Kumble urges SA's young spinners to work hard

Anil Kumble has encouraged South Africa's young spinners to work hard and stay positive if they hoped to make it big. Kumble was speaking at a Cricket South Africa (CSA) High Performance Spinning Clinic in Johannesburg.

"My message to the youngsters is simple, stay positive and remain focused on your goals. As a spinner, it is always important to keep a positive mindset when bowling, it is a challenging art but once you master it, it becomes very rewarding."

The former India legspinner, who was joined by South Africa spinners Paul Harris and Johan Botha, received plenty of praise from the spinners he helped at the clinic on Thursday. The session, which was also attended by CSA's High Performance spinning coaches, Shafiek Abrahams, Harry Shapiro and Paul Adams, was conducted alongside the second CSA annual conference in Sandton.

"It is always an opportunity of a lifetime to receive advice from a brilliant cricketer like Anil Kumble," Tabraiz Shamsi, the leading wicket-taker in CSA's domestic competition last season, said. "He has given me some tips to implement on my technique and hopefully the wickets will keep coming next season. "

Shamsi's comments were echoed by South Africa women's legspinner Dane van Niekerk. "There are not many spinners in women's cricket, especially legspinners so today has been a privilege. Kumble is an all-time great and has great expertise about spin bowling, I have learnt a lot today," she said.

Even Botha said he picked up a few tricks from Kumble. "Today was a great experience and even as an international player it was a privilege to learn some new tricks of the trade from Kumble. You can never have enough information and I hope the players here today will benefit from Kumble's wisdom and go on for bigger achievements in the next season."