felt the ECB needed to take a more proactive approach rather than waiting for a shortage of quality spinners to emerge.

"You've got Jeetan Patel who's working with the spinners there, but I haven't seen him working with spinners at a county game or coming to watch. I just think it's something that needs to be looked at. And what happens is that England will wait until they don't have any spinners and then they will start to try and problem-solve instead of being proactive," he said.

"Again, it's not because there aren't enough good spinners in England. There are plenty, but they just don't have the tools necessary to upskill," he added.

The ECB has recently appointed Richard Dawson as its elite national spin-bowling lead, a role aimed at strengthening the development of spinners, although he will also work as one of Stephen Fleming's assistants in England's Test set-up. Patel is no longer involved with the Test team but remains one of Brendon McCullum's white-ball assistants.

Harmer's comments come ahead of England's upcoming Test tour of South Africa, where head coach Stephen Fleming has hinted that the visitors could rely on four specialist fast bowlers and part-time spin options.

However, the South African believes Jack Leach should remain a strong option if England decide to include a specialist spinner, particularly given the conditions expected at venues such as the Wanderers, SuperSport Park and Newlands.

"For me, Jack Leach would be the guy. If you are going to play a spinner at those venues, you need, in the first innings, somebody who can hold from one end so that your seamers can rotate and attack, and come and bowl four overs of aggressive fast bowling," Harmer said.

Referring to suggestions that England were moving away from Leach, he added, "I know Marcus North was on a podcast saying that they're moving away from him, but I don't understand (why). I'm sure the chats are, 'Well, he doesn't bowl teams out on day five.' But the amount of control that he gives you… I just think at the venues that South Africa's hosting England, if you are going to take a spinner, he is probably your guy."

--IANS

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