Kolkata, May 30: Former spin wizards of the country today blamed the increasing number of one-day matches for the decline in quality of spin bowling in the country but appreciated the "belated" efforts of the cricket board to revive this art. "One-day matches are the main villain for the decay in spin bowling," said B S Chandrasekhar as he emerged out of a BCCI-organised brainstorming session alongwith other spin greats to work out ways to revive the art.

Chandrasekhar, known for his deadly leg break bowling during his hey days, also said he had suggested during the discussions that there should not be one-day matches at the under-15 and under-17 levels of cricket.

Another former spin great R G (Bapu) Nadkarni also agreed that too many one-dayers were ruining the art saying: "If you look at the cricket calender you will find only one-day matches."

First of its kind, the session was attended by 12 former and present spin greats who termed the cricket board's effort as belated but were unanimous in their opinion that it was "better late than never".

Bureau Report