Jomel Warrican worships at cricket’s most unfashionable altar – remember the name | Jonathan Liew
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Why am I writing about the fifth most famous spinner from the West Indies? Because it matters for Test cricket. There was a lovely moment after the Trinidad Test a couple of years back. With the final day’s play between India and West Indies washed out and the match drawn, Ravindra Jadeja and Jomel Warrican went up to the top of the covered stand to chat spin bowling.
![[Jonathan Liew]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2019/11/25/Jonathan_Liew.png?width=180&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
And, you know, really chat about it. The dirty, under-the-counter stuff. Alignment, shoulder positions, approach angles, how to maintain efficiency of momentum into the delivery stride. The stuff that, to those uninitiated in the art and argot of left-arm red-ball spin bowling, might barely even register as English. Just two master craftsmen talking about their arcane, esoteric and very possibly dying craft.
![[West Indies Jomel Warrican, right, bowls as Pakistan's Saud Shakeel watches]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6a753c4560e0dd0dabf7f302d188b38006bb19ee/0_202_3919_2352/master/3919.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Afterwards, when journalists expressed incredulity that these two opposing players would share trade secrets so openly in the middle of a series, Warrican and Jadeja expressed incredulity at their incredulity. “He had some technical doubts,” Jadeja confided. “If your experience helps someone to get better, there cannot be anything better than that.” Warrican put it even more succinctly: “We all play the same sport.”.
![[James Anderson during his final Test, against West Indies]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/87a1fc6689bb21abdd282e0b542c0ff700938c17/78_64_2445_1467/master/2445.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
But let’s get the elephant out of the room first. Why is this respected British news outlet writing about Warrican in the first place? Why, when Manchester United are a shambles and Ange Postecoglou is on the brink and Novak Djokovic is once again winning friends and influencing people, are you polluting the media ecology with this anti-clickbait about a man who might be described – generously – as the fifth most famous spinner from the West Indies?.
