Spinners in danger of being selected for the 2019 World Cup in England might want to look for something else to do for those few weeks — pull a hamstring, for instance. The conditions will enlarge the already unfair advantage over bowlers that batters have been gifted by wrong-headed playing regulations‚ and the slow poisoners seem set to be left with the important but thankless task of keeping it tight while the seamers get on with the real job. At the World Cup in England in 1999‚ spinners were almost as scarce as uncalled legside wides on the lists of the top 10 bowlers. They featured twice among the wicket-takers — once in the averages of bowlers who had sent down at least 20 overs‚ twice in the best bowling performances‚ once in the economy rate stakes‚ and not at all when it came to ranking strike rates. And those spinners were either Muttiah Muralitharan‚ Shane Warne or Saqlain Mushtaq — the first‚ second and 66th highest wicket-takers in Test cricket with 1,716 scalps betwee...
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