This is an episode with a difference as Desert Vipers spin-bowling coach Carl Crowe and left-arm spinner Mark Watt discuss all aspects of the slow bowler’s art in the T20 format, with the ILT20 at the forefront of both their minds.From the mental side of the game to analysis versus gut feel through to ways to practice for the expected dew issues during the tournament, this is a fascinating discussion on spin bowling in T20 cricket – how to do it and how to coach it.
The Desert Vipers are fortunate to have someone of Carl’s pedigree as a member of the coaching staff for the competition as he’s worked across the world for various sides in short form cricket and, ahead of the ILT20, coached the New York Strikers to the runners-up spot in the Abu Dhabi T10.Mark is one of only two Scotland bowlers with more than 50 wickets in T20 Internationals and has impressed in successive ICC T20 World Cups in the UAE and Australia, as well as helping his English county side Derbyshire to the quarter-finals of the T20 Blast competition in 2022.Carl will be coaching an impressive array of spinners for the Desert Vipers including not only Mark but also the number one men’s T20I spinner, Wanindu Hasaranga of Sri Lanka, off-spinner Rohan Mustafa of the UAE, his country’s top wicket-taker in the format, and left-arm wrist-spinner Jake Lintoff, the Birmingham Bears’ leading wicket-taker in that 2022 T20 Blast competition and a member of the Southern Brave squad that lifted the inaugural men’s Hundred silverware in 2021.
