Former leg-spinner, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, stressed upon the need for India to better look after its spinners at all levels and how the decline in the number of quality first-class alternatives is a sad reality of today. 

Kind of surfaces used at many centres in the Ranji Trophy and the constant dose of limited-overs matches, it is felt by many, are the reasons behind young spinners not really developing the nous required to take wickets in the red-ball game and looking lost after a while even with the white ball. 

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Beyond Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, veterans turning up at the Test level, India's spin future seems uncertain at this stage. 

"I think India need(s) a spin bowling coach," Sivaramakrishnan told Indian women's team coach, WV Raman, during a chat show ‘Inside Out'.

The way spinners are treated, especially at the domestic level, by teams and their captains is another issue, finds Sivaramakrishnan. 

"Captaincy has become negative in terms of not giving runs and keeping it tight," he said. "You don't get to see attacking field position to a spinner bowling. That means you are waiting for the batsman to make mistakes and fall in the deep and not in the slips or forward short-leg."

"In that way, I feel spinners are being ignored. The current lot is trying but after this, I don't think we will get good spinners in India."

Giving an example from his own unfulfilled career playing for India, Sivaramakrishnan said: "I always performed really well under (Sunil) Gavaskar and not so much under Kapil Dev. Kapil was a very instinctive captain while Gavaskar was a captain who would plan things...who would tell you what he expects from you."

"I think captaincy plays an important part in the development of a leg-spinner or any spinner for that matter," he added. 

Sivaramakrishnan feels the National Cricket Academy (NCA) also is to be blamed. 

"I don't know what happens in the NCA but it is supposed to produce the cricketers that we require. But at the moment I don't see any spinner of higher quality who can go to play for India immediately," he said.