Harmer calls on 'genius' Carl Crowe to boost English spin prowess
Simon Harmer has argued that English spinners are being held back by a lack of specialist coaching and believes that the ECB should hire Carl Crowe - an "absolute genius" - as a national spin-bowling consultant.
Harmer, who bowled South Africa to victory over Australia on Saturday by taking 6 for 16 in the fourth innings of their win at Newlands, has spent the last 10 seasons playing for Essex in the County Championship. As a result, he is an authority on the state of English spin, and believes that most young spinners feel "isolated" and under-resourced at their counties.
He argued that the ECB should be more "proactive" in helping spinners to develop, and backed Crowe to play a role in the process. Harmer worked with Crowe during the SA20 earlier this year, and he is a renowned spin-bowling coach who is involved with the three Super Giants franchises and has previously worked for Lancashire as an assistant coach.
"I just think there's a lack of spin-bowling coaches in England," Harmer told the Sky Cricket podcast. "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.
"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.
"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 in order for them to take their game to the next level.
Harmer added: "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?
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"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.
"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."
The ECB have recently appointed Richard Dawson as their 'elite national spin bowling lead' to fulfil a role similar to the one Harmer describes, though he will also double up as one of Stephen Fleming's assistant coaches in England's Test team. Patel is no longer involved in the Test set-up, but is one of Brendon McCullum's white-ball assistants.
Fleming recently hinted that England would plan to pick four seamers and rely on part-time spin in South Africa next month, though Harmer's recent success may prompt a rethink. Bashir was recently awarded a new central contract, while Mason Crane and Liam Patterson-White were handed development deals, but Harmer suggested Leach remains the standout option.
"For me, Jack Leach would be the guy," he said. "If you are going to play a spinner at those venues [The Wanderers, SuperSport Park and Newlands], 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.
"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."
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