Sheikhs of spin

BY RiTAM MiTRA

Spin bowling is one of the most unique crafts in world sport. It requires a mastery of technique to mesmerise a batsman with flight, deceive them with drift, confuse them with turn and unsettle them with bounce. Then there’s the mental aspect – spinners always have to think two or three steps ahead of the batsman, because their bad balls generally disappear over the boundary far more easily than their fast-bowling counterparts. It’s no surprise that it takes years of practice and experience to become a successful spinner – and a new spin bowling academy titled Spin Foundation Australia, located in Western Sydney, hopes to send young cricketers on that path.

Spin Foundation Australia is the brainchild of Indian Link’s very own Sanjiv Dubey, and was recently formally inaugurated at its home, Glenwood High School. It is the latest project in a long list of successful and exciting sporting endeavours for Sanjiv, who teaches PDHPE at Rouse Hill High School. Sanjiv also runs a T20 cricket competition in winter, which recently enjoyed its most successful-ever season. Meanwhile, for the last six years, he has been working with primary schools in the Western Sydney region through a sports development program that is targeted towards the large number of children in the area with a subcontinental background.

From there, Sanjiv and his team looked to expand their horizons and venture into working with 1016 year old children.

“We were looking at different places and opportunities that were good for us and the kids,” revealed Sanjiv. “We went to Glenwood High School in Glenwood and this time, instead of going to the school and doing the program, we have invested in the school’s cricket facilities. We have built cricket nets and facilities and we have an ex-Pakistan test spinner on board as the director of spin bowling - Arshad Khan, who has 60-odd international caps and was also part of the Indian Cricket League”.

Setting up the academy was by no means an easy project, but Sanjiv’s track record in working with primary schools made things a lot easier when he was making his pitch to the school.

“It took a good 6-7 months to set up because it was a public and private partnership, between Glenwood High School and our team,” he stated. “They saw the value in it as well, because of course, school kids would benefit from the facilities during school hours, and they have many subcontinental kids studying there. I felt it was time for me to give a little more, and I was very optimistic with the subcontinent population at the school. With my experience and knowledge in education and sports sciences I have sort of floated the project in a scientific way, following the principles of sports improvement - we’ll see if we can get the results”.

The academy already has close to 200 enrolments, and will initially accept one and all, to give staff the opportunity to assess the potential of each athlete. There is a pool of roughly 4,000 children in the area, each of whom Sanjiv is interested in looking into – but he hopes to bring that number down significantly.

“Eventually we’ll be working with 40-60 kids max and we’ll see who can come out on top. We’ve already identified three kids to whom we will offer scholarships. We’ll be reaching out to the local primary schools, and each and every kid will receive a flyer,” he added.

And it’s not just spinners who are being targeted. Although the academy will naturally have a focus on spinners, Sanjiv cites the ‘battery of coaches’ who will be looking at all aspects of an individual’s cricketing nous. Sanjiv, who is a handy pace bowler himself, hopes that along with the other coaches, he can be helpful to the children and their parents in all aspects of the game.

For Sanjiv, setting up the academy is just a small first step towards bigger and greater things.

“Fingers crossed, but we have done all the preliminary structural development within the school and we are looking for bigger investors who will come and further improve the facilities – such as making all-weather floodlights and different types of wickets which we haven’t been able to fund at this stage. We’re looking for investors such as MRF in India (as in the MRF Pace Foundation) to come on board. We’re trying to showcase ourselves to Cricket NSW and Cricket Australia – of course they’ve got great programs running all around, but we’ve gone into a sector of the population where I thought strategically we’ll have more opportunities to find the next Shane Warne, Harbhajan or Kumble. We have got a very positive response,” said Sanjiv.

Eventually, Sanjiv hopes that Spin Foundation Australia will my experience and knowledge in education and sports sciences I have sort of floated the project in a scientific way, following the principles of sports improvement

The academy already has close to 200 enrolments, and will initially accept one and all, to give staff the opportunity to assess the potential of each athlete

“become a Spin ‘beehive’ (the academy) in which bees (the kids/ players) will work hard towards their goal, which is designed so that the keeper (Australian cricket) can collect the honey (world class spinners) they produce. I feel that in the next 2-3 years Glenwood will become the hub of cricketing kids and that’s the ambition that I believe in – that I should be able to turn the school into a sports school. It’s a big effort, but step by step hopefully we should reach there,” he added.

So what are you waiting forcould your child be the next Shane Warne?