Watch out for those fingers

A sizeable crowd has landed up to watch the Indian practice session. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh are bowling in adjacent nets and it’s difficult to find even an inch of space behind the netting. Standing amid the photograph-seeking group is a shrewd observer, folding his arms and watching them intently.

Think Terry Jenner and the image that pops up in your head is a portly and cheerful man who observed Shane Warne from behind the sidelines. A legspinner who’s career never really took off, Jenner is now associated as a mentor to Warne, arguably the game’s greatest bowler.

As he chats he’s keeping a close watch on Kumble. “I’m trying to see how many balls he’s tossing above the batsmen’s eye-line and how many he’s pushing through flat,” he says. Irfan Pathan, a left-hander, is on strike and Jenner wants to see a googly. “Maybe he’s holding it back for the match but I would want to see him bowl them once in a while.

“What I also want to see is Kumble bowl the unorthodox legbreak, one with a lot of overspin,” he said ripping his right hand as if he’s completed a table-tennis smash. “That’s what gives the ball a bit more zip and allows it to bounce off the surface.”

Would a youngster be better off emulating Warne or Kumble? “Very hard to say but maybe I’d have to say Kumble. It’s slightly easier to maintain your accuracy without spinning it that much. Warne spun it big and kept it tight.”

You need to give Jenner some space when he talks. Suddenly he’ll swing his arms around, describing a kind of delivery. He snaps his fingers for the flipper, cuts his wrist across for the slider, opens his palm wide for the “other slider” and twirls his fingers for the googly.

Suddenly he pushes his front foot forward. “That’s what Ricky Ponting has been doing all series, pushing at the ball hard from the beginning. In the 2001 series Harbhajan got him with offbreaks but now he’s got him with toppies (top spinners).”

By now he’s waving his arms around and describing the different deliveries. What started off as a silent observation has turned into a demonstration session. All it took was the word “spin”.