Richard said:
And no fingerspinner, ever, is.
As a fingerspinner, if the pitch doesn't help you, there's absolutely nothing you can do.
That's such crap it's almost unbelievable that you are attempting to say it.
What about, say, Daniel Vettori? This is a guy who, playing entirely in the highest scoring era of ODI cricket, on some of the least responsive home surfaces in the world, has an ODI economy rate of 4.22. In tests against Australia, once again on unresponsive surfaces, he's been miles clear of every other New Zealand bowler, and singlehandedly kept them in the contest at times, by at least bowling economically (to everybody but Gilchrist, anyway) and picking up the odd wicket.
Even Ashley Giles, God forbid I say it, manages to keep it tight when the ball isn't turning. That's what flight and drift are for - you might not get many wickets just by flighting the ball well, but you make yourself a hell of a lot harder to hit around, and if batsmen do try and hit you around and you beat them in the flight you might well pick up a wicket.
Adding to Dale's examples of English domestic players, how about some Australians? You know who had the best economy rate of any bowler with over 50 overs this ING Cup season? Darren Lehmann - 3.89. In fact, the only other bowler who managed an economy rate under 4 from 50+ overs was Brett Dorey. How about guys with less than 50 overs? It's a short season after all, and not many players bowl that many. Well, Michael Clarke! 3.57, and a fingerspinner.
Throw in others like Marcus North (4.61), Jason Krezja (3.17), and consider the fact that Australia doesn't even have that many fingerspinners compared to England, and you've got plenty more evidence that if you bowl decently, change your pace, flight the ball and little and so on, you can keep the runs down on any surface. If an average bowler like Darren Lehmann can do it, any frontline fingerspinner can too.
