Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott believes emerging offspinner Sunil Narine is "interesting but not special." Boycott made the comments during his biweekly podcast "Bowl at Boycs' on Cricinfo.com this week. Voted Player-of-the-Series at the recent IPL, Narine had an quiet Test match debut last week when he took none for 70 in 15 overs against England at Edgbaston. Boycott said he was sceptical about the 24-year-old's chances of becoming a major force in the longer format right away. "In the IPL, he did well because everything was in his favour. Batsmen had never seen him and they came in and had to slog. They had no time to be watchful for a few overs. Also, the pitches in India have slow turn," he said. "Now at Edgbaston, batsmen could take their time, wait and watch. They were not under pressure to hit him and the pitch was a beauty for batsmen; even bounce and no spin. "One of the world's best spinners, Graeme Swann, could not pose problems for any West Indian batsmen so there's no chance Narine was going to pose problems for England. Don't judge him quite so harshly but let's not get carried away, he's interesting but not special."
He maintained that while Narine had exciting potential, he was too early into his career to be considered exceptional. "The kid has hardly played any first class cricket and we all know that spinners usually need a few years behind them before they mature and are able to bowl really well. There are very few that make it right away. "Though he's not matured, what is interesting to us lovers of cricket is his ability to bowl the doosra like [Saeed] Ajmal, who causes a lot of trouble. If he can really spin the doosra and disguise it then he will cause havoc for batsmen." On the West Indies' performance over the three Tests, Boycott said he was impressed by their level of resistance. "We saw in West Indies a moderate side. I liked their spirit, their character, their attitude. They didn't fold under pressure even when they were losing, which was nice to see. I think the captain has to take a lot of credit for that, so does the coach; to pick the players up and show fight, but the problem is they can't win matches when the top four batsmen can't do their job." Asked about Denesh Ramdin's now-infamous gesture towards Viv Richards, he said: "It was childish really, to get upset and bring out a piece of paper, but I don't think it was against the spirit of the game or that he deserved a fine. I mean, my goodness, if we're going to fine people everytime they show a bit of emotion and passion...cricket is emotion and passion. Surely we don't want robots in cricket. We want people with a bit of spirit who care about the game."
