Budding Protea spinners learning tricks in India

MOHALI: A group of promising South African spinners are presently busy learning the tricks of the trade at a camp here under the guidance of Harbhajan Singh's former coach.
    
Seven spinners from South Africa are currently training hard at the PCA stadium here under the watchful eyes of Devender Arora, who coached Harbhajan in the initial phase of his career.
    
"Two left-arm, two leg spinners and three off spinners, have been chosen by United Cricket Board of South Africa for a 10-day long stint, which has already started from June 5. They are here to learn the art of spin bowling," Arora said here on Saturday.
    
Jalandhar-based Arora, who represented Punjab and Railways in Ranji Trophy in 1980s, added that all of them are "keen learners" and want to utilise their stay here by grasping as much as they can.
    
"It is good to see their hunger for learning. I had worked on the actions of some of them as their action resembles that of a fast bowler," he said.
    
Arora had earlier conducted similar camps here with the English U-17 and Kiwi U-15 cricketers.
    
Meanwhile, all the seven budding Protea spinners have expressed satisfaction with the camp and feel the camp has provided them an opportunity to hone their skills.
    
Twenty-two-year-old Bloemfontein-based off-spinner Thandi Tshabalala, a member of the group, said that Arora has passed on many new inputs to them which the South African coaches generally don't know.
    
"It is absolutely amazing to take the tips from the man who has coached Harbhajan Singh. There has been a lot of information thrown at us and some of them have been new. We are now becoming more aware of what we are doing. We are learning a lot more technicalities of spin bowling at the camp," he said.
    
Thandi is already being compared with compatriots Paul Harris and Robin Peterson, but the young spinner feels he needs to put in lot of hard work to rub shoulders with them.
    
Another member of the group, 24-year-old Durban-based leg-spinner Darren is busy working with former Indian spinner Narender Hirwani at the same camp.
    
"I have really learnt more here and the experience has been fantastic. Even if the camp was a three-day or a four-day one, we would have still taken a lot of new things from here," said Darren, who plays for South Africa's first-class team, Dolphins.