Ex players MacGill, Mallett set to give `new direction` to Oz spin attack

Sydney: Former Australian cricketers Stuart MacGill and Ashley Mallett, who have been appointed by Cricket Australia``s Centre of Excellence as coach and consultant respectively, are reportedly set to give a new direction to the country`s spin attack.

MacGill began his work as a spin coach at Cricket Australia`s Centre of Excellence this week, striking up a rapport with lone Ashes spinner Nathan Lyon, aspiring leggie Fawad Ahmed and rookie finger spinners Ashton Agar and Ashton Turner. Centre of Excellence head coach Troy Cooley said that Mallett was invited to Brisbane-based Centre because of his experience in England. According to MacGill, he had accepted the job because he believed that a generation of spinners has been `horribly mismanaged`, adding that he had faced the same problem when he was playing. Stating that the players have been `over-coached`, MacGill said that instead of picking on their actions, he will be helping the spinners to know their own stock deliveries intimately so they have something to fall back on when it happens. He added that it had happened to Lyon in the Chennai Test. Stating that every coach has a different way of describing the same thing, MacGill supported Lyon, but said the spinner will benefit from the presence of Ahmed, who is likely to join the off-spinner in England if he receives his Australian citizenship in time for the Ashes. Mallett``s invitation to the Centre had come as a surprise as he had ripped into both Lyon and CA`s teaching methods in an article, stating that CA should not have let the standard of spin bowling to slip and had termed the emerging spinners as `incomprehensible rubbish`. Stating that it felt unusual to be invited to a place after criticizing its working, Mallett said that he was there to help boost the spinners` actions, adding that although the spinners have potential, they are inhibited by their actions. ANI