Almost un-noticed, Paul Harris has sneaked his way into the world’s top ten in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. Helped by his match figures of nine for 161 against Australia at Cape Town this March, he now sits pretty on 669 points – the highest-rated left-arm spinner in the world. He was even higher in May of this year – peaking at seventh place before the resurgence of Mohammad Asif and Shane Bond in the recent series in New Zealand. A veteran of only 24 Tests since his debut in January 2007, he has so far taken 71 wickets, so is still qualifying for a “full” rating.

South Africa has hardly been a hot-bed of spinning talent since their return to the international cricketing fold in 1991. In fact, over that period of time, just 15% of all the Test wickets taken by their bowlers have gone to spinners. In contrast, over the same period of time, spinners for the other Test playing nations have taken 34% of their total wickets – more than twice as many. This is partly due to the lack of high-quality spinners in South Africa, but also due to the exceptionally high standard of the pace-bowling in that country. Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Dale Steyn have all spent time at the top of the bowling tree in recent years, Makhaya Ntini reached number 2 and Jacques Kallis and Andre Nel both featured in the world’s top ten at various stages of their careers.

The pickings have been slimmer slow-bowling-wise. In fact, Harris is the first South African spinner to reach the top twenty – let alone the top ten – since their re-admission. Paul Adams and Nicky Boje both played more than forty Tests and took more than a hundred wickets each, but never made a big impact on the rankings. Adams peaked at 588 points and 23rd position while Boje managed 545 points and 22nd position. So – if Harris is unchallenged as the top achieving South African tweaker in recent years, if we push the boundaries back, how does he stack up historically with his fellow countrymen?

Six bowlers from the Rainbow Nation have topped the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers – the three mentioned above plus Peter Pollock, Aubrey Faulkner (who uniquely topped the batting Rankings too!) and Hugh Tayfield . Tayfield first achieved top spot after the 1955 Oval Test in which he took 8 wickets, and really made his name by bowling a record 137 dot balls in a row to the England batsmen in the Durban Test of January 1957. He ended Read more…

Administrator Views Allan Donald, Andre Nel, Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cape Town, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dale Steyn, Durban, ICC, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini, New Zealand, Nicky Boje, Paul Adams, Paul Harris, Rankings, Shaun Pollock

While England’s cricketers used their day off to hare around Cape Town on roaring Harley Davidsons, England’s forgotten spinner Monty Panesar has been trying to make amends with his former employers Northants, after ruffling a few feathers with comments he made last weekend.

Monty is in Johannesburg where he’s playing for the South Africa domestic side Highveld Lions, with a view to getting his career back on track. A bid to win back his England place is also behind his recent move from Northamptonshire to Sussex.

Panesar told reporters last week: “I felt Northants were no longer working with me to become an England player. I loved playing for Northants. I regarded it as my home club but I had to go to where I was most wanted.”

He now insists he was misunderstood, that he had no intention of criticising the club and is adamant his relationship with Northants has not soured since signing a three-year deal with Sussex. In a flurry of introspection he also told me he believed it was his fault - if he was still performing for England, none of this would have happened.

When we spoke on the phone, an animated Monty was anxious to smooth over a few things and stress how much his home club means to him.

“The pitch changed at Wantage Road and didn’t suit my style. It used to be a turning track but it’s become more seamer-orientated. The way the pitch has changed meant it was going to be better for my cricket to move somewhere else.”

“It was portrayed that Northants didn’t help me with my England career, but they did. I think for whatever reason things have been written to create a difference between me and Northants. It’s my home club. Northants have done an awful lot for me and have always been Read more…

Administrator England Blogs.CMDN.com, Cape Town, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, David Capel, ECB, England, Harley Davidsons, Highveld Lions, Johannesburg, Monty Panesar, Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, Nicky Boje, Northants, Sussex