Former offie blames CA for lack of quality spinners

Dubai, Nov 1 (UNI) Coming down harshly on Cricket Australia (CA), former off-spinner Greg Matthews asserted that the board was solely responsible for Australia's current problem with finding quality spinners.

The former offie, who had played 33 Tests and 59 One-day Internationals for Australia between 1983 and 1993, claiming 118 international wickets, said the problem the World Champions are facing was because the CA didn't groom a successor to Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill.

''Everybody knew they (Warne and MacGill) would bid adieu to international cricket almost in the same period. And Cricket Australia's failure has been exposed by the technical deficiencies of some of the nation's best spin-bowling hopes,'' Matthews told 'Gulf News'.

Matthews also said the current crop of spin bowlers - Cameron White, Nathan Hauritz, Dan Cullen and Bryce McGain - all had glaring technical deficiencies.

''See, technically he (White) has some serious flaws. Nobody has been successful doing what he is doing now,'' the 49-year-old said about the leg-spinner White, who was preferred over specialist spinner Jason Krejza in the ongoing Test series in India.

Matthews also commented about former Australian off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, who played in one Test and eight ODIs from 2002 to 2004.

''I had the opportunity of working with him. The problem is, he has some technical deficiencies and the good thing is, he knows them.

''But he is not working on them. I said something and he thought I was harsh to him. So, he does not talk to me now,'' he said.

On Dan Cullen, who seems to be Australia's preferred spinner for limited overs matches, Matthews added, ''He does not have a great turn like Murali (Muttiah Muralidaran) or Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh), yet. He does not bowl from close to the stumps.'' UNI XC PY AB HS1143