The artist known as Croft

Croft would put the West Indies in a spin according to Hammond

Glamorgan coach Jeff Hammond tells BBC Sport Online's Thrasy Petropoulos that recalled England off spinner Robert Croft should be allowed to express himself.

There was a strange sight at Sophia Gardens earlier this season.

A jaunty little off spinner was bounding in from the River Taff end for Glamorgan, mixing slower balls with quicker off breaks, and even delivering the odd ball from behind the umpire.

But the most memorable feature was the smile.

The opponents were Gloucestershire and the bowler in question was Robert Croft who went on to claim figures of 7/126 in the match.

From that moment it became clear Croft would reclaim his England place some time this summer.

That it came sooner rather than later is due partly to Chris Schofield's poor bowling performance in the second Test against Zimbabwe, partly to Croft's five-wicket haul against the West Indies.

Stock bowler

The fact that the Windies are packed full of left-handers also helped sway the balance.

But why should we allow ourselves to get excited about a spinner who started so brightly three years ago only to drift from the scene and become nothing more than a stock bowler.

Schofield has been dropped at Croft's expense

The answer, according to Jeff Hammond, Glamorgan's coach, is simple - because the artist formerly known as Croft is back and in the mood to get stuck in.

"You have to go back in time," said Hammond, who played five Tests for Australia against the West Indies.

"I can remember watching Crofty in 97/98 from afar and we always considered him quite an artist as a bowler with tremendous shoulder rotation, and a guy who essentially bowls six to eight inches outside off stump to hit off stump.

Cutting edge

"He had nice flight, good loop, good spin. But unfortunately at that time England's ailments were such that he was often called upon to bowl in a defensive mode, more towards middle and leg.

"There was probably the same situation occurring in one-day cricket where he was asked to dart the ball in.

"That artistry was, I think, lost a little bit. And I think that it's been to Robert's acclaim that he was the one who late last year, he said: 'Well I've got to go back to do what I was doing before to get back into Test match cricket.

"And so his whole alignment has changed back to what it was.

"Provided he is given a pretty good go by the current England captain, to bowl the artistry that I know that he can, then I think he will be successful."

The suggestion is, therefore, that past England captains - notably Mike Atherton - had blunted Croft's cutting edge.

Confidence

"Let's put it this way," is Hammond's reply. "It was my perception, even from 12,000 miles away, that that is the way it went. It is also a number of other people's perception in the southern hemisphere.

Croft bowled out Lara in early June

"He is an artist and the creativity that he has got is one of a wicket-taking dimension. To me he is a very similar bowler to Tim May."

So what can we expect if he makes the final XI for the first Test against the West Indies?

"He has introduced things like the delay ball where he puts in a half-a-second delay in his bowling action, and he has developed the ball which he bowls from behind the stumps - in fact behind the umpire.

"I think a little bit of the praise for that can go towards Duncan Fletcher, an innovator who tried to bring in a few of these developments in the modern game to Glamorgan when he was coach last year.

"His confidence really matured when he played against Matty Hayden at Northampton.

"Hayden had us on the ropes and was belting us around and out of the park. Crofty bowled one of these balls from behind the umpire and it bowled him and it just changed the whole game for us."

The game might just have changed for England, too.