Matt Prior is very articulate and fun to listen to. Make him permanent TalkSport.

Easily England's finest spinner of the 21st century. Streets ahead of the competition. To say he's the 'best ever' might signify a short memory (Derek Underwood?), or not much interest in history (Jim Laker, Tony Lock, Johnny Wardle, Bob Appleyard, Hedley Verity, Johnny Briggs, Wilfred Rhodes, Bobby Peele, Billy Bates, etc, I could go on). Underwood took more wickets at a better average, but had uncovered pitches to work with, I suppose. Personally, I think the most underrated was Bob Appleyard: tuberculosis deprived England of a fine, adaptable bowler there. I love his refusal to 'stereotype' his bowling - operating between medium pace and slow, all the variations. Would love to have seen him bowl. But yes, were I picking a 21st century team, Swann would be my fist pick of spinner, and third pick of bowler (after Anderson and Broad).

Graeme Swann was a genuine Great. It makes me sick how people still slate him for ‘walking out’ on England after the third Test of the disastrous 13-14 Ashes. He was in so much pain and could have done permanent long term damage if he’d continued; he had nothing more to prove to England. What would have been the point continuing when he couldn’t contribute anything more as a bowler anyway?

Best English spinner in the last 30 years. I assume he doesn't get talked about enough is because he is his own hype man

255 wickets in Tests at 30 as a finger spinner is exceptional. He also had the 2 gifts of great spin bowlers: the gift of never underestimating himself, and the gift of the gab.

It might seem a little negative / defeatist but is it not time we accept that Laker, Underwood and Swann are just lucky exceptions to the rule for English spinners. We seem to be making constant changes in the search for a worlds class spinner when history shows we’ve only had 3 world class spinners in our entire history. Are we not better off just concentrating on what we do best which is developing excellent seam and swing bowlers and then just being thankful when a great spinner comes along. Also, young spinners are incentivised to learn white ball skills and bowling styles that just don’t translate to test match cricket where they can just be milked for 3 an over. If I was a young spinner, I’d be learning the skills that can get me paid travelling around the world bowling 4 overs at a time rather than the ones that will have me bowling County Champ donkey overs in April and September.

What are your thoughts on a Test World Cup? 8 teams -> 2 groups -> the top 2 from each group meet in a super group -> top 2 play a final. A 2-3 month window for the TWC while bilateral could continue to run as it did.

If the super group isn't viable then semis and final. I like the idea of a super (cricket must have a super something lol) as we could see a team play 5 different teams (3+2) before the finals.

If players a paid a sizable fee by the ICC then test cricketers can make a decent living by just playing test.

My one issue with the WTC is that teams don't play an equal number of games. Also the more you play, the more a team can be penalized for slow over rates. Sub continent teams while spin dominate tend to find it easier to avoid penalties.

Really loving prior in these.

Swanny was a superb spinner+has this Aussie's respect as England's best spinner. Quick, loopy, great variety+like  Warney owned moments often for you Poms. Like Goughy+Tuffers a worthy member of the adopted Aussie club.
Great on the chirp too 🕺

fast, POP!, fast. The most visual (weirdly) explanation of spin bowling I've heard. Excellent!

Swann was a good bowler, but he was lucky that he arrived on the scene just as DRS took off, especially ball tracking. In the old days batsmen would play spinners with their pads and just not get given out unless it was right in front on the back foot (and even then Australian umpires wouldn't give it, ask Phil Tufnell). It was the 'done thing' in umpiring not to give batsmen out if they 'got a good stride in' against spinners. Suddenly DRS meant this technique no longer worked,. If a spinner pitched it in line and hit inline it probably wasn't going over the top no matter how far down the batsmen was. And the same for inside edges onto the pads etc - snicko and camera zoom could tell 99% whether a batter had nicked or gloved it. A lot of the 'well he might be out but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt' decisions suddenly went the bowlers way. And Swann was right in the right place to benefit. Batsmen hadn't quite realised they had to change and were getting given lbw by DRS while padding up to sp[inners left right and centre. Swannie was also good at getting the DRS calls right, which helped.

The thing is there were probably loads of spinners back in the day who might have had proper England careers with DRS, but never really got the chance. We forget how bad cricket umpiring was before DRS. Not necessarily because they were biased (though plenty were) but because tracking a ball travelling at 80-90mph, or taking a very slight deflection with no obvious sound is not easy, especially when you are in your 40s and 50s and maybe the eyes and ears are not quite as sharp as they used to be. Bad errors were made all the time. Just watch old footage of Tests from the 80s and 90s. The number of howler decisions is scary. Games, even entire series could easily be completely flipped if the same games were replayed with DRS. We should really thank our stars that cricket has managed to largely get video adjudication right, and the uncertainty around umpiring decisions has been removed, and just the skill of the players determines the outcome, not bad umpiring decisions.

There was a straighter quicker one that he bowled that targeted the stumps. The difference was speed and flight (flatter).

Yes I agree he was very under rated. He got wickets at good average everywhere, the only place he struggled was Australia, but how many spinners from visiting teams ever have much success in Australia.

Only two english bowlers i tried copying the action off - Swan and Anderson.
Swan's action was just pure poetry

Vettori just by being a New Zealander is underrated.

Underrated in Test cricket for England sure, but in test cricket in general has to be Herath

Absolutely swanny was brilliant is ability to be able to take wickets a bit like adil rashid out of nowhere probably was his biggest attribute especially his knack of taking wickets in his first over it was almost supernatural at one point you knew when swann came in to the attack he'd take a wicket first over

I certainly didn't appreciate him enough when I was younger.

Firstly MP has been slept on as a pundit and commentator. Secondly, I got into the game through spin. Warnie’s first words in his masterclass content is a spinners job is to spin the ball and make it turn. In the same why a seamer needs to bowl fast enough a spinner needs to bowl with enough on the ball or its not going to cause any kind of doubt.

Jo