A spinners second home and making the Mahatma smile

This is part 2 of my peek into county cricket. Part 1 was about the batsmen and so here's the latest on the bowlers in county cricket.

We first look at the top wicket -takers. There's Danish Kaneria at 3, Mushtaq Ahmed at 4 and Monty Panesar at 5. A classic case of a Hindu, Muslim and Sikh weaving magic together. Not since the the freedom struggle have all the communities ( from both nations) gotten together to wreak such havoc on the English. I'am sure Mahatma Gandhi is smiling to himself .

There's a lot more of Pakistan as well. We saw in the first part that their batsmen are not up to much but the bowlers are making all the noises. Apart from Kaneria and Mushtaq , who by the way is old enough to be a cricket coach at international level, there's also Rana Naved and Yasir Arafat in the list of top wicket-takers.

Mushtaq is a case of what might have been. At his best, he was a true match-winner and spoken in the same breadth as Warne, Murli and Kumble. Sadly, he's been a victim of the Pakistani cricket system and limited to just 50 odd tests, the last of which came in 2000-01. England has been kinder and more fulfilling for him. He's single-handedly taken Sussex to two county titles in 4 years, something which the likes of Ranjitsinhji, Duleepsinhji, CB Fry, the Pataudis and Imran Khan couldn't do even once. Already a county legend, he will continue to play on even if he needs a wheel-chair to complete his run-up.

Mushtaq's spin-twin at Sussex this season is another long-forgotten Pakistani, Saqlain Mushtaq. The inventor of the fabled 'Doosra', his promising career has been cut short by knee operations and the apathy of the Pakistan board. He is just 30 and has sufficient cricket left in him. There is talk of him qualifying to play for England soon. Both Mushtaq's have discovered a second home in England.

This English season seems to be the year of the 'Spinner' and there's a complete exhibition of spin bowling in England with all the top names involved. There' s Warne for Hants, Murali for Lancs and Kumble with the visiting Indians. But the Lord and Master is surely Monty Panesar. His rise has seen spin bowling attain previously unimaginable heights. Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik are the other Indians reaping this harvest in England.

And if you thought England had had more than enough of Indian spinners, think again. Four other counties have an Indian spinner in their ranks. Most promising is Vikram Banerjee at Gloucester; a lad experts are backing to follow Monty in the England squad. Others include former England player Min Patel at Kent, former Indian spinner Dilip Doshi's son Nayan at Surrey and Akhil Patel at Nottingham.

English commentators have laughed at the sub-continent's pitches, calling them dust-bowls. With a rich crop of Indian-origin spinners raring to go, a dust-bowl at Lords is not far away.

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