Matt Parkinson calls for English spinners to have more contact with specialist coaches 

Matt Parkinson has called for more contact with specialist coaches for aspiring English spinners as he prepares to head into the behind-closed-doors Test environment of the 2020 summer.

Although the Lancashire leg-spinner feels fortunate to have fostered a strong relationship with Stuart MacGill through a now defunct ECB spin programme of winter placement in Sydney, and still uses the Australian for regular advice, he believes there is an argument for more spin coaches to work at county level.

‘I look back when Peter Such was the England lead spin coach and you would see him once every two months. He was stretched thin as well. Personally I think there is a place for them,’ said Parkinson, one of five spinners in the 30-man England training group gathering at the Ageas Bowl next Tuesday ahead of a three-match series versus West Indies.

Matt Parkinson has called for more contact with specialist coaches for English spinners

The Lancashire leg-spinner feels fortunate to have a strong relationship with Stuart MacGill

‘We are very lucky at Lancashire because we have Carl Crowe as a spin consultant, so I have access to him when I come back from tours. That’s probably where I think county cricket will end up going with more of a consultancy basis because there probably aren’t enough spinners out there to warrant a full-time spin coach.

‘I know how lucky I am to have had access to Stuart MacGill, Suchie, and Jeetan Patel this winter, whereas other spinners haven’t had that.’

Parkinson, Mason Crane and Matt Critchley – 23-year-old leggies each – are all disciples of MacGill.

The 23-year-old has access to spin consultant Carl Crowe when he trains with Lancashire 

‘I loved that trip to Australia. Four months in Sydney was fantastic. We had a fantastic relationship. I was his chauffeur for the time I was there,’ Parkinson said.

‘I actually sent him some videos from two weeks ago and he came back with a couple of points on my action. He told me to use my front arm more and “be better”.’

With Patel still registered as a player with Warwickshire this summer, and Such not yet replaced within the ECB’s pathway coaching structure, Gloucestershire’s Richard Dawson – someone Parkinson is yet to meet – has been seconded to oversee the spinners in Southampton and Manchester.

The next selection hurdle for players will be to make it through when the group is cut from 30 to 20 names around July 3-4 following inter-squad matches in Southampton.

Parkinson is one of five spinners in England’s 30-man training group for their upcoming Test

And if Parkinson makes it that far – Moeen Ali, Jack Leach, Dom Bess and Amar Virdi are rivals – a Test debut at his home ground of Emirates Old Trafford, the venue for the second and third matches, ‘where it does spin’ and ‘they do sometimes pick two spinners’, could be on the cards. The second and third matches are scheduled there.

Following Twenty20 and one-day international bows last winter in New Zealand and South Africa, he appeared well place to earn a cap when he took four wickets in a practice match in Sri Lanka in March only for the Covid-19 outbreak to cull the trip.

For now, he takes his home comforts – a coffee machine, a Play Station and the Last Kingdom novels by Bernard Cornwell – into England’s extended family bubble as the most unusual of international summers moves nearer to its start.