By Paul Fletcher

You probably haven't heard of David Parsons but he is out there - and looking for an English Shane Warne.

The dearth of world-class English spinners has been well documented and was plainly evident during the Test series in Pakistan.

But Parsons, England's first specialist spin bowling coach, has a "pretty blank canvas" that he hopes to fill with world-class English spinners.

Parsons explains how he intends to ensure the England team of the future can select from a rich seam of spinning talent.

My job is to increase the quality at all levels. I have a specific brief to develop spinners ready to play for England.

There is no reason why we cannot have a world-class spinner providing the environment is created to enable talent to come through.

Parsons is a highly qualified coach

People say that traditionally we cannot produce world-class leg-spinners but I don't see any reason why.

I have spoken to (Australian leg-spin coach) Terry Jenner at length and he argues that what we have at junior level in terms of quantity and quality far outweighs what they have available in Australia.

If there are physical barriers that prevent us from doing that then we must find a way of getting round the barriers or remove them.

If we can be half as successful as Troy Cooley has been with the fast bowlers then we will be in business and have done a pretty decent job.

I am going to the West Indies with the England A side next week and will be gone for five weeks.

When I come back there will be a two to three-month period of consultation.

I will be talking to coaches, people involved in development, academy directors, past players and current players, taking on board their views and putting together a small management group.

By mid-summer we will have a strategy in place and be quite clear over what we will do over the next three to five years.

We will start to pilot some ideas and then have it up and running from about September of next year.

We have to approach the job from at least two different angles.

DAVID PARSONS 1993: Qualified as a teacher 1995-2000: Warwickshire's coaching development manager 2000: Becomes an ECB coach, runs the Under-15s and Under-16s teams Sept 2004: Joins the Academy staff

The first angle is to look for some short-term successes by providing those guys in the England team or on the fringes of it with greater levels of support, resources, experiences and opportunities.

From the other end of the continuum we need to make sure there is the quantity and quality of young player introduced to bowling spin.

We must then make sure that players identified as talented are given the opportunity to progress.

We must have the people, the systems and the structures in place that allow spin bowlers at all level their talents to flourish.

I have seen a number of spinners playing county cricket over the winter and the talent is out there.

I think we have a slightly negative and defensive mindset right now - spinners tend to tie up an end and give the fast bowlers a break.

We can still do more in making spin bowling attractive, it is a marketing issue in its crudest terms.

Clearly we don't have a Shane Warne - someone who will take 600 wickets David Parsons

And spin bowling is the most difficult of the crafts to master because of the sheer mechanics involved with your fingers, wrist and body to be able to deliver a rotating ball with accuracy and control.

Coaches and captains have a vast responsibility for providing the environment that allows a young spinner's talents to come through.

When making the transition from junior to senior cricket, young players are often asked to sacrifice spin for accuracy.

Often there is a conflict between what is best for the spinner and best for the club or county.

It is what happens to them between 17 and 21 - where do they go, why is it that they seem to drop out of the system or fail to take on an attacking mentality?

I'm not going to put a specific timescale on it.

There is a desire out there for us to find a spin bowler who is able to be a matchwinner in any conditions but those don't just drop out of the sky.

For example, I have a couple of 16 and 17-year-old high-quality spin bowlers in mind - but we have to accept that it could be 10 years until they reach their peak so the benefits of that might not be seen for some time.