Ready for the off

Croft (right): Celebrates a wicket at Cardiff

After Robert Croft's success for Glamorgan agsainst the West Indies, Thrasy Petropoulos examines the off-spinning options available for the England selectors.

It was bound to happen. No sooner had England invested their hopes - and the little matter of a central contract - on a 21-year-old leg spinner with just a handful of first-class games behind him than Robert Croft raises his hand on behalf of the old brigade.

Spinners, we have always been led to believe, mature with age.

Croft's England record

15 Tests
36 wickets, average 38.33
295 runs, average 16.38

44 One-day games
41 wickets, average 38.21
299 runs, average 14.95

Just days after his 30th birthday, Croft is now in the second age of the England off-spinner - the one which sees him push for a recall after having already gone through the cycle of promising youngster to Test has-been.

Why is this so often the case?

The answer is not just because spinners have a habit of learning a trick or two as they get older. If that were the case they would not have had success when they first played.

Rather, it is a clear indication that off spin has been on the wane for some time. With few options available, selectors make a habit of going back to the old, if not quite trusted, timers.

Should the experiment with Schofield prove unsuccessful, at least temporarily, Croft will be the man chosen to replace him. That much was clear even before he completed his five-wicket haul for Glamorgan against the West Indies in Cardiff.

Eleven of the tourists' squad are left-handers, making the presence of an off-spinner potentially more rewarding than a leggie. Word has it that Croft was in any event in line for a one-day recall.

Graeme Swann: Made little impact on tour

If that is true he would replace Northamptonshire's Graeme Swann, hardly surprising given Swann's poor report, both on and off the field, in South Africa.

The selectors were interested - indeed they should still be - in Swann because not only is he an attacking off spinner, but he is talented enough to score runs batting at number eight in Test cricket.

A quick look at last season's averages, however, highlights the selectors frustrations - 510 championship runs at 23.18 and 53 wickets at 28.2 for Swann, not bad but hardly England all-rounder material.

So what options do the selectors have?

Probably the best young off-spinner in the country is Jason Brown, but because he cannot bat Northamptonshire will not play him. In 16 first-class matches, he has, however, taken four five-wicket hauls.

Jason Brown: Great potential

With Swann and Michael Davies, a left-arm spinner, at the club, Brown's only chance is to move county or for Swann to make it with England. Neither seems likely at the moment.

The case of Essex's Peter Such, the best of the rest, sums up the situation nicely.

Such has already gone through his two ages of England off spinner. Lest we forget, he was England's last genuine offie, having played against New Zealand last year at 33.

Otherwise, the options don't exactly jump up and grab you. Hampshire's Shaun Udal, 31, would have made it by now if he was ever going to, Gloucestershire's Martyn Ball bowls with flight but is not Test class, and Lancashire's Gary Yates is best left to the one-day arena, as is Warwickshire's Neil Smith.

Eddie Hemmings: Success came late

The issue is hardly a new one for the selectors. John Emburey and Eddie Hemmings had similar recalls long after their Test careers were presumed over.

Just days before his 43rd birthday, Emburey was toiling away against the West Indies at Old Trafford. Hemmings was a comparatively sprightly 41 when he played his last Test in Brisbane in 1991.

In any event, the days of the off spinner might well have past. The only successful ones in he world today are not finger spinners at all, rather unorthodox - some would argue wrist - spinners.

Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan is likely to end his career as the leading wicket-taker in Test history, having taken 253 wickets in 51 Tests. And Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq is fast coming into his own, with 116 victims in 28 Tests. The pair have a staggering 28 five-wicket hauls between them.

In these days of covered and manicured pitches "ordinary" off spinners are quite simply not match-winners.