It's time for Nathan Lyon to get nasty: Stuart MacGill Spin clinic: Former Test players Jason Krejza left, and Stuart MacGill, right, with a young student at the SCG. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer Former Australian leg-spinner Stuart MacGill advised Nathan Lyon the best favour he could do for himself as the nation's front-line spin bowler was to realise how "nasty" and "firm" he needed to be when captains, selectors and coaches offered directives that did not help him The 27-year-old returned from the two-Test disaster against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates under siege because he took three wickets for 422 runs. When he took just one wicket for NSW in the Sheffield Shield match against Queensland at the Gabba - which will host next month's opening Test against India - former Australian skipper Allan Border suggested Lyon be dropped so the locals could unleash a four-pronged pace attack. MacGill, one of Australia's great spinners, said Lyon must learn from the UAE experience and trust his own instincts at all costs. "Nathan is too good a bowler to be doing [what he bowled in the UAE]," MacGill said. He's a great bowler, our best spin bowler, and I genuinely believe if he's allowed to go about things his own way he'll be very successful. He has a very thick skin, but you don't need to prove to people how thick your skin is. You just go out to bowl and he does that. He's still very young and he doesn't know how firm he should be, how nasty he should be. I'd love him not to never listen to anybody else ever again. I think he's being dragged down, I feel he's being affected by the opinions of selectors, captains, coaches and senior teammates. The way he bowled in the UAE - the way all of 'us' bowled over there apart from Steven Smith - was a direct result of the 'wisdom' [regarding spin] in Australia. MacGill said he was not disappointed in Lyon's efforts in the UAE but he certainly felt disappointed for him because it seemed he was being fed the wrong advice. "He should be filled with confidence from the selectors and his coaches but I don't think he is," said MacGill who took 208 Test wickets at 29.02. I think they're always looking for something that's not there. We got [Muttiah] Muralitharan to coach our finger spinners, a bloke who is a completely different bowler to him. He can be better, all of us can, and he shouldn't be encouraged to be someone he can never be. I don't want him to be Murali, I want him to be Nathan Lyon. Another member of the spin bowlers' fraternity, Jason Krejza - who was second only to Bob Massie for most wickets by an Aussie in their Test debut when he took 12 Indian scalps in 2008 - was also dogged in his defence of Lyon but he understood why some people targeted him for unwelcome attention. "I've been a big fan of his since I saw him bowl for the first time," he said. I think most of the time when he hasn't looked too dangerous he's bowled the same ball over and over and that's why he gets criticised. He just needs to change his pace, he gets beautiful shape on the ball and he can turn it but I think he needs to work on his pace and that's hard for a finger-spinner, to be able to still keep revs on the ball and still change the speed of the ball but it could be something as simple as just bowling different places on the crease, which was something I did towards the back-end of my career. Weeks after Krejza criticised the lack of specialist coaching young spin bowlers were receiving at grassroots level, he joined forces with MacGill to form the Elite Cricket Spin Bowling Program at the SCG where they're imparting their collective knowledge, and insights, into a group of youngsters ranging in ages from 10 to 17 every Wednesday for the next fortnight. "There are kids desperate for coaching," said Krejza. I like to think it's a great experience for them to be getting some guidance from former Australian cricketers and we're hoping for the day when we can get a squad of 30 spin bowlers around the country for an intense training camp. MacGill said developing confidence in the group had been as important as teaching them the tricks of a tough trade. It's an old cliche that the only thing to fear is fear itself and kids today are guarded, they don't won't to be embarrassed, they don't want to exposed in front of their peers but I think the cool thing with Jason is he's pulled together a mix of kids of all ages and we're teaching them not to worry about bowling the bad balls because we want to build on the good ones.