The former England bowler talks about what spinners need to do in T20s, the problem with focusing too much on match-ups, and commentating on the league
Matt Roller08-May-2025It is Sunday night in Delhi, and Graeme Swann is about to commentate on his second IPL match in the space of 24 hours. “There are periods where it’s bonkers,” Swann says. “Finish at midnight, pack your bags, leave at 6am, fly to the next city – so long as there’s no delays – and do another game. But as far as commentary gigs go, this is still the one to do.”Swann has been covering the IPL for the best part of a decade. “I still love cricket,” he explains. “A lot of ex-players do it as a grind, but I love it: it’s the best game in the world. I genuinely do get excited when I see people ramping sixes, or Moeen [Ali] bowling someone through the gate. I’m still a fan, so I always try to get that across… I’m not a serious character, for the most part.”Danny Morrison, the ubiquitous voice of T20, has described Swann as the rare co-commentator who can match his energy behind the microphone. “That’s a massive compliment,” Swann says. “Danny makes me smile. He says things that make no sense whatsoever sometimes, but he’s been doing it 30-odd years and the enthusiasm he’s still got for it is infectious.”And yet, as a player, by his own admission, Swann didn’t much care about playing in the IPL: he entered three auctions – 2010, 2011 and 2012 – but never attracted a bid. “I would’ve loved it,” he reflects. “I’d have been bloody good at it as well… But I was a Test cricketer first and foremost, so I was never that bothered. I look back now and think it’s a real shame.Related
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“The ECB didn’t want us to [play in it]. They allowed people to come for half of it, and you gave 30% to your county, 10% to your agent… You ended up taking home about 400 quid from a $250,000 contract. I remember putting my name down in the top bracket possible, knowing that if someone was going to give me that, they’re bonkers, and I’d come blatantly for the money.”There were one or two English players that came over here and did well – people like Kev [Kevin Pietersen], who this was made for – but the rest of us, at the time, were so invested in the Test team. And, to be fair, we were getting good money for that with our central contracts. Back then, it wasn’t really financially worth it to miss the start of your season.”Swann’s T20 career was limited to the early days of the format, but there is enough evidence to suggest he could have been a success in the IPL. He was part of the England side that won the 2010 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, took 51 wickets in T20 internationals while maintaining an economy rate of 6.36, and even used to open the batting as a pinch-hitter for Nottinghamshire.”You’re right: I was a trailblazer,” Swann says with a grin. “I was ahead of my time. One of my greatest regrets – and I always have a go at Andy Flower for this, because he missed out massively – is that he didn’t let me open the batting at least once in one-day cricket. But when I played, we were still in the dark ages compared to other teams.”Swann with Alex Davies, captain of England Lions, on the team’s tour of Australia earlier this year•Mark Evans/ECB/Getty ImagesBut Swann’s art, right-arm offspin, is struggling in this year’s IPL. R Ashwin was dropped by Chennai Super Kings after an ineffective season, while Sunil Narine and Maheesh Theekshana are bowling mystery spin. Allrounders like Will Jacks, Moeen Ali and Aiden Markram have been used predominantly as match-up options against left-handers.”The reason there’s not that many offspinners playing is that there’s just not that many around at the minute in world cricket,” Swann says. “It’s not because offspinners haven’t got a job to do. Part of the problem for a lot of offspinners is this match-up thing that all teams buy into now – the idea that you can’t turn it into the batsman.”Actually, because people now only face the ball turning away from them, people have got used to it. I swear, if a good offspinner came in now… If they’d played Mo [Moeen Ali] all season at KKR, I reckon he’d kill it, because people have lost the ability to manoeuvre the ball as well. After a few years, it’ll revert, it’ll come back. But everyone is obsessed with wristspin.”Riyan Parag’s five consecutive sixes off Moeen on Sunday did not help, but Swann’s theory does have some credence: left-hand batters are scoring at a slower strike rate (145.89, down from 154.20) against left-arm orthodox spinners in this IPL than the last one, and are getting out to them once every 17.2 balls, down from once every 28.5 balls.Swann (back row, first from left) was part of England’s T20 World Cup-winning side in 2010•Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty ImagesOne franchise’s spin-bowling coach believes that the tide is already turning, and that the best captains are relying less on paint-by-numbers fingerspin match-ups – bowling offspin to left-handers and left-arm orthodox to right-handers – than they used to. Even so, there is a real dearth of frontline right-arm offspinners in the league.Swann believes this is, in part, because the modern offspinner is unwilling to attack. “People aren’t prepared to rip the ball. The way you deceive people is not through darting it in. You have to be brave and be willing to get hit for a six, but you’ve got to dip the ball. And the only way you get dip is by putting a lot of revolutions on the ball.”If you’re spinning it hard and getting it to dip, you’ll get wickets. You might get hit for the odd boundary, but you will get wickets – especially against new batsmen. And let’s face it, everyone gets hit for six now in T20. Expectations have changed. When I played, if you got 2 for 30, it was an abject failure, because you wanted to keep teams down at 140-150. Now, it’s great.”Swann’s influence has extended beyond the commentary box in the last three years. He is now regularly involved with England Lions in a coaching capacity, looking after young spinners and passing on his knowledge. “I’d sit there and see things spinners were doing wrong, or hear people talking about what they were doing, and think, ‘That’s wrong! I don’t agree with that.'”I’d always try to seek out the English spinners, talk to them about it and try to give them some advice. Robert Key and Mo Bobat at the ECB approached me. Keysy said, ‘We think you’re wasted: you’ve been our best spinner for a generation, and you’re up in the commentary box.’ That’s why I got back into it – and I have loved it.”