Matt Parkinson alleges counties of 'attitude problem' towards spinners

Young England spinner Matt Parkinson has reckoned that county cricket's 'attitude problem' towards spinners is hindering the growth and development of spinners like him.

Parkinson, who made his First-Class debut for Lancashire in 2016, has featured in just 32 four-day games despite having claimed 102 scalps at an impressive average of 23.5.

Addressing the media ahead of Lancashire's County Championship opener, Parkinson called out county teams' attitude towards the spinners, alleging that a generic seamer gets to play more FC games than a spinner.

He also criticized the counties for not showing enough trust in spinners besides preparing pitches that take their skill sets entirely out of the equation.

"You have 23-year-old seamers who have played 60 or 70 [first-class] games, but I'm almost 26 and have played 35 [32]. So you've got just a generic county seamer who has played 70 games because he's part of a four-man seam attack," said Parkinson.

"Spinners are never going to improve if you're not playing. So it's tough because the spinners that are coming through now - and I'm pally with a lot of them - they're all at clubs where you think that spinners should play every single game,' he added.

Alluding to other spinners in the English set-up, Parkinson said that he and his fellow mates like Amar Virdi, Dom Bess, Dan Moriarty are good enough to represent their counties in every game, provided that the management believes in their ability and prepare pitches that would allow them to come into the game.

"Amar] Virdi and [Dan] Moriarty at The Oval are good enough to play every game. He said that the Oval could be conducive to spin if they wanted it to be," he said.

"It's the same with Bessy [Dom Bess] at Headingley, my brother [Callum Parkinson] at Leicester, [Josh] Baker, all these young spinners… I don't care how much it's rained; you can produce wickets that are good and can spin," he added.

"We need to play. They've all got good records when they've played. They just need to play consistently," Parkinson said.

Parkinson featured in 11 out of 14 games that Lancashire played last season. He claimed 36 wickets at an average of 20.55 and subsequently earned a call-up to the Test squad for the recent tour of the Caribbean.

However, he was benched in each of the three Tests. It will be interesting to see if the leg-spinner gets his maiden England cap this upcoming summer.

Parkinson will open his County Championship 2022 campaign when Lancashire takes on Kent in Canterbury on April 14.