Young Tyke who is turning on the style: Rashid's raw talents remove need for spin

It is like trying to keep the lid on a malfunctioning Jack in the Box, or perhaps more akin to ramming the bubbles back into that champagne bottle the boys have been chucking around the dressing room. But that is the stated mission of Yorkshire and England when it comes to Adil Rashid. Some hope, some hype. The cat is out of the bag and this particular wonder cub will not be coming back.

Indeed, if the 19-year-old's extraordinary start to the county season is anything to go by, then the poor Headingley press office will be fielding yet more calls after the four-day match against Worcestershire which begins in Leeds today. For Rashid is the current talking point of English cricket and every argument screams in favour of this most priceless of cricketing commodities - a leg-spinning all-rounder.

Some of the claims are faintly ridiculous, if understandable. If it was not inevitable that expectations would soar to "Rashid for England" when the then 18-year-old took a match-winning 6 for 67 on his senior debut against Warwickshire last July, then it certainly was after he collected 16 wickets, not to mention two half-centuries, in the first three Championship matches of 2007. David Parsons feels he should take issue with any premature cries for promotion, even though in his role as the England and Wales Cricket Board's spin-bowling coach it must surely be tempting not to.

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"I've heard a few comments recently that Adil should be picked for England in the very near future, but I have to say that's unrealistic," said Parsons yesterday, before agreeing with Yorkshire's policy to shield Rashid from the media. "I absolutely urge caution as he still has much maturing to do physically and there's a lot of development to be done. Though I do admit it will be difficult to keep him out of the spotlight if he carries on in this vein."

Apart from those small matters of his batting and bowling, there are a few other reasons why the beam will doubtless be catching Rashid ever more frequently. One is that he is a leg-spinner; another is that he is an Anglo-Asian. To England cricket fans, the former is blessedly more relevant than the latter.

Ever since Shane Warne arrived on the scene with his explosions of dust, the ECB has been desperate to produce a similarly destructive leg-spinner, even going as far as to employ the services of Warne's mentor, Terry Jenner, on their development programme. It was Jenner who first noticed Rashid as a 14-year-old, although the pupil has revealed in the past that his first tuition came in his Bradford back garden. "I actually started when I was about eight and the only reason I did it was because of my dad who just taught me how to bowl leg-spin," he said. "From there I just practised and learned the different deliveries. I started with Yorkshire at Under-11s and from there went through all the age groups to the Under-17s, Yorkshire Second XI and now the first team. It's been a long process."

In Parsons' opinion it might have a little way to go yet. Last winter, he was on hand Down Under as Jenner tweaked the young Tyke's action, further developing a technique that Parsons confirms "has markedly improved year upon year". "I first started working with Adil in my days with the England Under-15s," he recalled. "He was actually quite young as a boy; physically I mean. We played him 'over age', so he was 16 when he played in the 15s. Every level he has been tested in since, he has succeeded. Basically, his strengths are to bowl a very good leg-break, with good revolutions, with good line and length, very consistently. He also uses variety very well. Added to that, there is a fine competitor in there and he is a very talented batsman and a pretty good fielder. All in all, it's a rather good package."

That much has been blatantly clear this past month. At Hampshire last week, Warne was heard to comment "boys, you've got yourself a leggie", having met and played against Rashid for the first time. His contribution at the Rose Bowl may not have been as striking as it was in the opening two matches, but then Rashid had given himself some act to follow. The most startling spell came at the Oval three weeks ago when he took four wickets for nine runs in 15 balls in 25 enthralling minutes at the end of the day.

The great irony was that Chris Schofield had earlier toiled on such a batsmen-friendly wicket. He just happens to be the last leg-spinner to play for England, thrown in as a 21-year-old in 2000 and appearing in two wicketless Tests before being jettisoned into a wilderness from which he is still struggling to escape. Whichever way you look at it, the 28-year-old's is indeed a cautionary tale.

"I was not around during what went on with Schofield so I can't really comment, but perhaps there are lessons to be learnt from history," said Parsons. "You need to be careful with young leg-spinners as it's the most difficult bowling craft to master. It's something that very few, if anybody, does naturally and even then, after getting it right technically and physically, there are the subtleties of bowling spin to get used to. That takes time."

Rashid, himself, has recognised this. "Maybe there have been those brought in too early to the England set-up," he has said. "You need to be patient and play a couple of full seasons first to get your confidence. I am not thinking of England yet." Are England thinking of him? Well, Peter Moores supposedly "ran the rule" over him on a recent visit, although in truth that was to see Michael Vaughan and he knows all about Rashid anyway, having worked with him on the England A tour to Bangladesh earlier this year. Apparently, the new national coach approves of the county's handling of Rashid both on and off the wicket.

And in so many ways, Yorkshire's is a commendable player-development philosophy, not least as the primary instinct as a business would surely be to milk this cash-cow for all it is potentially worth (especially before England come calling to hijack him with a central contract). As their spokesman, James Buttler, said yesterday: "On Monday, for our one-dayer against Leicestershire, there were more Asian faces in the Headingley crowd than we've maybe ever seen."

Rashid was not playing, but Younis Khan was and although the flamboyant talents of the Pakistan batsman would make him a catch for any side, anywhere, the added benefits of employing such a cultural hero are all too obvious. "For many years Yorkshire Cricket Club had a bad reputation in terms of representing our communities, but now it definitely shouldn't have," Buttler said. "We would love the Asian population to come and support us."

The presence of Younis will fairly yank them in, although, in time, the boy who became only the second Yorkshire-born Asian to play for the county may be an even more emotive tug. Already in the Yorkshire Academy's cricket centre they are noticing unprecedented levels of Asian interest, as the age-groups swell with would-be Rashids and, of course, Monty Panesars.

"The system should be given credit for this and making the game more accessible," Parsons said. "The Monty effect can only reinforce this as can the emergence of Rashid. It's good from a leg-spinning perspective, but plainly also has more far-reaching significance. Yes, I suppose it is possible that in a few years we could have Monty at one end for England and Adil at the other. How terrific would that be?"

The hyping machine cranked up another notch as he said it.

Asian boom for counties coincides with Afro-Caribbean dip

The growing Asian influence in the English game is directly in contrast with the falling numbers of those players of Afro-Caribbean descent in the County Championship. As heart-warming as the emergence of role models such as Monty Panesar might be, the decline in black players takes some of the gloss off the ECB's best attempts to make cricket the domain of all communities.

The decline is most starkly expressed in the England squad. On the 1989-90 tour to the West Indies, England had five Afro-Caribbeans in their ranks; on last year's tour to Australia there were none. Conversely there were two players of Asian descent who went Down Under and in the County Championship this anomaly is becoming just as obvious.

Of course, the reasons are as many as they are complex, although when speaking to the BBC recently, David Morgan, the ECB chairman, outlined what he sees as the major factors. "When immigration was peaking in the 1960s we had 20 or 25 Afro-Caribbean cricketers playing in our Championship," he said. "It was also a time when West Indies cricket was at the top. But since, there has been a decline in the West Indies team."

Whether Morgan is right is debatable. But to Gladstone Small, the former England bowler who has worked in schools encouraging children to become involved, the outlook for black cricket in Britain is bleak. "If there's a classroom of 40 kids, there'll be 36 or 37 Asians and, if you're lucky, three or four black kids," Small told Wisden. "That's the crux. Speak to them and they say 'I don't like cricket'. It's football and basketball more often."