Warwickshire sign New Zealand right arm quick Michael Rae on a short term deal. In line to make his debut at Chelmsford tomorrow.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/michael-rae-622772

Hopefully he is more reliable and productive than some of his predecessors.

The club doesn't have a good record recently.

Bit of a step up from the East Anglia Premier.

George Dobell on The Cricketer website is slightly scathing about the quality of this signing.
He also points out:
"Zaman Akhter... spent several months training with the club and living in Birmingham but, when they failed to offer him a contract, joined Gloucestershire.He is now starting to be name-checked as a potential England fast bowler and has one of the fastest average speeds of bowlers in county cricket. Given the lack of pace in the Warwickshire attack, such a signing might have proved wise."

He's probably worth a punt. Lancashire signed Will Williams like this, he was playing club in the UK then signed for Lancs mid season, and he turned out to be a good pick up. This lad does indeed have a modest record though. It is very difficult to pick up decent overseas players at the moment to be fair, like we've all said.

I'd have probably given Liam Guthrie, currently playing in the 2's, a go instead. He has a bit more pedigree, come through an extremely strong WA pathway in Aus and took a 6fer for QLD in the Sheffield Shield only a couple of months ago, he's also a left armer who i know definitely bowls high 80's.

Rae looks like a Gavin Larsen signing.

Didn't know this about Zaman Akhtar, we are becoming an increasingly odd run club though, who seems to miss out on talent right under our noses quite a lot.

I wish Michael Rae well though, hope he's quick, we're crying out for a bit of pace. Jamal looks like a bit of a trundler let's be honest.

“Jamal looks like a bit of a trundler let's be honest”

It appears Jamal has been bowling with a back injury (recently diagnosed) which might explain his lack of pace.

Recently diagnosed, or disclosed?

It's not unknown for players to deliberately not disclose an injury to secure a lucrative contract.

the clubs recruitment of overseas players has been bad for many years, which raises questions about the methods use to select overseas players, and if the club has limited itself to only dealing with one agent.

Robinson mentioned in his interview post Surrey that Jamal was feeling his back. If they knew this, why on earth give him the new ball when Surrey only needed 89?

Good question!

GerryShedd wrote:

George Dobell on The Cricketer website is slightly scathing about the quality of this signing.
He also points out:
"Zaman Akhter... spent several months training with the club and living in Birmingham but, when they failed to offer him a contract, joined Gloucestershire.He is now starting to be name-checked as a potential England fast bowler and has one of the fastest average speeds of bowlers in county cricket. Given the lack of pace in the Warwickshire attack, such a signing might have proved wise."

This is yet another example of a massive failure in the club's recruitment. This likely happened before Larsen arrived so we should give him the benefit of the doubt and hope he changes this for better in time.

Andy wrote:

Robinson mentioned in his interview post Surrey that Jamal was feeling his back. If they knew this, why on earth give him the new ball when Surrey only needed 89?

My lack of confidence in Robinson grows by the week. If this is another season of mediocrity then we must look elsewhere for a head coach.

Andy wrote:

He's probably worth a punt. Lancashire signed Will Williams like this, he was playing club in the UK then signed for Lancs mid season, and he turned out to be a good pick up. This lad does indeed have a modest record though. It is very difficult to pick up decent overseas players at the moment to be fair, like we've all said.

I'd have probably given Liam Guthrie, currently playing in the 2's, a go instead. He has a bit more pedigree, come through an extremely strong WA pathway in Aus and took a 6fer for QLD in the Sheffield Shield only a couple of months ago, he's also a left armer who i know definitely bowls high 80's.

Rae looks like a Gavin Larsen signing.

Didn't know this about Zaman Akhtar, we are becoming an increasingly odd run club though, who seems to miss out on talent right under our noses quite a lot.

I wish Michael Rae well though, hope he's quick, we're crying out for a bit of pace. Jamal looks like a bit of a trundler let's be honest.

With Guthrie turning out for the Seconds this week, I was half expecting him to get a short term contract and be called up for the Firsts. He looks a better bet than Rae (and that left arm option we seem to be desperate to bring in - so many in the Seconds team at the moment). I agree Larsen appears to be preferring his Kiwi mates.

As none of the recent signings have been successful, or indeed reliable, looking in a different group of players seems a very sensible option, especially if it means we are not wasting money paying players who are just here as a training camp for their national board.

Hope it works out for the Kiwi lad but Yorkshire have managed to get an experienced test left arm quick bowler.
https://yorkshireccc.com/news/sri-lanka-quick-vishwa-fernando-signs-three-match-overseas-deal/

To be fair, Rae had a decent debut. Che Simmons should get credit for a good debut too.

I thought that "Sugar" Rae came across as a wholehearted team man, not a world beater but a decent player who will give 100%.

He’s back again. For all the remaining ODC and county championship matches.
Was pretty handy before and it’s better than nothing.

I think this is a decent move. He did well against the odds, some of the comment about him was a bit mean (Dobell criticised the signing without ever having seen him play), he showed good pace and gave us something a bit different. Absolute unit.

I said back in June I was slightly surprised he didn't get a go in the Blast as he showed some good one day skills in the game up at Lancs when we had them on the ropes before the rain shafted us.

I'm pleased we've got Rae back, i think he will be important for us in the remaining Championship games.