Graeme Swann says pitches not to blame for lack of England spinners

Graeme Swann says domestic pitches are not to blame for an apparent lack of international-class English spinners.

Swann says the problem is down to the bowlers who are simply not spinning the ball enough.

Swann, 36, retired in 2013 as England's most prolific spinner in Test cricket, with 255 scalps, and says coaching methods must change, not necessarily the pitches.

"I don't actually agree with the pitches argument," Swann, who was promoting the ongoing Sir Bobby Robson Online charity auction.

"It goes a lot deeper than that. It goes right down to the way young kids are taught to spin the ball in England. It needs looking at.

"Maybe in 10-15 years we'll have a plethora of guys who can do it but at the minute the spinners in England just don't spin it hard enough. Therefore it's hard to bowl on anything other than raging bunsens."

Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and Samit Patel were all outbowled during the recent 2-0 Test series defeat to Pakistan to fuel the debate about the health of slow bowling in this country.

A lack of spin-friendly pitches in the County Championship has been identified as one possible area to help the development of the slow bowlers.

Reports on Wednesday suggested the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is considering scrapping the toss in Division Two matches next season to try and reduce the number of seaming wickets.

International T20 Cricket

The suggestion is that groundsmen would therefore prepare pitches that would accommodate the skills of more players and possibly re-establish the role of a spinner in the four-day game.

Swann thinks the issue is a red herring.

"If you are going to be good enough to play on international cricket you've got to be able to bowl on anything," he said.

"If you look all around the world and the way the Indian spinners spin it and the Aussie guys who spin it they all ram it in their hands and give it a really big rip and get the ball up and out and fizzing down. Finger spinners here just don't do it."

Swann's own rise to England ranks was built around a largely self-taught method that centered around giving the ball a rip and in turn getting the drift and bounce to fool world-class batsmen.

"I watched a lot of cricket on TV and always had fairly big hands so I always found it easier to spin it off my second knuckle rather than the first," he said.

"I didn't listen to coaches either. Looking back my greatest strength was that  whenever people tried to change my grip I'd nod and smile and think 'well that doesn't work, that doesn't spin it enough' and ignore them.

"We need a few more guys to do that."