Jenner producing new generation of spinners

Shane Warne: the best wrist spinner the game has seen

‘Bowling Warnie!’ bellows Terry Jenner as he encourages one of his crop of young English leg-spinners through a comparison with the master.

Jenner is the mentor who inspired Warne to become the greatest exponent of wrist spin the game has ever seen, and since 1999 his services have been employed by the England and Wales Cricket Board with the goal of producing an English equivalent via the Elite Wrist Spin Development Programme.

And while Jenner knows Warne is a one-off, he is convinced the programme will eventually yield a leg-spinner good enough to become a fixture in the England side.

Speaking at one of his intensive spin clinics in Nottingham, Jenner told ecb.co.uk: “The underlying message is that the talent is there. The programme has been successful.

“My hope is that by 2007 we will have three or four English leg-spinners playing in county cricket.

“At the moment they are bringing in all the overseas ones, so they know they work and it’s now our role to get English ones.

“If we get five, six or seven playing county cricket then there’s a chance we can get one good enough to play for England.”

In three separate periods spread over the year Jenner relocates from Australia to work on the programme, as well as coaching two young English bowlers at the Academy in Adelaide over the winter.

Supported by the Brian Johnston Memorial Trust, the programme’s most recent success is Yorkshire’s Mark Lawson, who this summer made his first-class debut at the age of 19.

Ian Salisbury was one of the few England leg-spinners

Jenner added: “In the past there has only been the choice between Ian Salisbury and Chris Schofield, both of whom haven’t quite worked out.

“We are going down a road now where if these kids put the energy, effort and time into it they are going to be more disciplined than those players because they are coming through a different system.

“Hopefully they will then be able to entice batsmen to play strokes and get wickets. Their captains will understand that they will get scored off but they also induce wickets.”

Aggression is key to everything Jenner preaches, whether that be an approach to the crease or an approach to practice.

“It is not like fast bowling when you can go in and bash someone on the head but leg-spin bowling has got to be just as aggressive,” explained Jenner, who played nine Tests for Australia between 1970 and 1975.

“You’ve got a guy down the other end looking to knock you around the park so you can’t just stroll up and turn your arm over.

“It’s important they know they are in the side to take wickets and win matches.”

As well as coaching the most promising youngsters in the country, Jenner also offers advice to club coaches as part of his mission to demystify the art.

He said: “When I do my coaching session I ask my coaches to put their hand up and say who has got the courage to coach leg spin. Usually the arms stay down; they’re scared they will harm him.

“Some will talk to a finger spinner, but most will coach batting, fielding and seamers but when it comes to working with a spinner they are scared they will be held responsible for a bowler losing their spin.

“But if you coach simple basics you can’t harm their spin, because the spin is in the fingers and in the wrist - you don’t tamper with that. It’s only their alignment you concentrate on.”

Middlesex youngster Andy Ward admits the intensive sessions are an invaluable aid.

“It’s superb,” he said. “It’s very beneficial because at times you can’t tell what is going wrong so you need a coach of TJ’s quality to show you where you are going wrong.

“We just work on the basics but there are so many it’s difficult sometimes to put it all together.”

Jenner coaches leg-spin with an almost evangelical zeal, but he admits the sessions alone cannot produce bowlers capable of succeeding at the highest level. That comes from within.

“I can only do so much and it’s all about the attitude they show to their bowling and how much work they put into it,” he said.

Jenner hopes an England youngster will follow in Warne's footsteps

“Like Shane at their age, they can all turn the ball and bowl that big-spinning leg-break that pitches outside leg stump and hits the top of off - but they can’t do it every ball.

“Eventually they need to know their own game and their own action and be able to coach themselves and each other.

“They already know more than their coaches and the responsibility really is up to them now.

“We’ve got some really good 12 and 13-year-olds coming through now as well, and it’s exciting to see them coming on in games and taking wickets, especially in July, August and September when the wickets start to turn.

“These boys are doing all right, but I need them to do more for themselves.”