At 17, the first flight of a fledgling Warne

As England have lurched around Australia from calamity to disaster the future has had more name checks than tardy plane passengers. Something, it is generally agreed, has to be done to make the future better than the present.

Well, the future gathered last week at the National Sports Centre in Lilleshall. The future will fly out to Australia in the wake of the present on 31 December, the future is the England Under-19 cricket team. The future is represented by Mark Lawson, a leg-spinner from Huddersfield and the youngest member of the squad.

Lawson is one of seven 17-year-olds in the party, selected with one plan in mind: that's right, the future. He was picked because of his age and his chosen discipline. All the discussions concur that England need high pace and wrist-spin. Lawson has an opportunity to be the man on the white charger riding to the rescue in one of those roles.

Before examining his potential and credentials, however, it is important to heed the cautionary words of Terry Jenner. The former Australia leg-break bowler, who became a key adviser to Shane Warne, has been charged with unearthing English practitioners and is generally reckoned to be a wrist-spin guru.

"The plan is to have other good young spinners," he said. "As much as I think Mark has got talent we're obligated to get seven or eight guys like him so they put pressure on each other and improve. This is a great opport- unity but he knows that it's not about Mark Lawson, it's about leg-spin bowling."

Jenner is conducting a delicate balancing act. Lawson is the chosen one for the moment but is far from a complete bowler. Jenner empha- sised that a spinner's appren-ticeship lasts years and has to nurture the teenager while ensuring that he continues to develop. He did not damn him with faint praise but allowed no extravagant predictions.

"I'm worried that people expect too much, parents, coaches, club captains, schools, teachers," he said. "They try to get lads to bowl at the economical speed Warne bowls at but they don't look at his build, shape or strength. A lot of people see this slider which is getting Warney a lot of leg befores and say give him one. Why? Warney didn't have one until he was 29, why should he have one at 17?

"Because they're impatient, not just in England but every-where. When Warne was 18 he was playing C-grade cricket in Melbourne and that shows you've got to keep a balance. He was developing and went from there to playing for Australia at 22 when he got one for 347." (To be fair, it was one for 150.)

Fittingly, it was Warne who first inspired the seven-year-old Lawson with his deeds against England in 1993. "I watched it and got excited and wanted to carry that off. It's different and no one was doing it at the time for England. I've always wanted to do what he could do."

Lawson soon found that he had a natural aptitude for turning the ball, instantly became a leg-spinner and has been playing for Yorkshire schools sides since he was eight. Marked out early on, he has come under the tutelage of Steve Oldham, head of the Yorkshire Academy, and George Batty, bowling coach father of Gareth, England's latest one-day debutant.

Since he began working with Jenner he has changed his action. "My action used to be more of a medium pace bowler's," said Lawson. "All I did was flick my wrist and try to spin it. I've got a much smoother, simple approach now." He sounds the perfect Jenner pupil.

Jenner says spinners have to work, work, work, and bowl, bowl, bowl. Lawson does it. "It's hard to be patient but you've got to be to succeed. I don't mind being hit for runs because if they're trying to attack I've got a chance of getting them out."

He was pretty quiet in front of the notebooks but is effusive and highly competitive on the field. He plays for the Farsley club (Alma Mater of Raymond Illingworth), has a contract with the Yorkshire Academy, is studying for A levels and has tentative plans to study politics at Loughborough, perhaps as much for its cricketing prowess as its academic syllabus. Oliver Cromwell is his political Shane Warne.

Jenner cannot advise him enough to practise and do it wisely: "There's nothing wrong with experimenting but if you're a leg-spin bowler it's pretty handy to have a leg-break. That's your stock ball.

"What I say is this. If Mark or the team needs a wicket he should go with his leg-break, if someone's going after him and he has to defend himself he should go with his leg-break. Just remember Warne got to 200-plus Test wickets bowling leg-spinners and the occasional flipper." Lawson, impressing teacher, said that if he has been practising his wrong 'un he always ends with 10 minutes of pure leg-breaks.

Not too much should be expected of England's young party in Australia. "We've deliberately gone for a youth policy after being disappointing in the last two World Cups," said manager Graham Saville. "We want to give these lads the best chance with experience of international cricket."

Leg-spin is at last due to be part of England's strategy, perhaps encapsulated by the unquestionable gifts of Mark Lawson. Perhaps not. How long will it take? "As long as it takes," said Jenner.