Chennai: It has been long since he had last worried about the basics for a successful off spinner, but one of world's best offies Erapalli Prasanna was at it again at the MRF Pace Foundation.The former Karnataka ace tweaker imparted the basics of bowling- maintaining correct length, flight and spinning the ball to trap the batsman, to the five spinners in nine member Australian Cricket Academy (ACB). Former Aussie player Wayne Philips is the coach of the squad."They are willing to learn and communicate," Prasanna said in praise of the boys. That is the right way to blossom, he opined. Prasanna and his spin twin Bishan Singh Bedi were imparting the skills of spin bowling to the ACB boys under an exchange programme, which MRF has with the ACB.Prasanna was also appreciative of the planning to unearth talent by the ACB and Australian Cricket Academy. ''The nine boys are part of a 30-member team which had toured the MRF last year. They have filtered out the nine most promising boys and sent them down here for further training'', Prasanna explained.''Let me see how you act on my advice in the match tomorrow,'' Prasanna told the boys who listened to him with rapt attention. The ACB boys are scheduled to play a two-day match against a combined Tamil Nadu team on Saturday. They will play another two matches on April nine and ten. UNI

Tags: cricket, cricketer, famous spinners, yesteryears, off spinner erapalli prasanna, left armer bishan singh bedi, young spinners, nine-member squad, australian cricket board, acb, mrf pace foundation, chief coach, former indian medium pacer, t a sekhar, eight-day tour, acb coach wayne philips, sub-continent, anthony clark, sean clingeleffer, stevencoombes, simon dart, xavier doherty, mark higgs, brad hodge, scott o leary and shane watson.