For the last 18 years test cricket has been graced by three of the greatest spin bowlers the world has produced. Shane Warne, Anil Kumble and Muttiah Muralitharan have collectively taken over 2000 test wickets and easily head their respective countries leading wicket taking lists and also make up the top three wicket takers in test history.

Its been fantastic but now the three spin kings are in there late thirties and are begining to bring down the curtain on their respective careers and I begin to ask myself where are the next generation of leading spin bowlers? Looking around the international scene now there is a smattering of quality spinners led by Daniel Vettori, Monty Panesar and Danish Kaneria. And waiting in the wings there are up and coming spinners such as Piyushi Chawla and to a lesser extent Adil Rashid. But I am failing to see any of them being able to dominate test cricket like Warne, Kumble and Murali.

Perhaps Im being harsh expecting the high standards of spin bowling to be maintained, the standards set by Warne and co will be hard to match and will take a truly great bowler. But I think that we are very lucky to have seen such a great collection of spinners in such a short period.

I think therefore that the past 18 or so years has been the era of the great spin bowler, much like the 1980's was the era of the faster bowler. I doubt highly that we will ever see a generation of spin bowlers of the same class with such parallel careers ever again.

Well not in my lifetime...