Serious money being spent in Durham then.

Interesting how the Cricketer act more coy (or simply don’t know where Gay is going), but CricInfo just come out and say it.

George Dobell normally likes to be seen as the man in the know so he will not be happy that Cricinfo have beaten him to it on this occasion.

As others have said elsewhere, Will is going to be missed as a player and as an all round good guy..

Totally agree GS, absolutely gutted that Will’s leaving for pastures new. Big boots to fill.

Will Rhodes seems sorry to go:
"After what has happened to me personally in the last month, with the news that I am leaving, to get a big score in front of the home crowd before I go is very pleasant.
"You never know, it could be my last innings here as a Warwickshire player if it rains when we play Essex, so it was lovely to score some runs.
"It will be emotional when we play Essex because it has been a great seven years here and a period of my career I will remember very fondly."

It will be an emotional time for Will, & his partner. Not only is he changing his job, but they are having to move to a different part of the country, will all the stresses of moving house and setting up a new home.

In the preview of the Notts game, Mark Robinson seems to confirm the reason that Will Rhodes is leaving - "players need to do what’s best for them at different times in their career and we understand his desire to play T20 cricket. "
The obvious conclusion from this is that he had been told that there was no chance of T20 cricket with the Bears. I must say that I would have been inclined to give him a run in the T20 side in an attempt to keep him.

Totally agree GS, Robinson should hang his head in shame if the primary reason for Will’s departure is his unwillingness to at least give him a chance in the T20 side. Mentioning no names, there was a seemingly pig headed insistence on giving certain others an extended run, with little or no success. Will, by contrast, had the potential to contribute with bat and ball, so why he wasn’t given a chance beggars belief.

Sadly, it’s too late now but we need to be careful that Ed Barnard doesn’t lose heart and follow suit.

Will Rhodes' final interview as a Bear, in which he confirms that he is going because he wants to play T20 cricket:
https://edgbaston.com/news/will-rhodes-final-interview-as-a-bear/

Such a shame as for the other 2 formats he was wonderful for us.
I do worry how many others we’ll lose because of this. Partly because we played a very select group. Whereas looking around at other counties, they seemed to rotate more. Played maybe 16/17 players across the group stages. Whereas I’d guess we played 13/14. Gives all players a chance, and at least might give you a chance to keep a player like Rhodes, because he if plays well great if not he can’t argue that he didn’t get a chance to impress. Just strikes me as poor squad management.

I think we all echo what the above poster's have said. It's horrible to lose a player when he has had a terrific season, even if by the end, he could just as well have not bothered to try, but he did. The pig-headed management will again come up with excuses if tackled about how they let a player go like Will. My abiding memory of him, was carrying around the CC trophy in 2021 but not showboating and was so humble rather than being big, showy and fist-pumping. He was happy to have got the job done and watch the rest of the team have their photo taken with the trophy and enjoy the moment. I cannot see how Robinson can carry on but if he does, then he had better hope that we have a good season in 2025 and that he doesn't leave worthy players out and come up with stupid team selections or other players will leave as has been pointed out already, Barnard and Burgess are 2 who might scratch their heads and decide they want to go elsewhere.

Obviously Rhodes is a big loss to the club as a whole, seems to have been a great leader and man to have around and a big contributor to the red ball team and whatever success they have had in his time with us. I regret his leaving greatly.

regarding his non-selection for the T20 lineup, though, I have to say with some posts above I can't work out if it is poor memory or selective memory, that he 'wasn't given a chance'

as a T20 player Rhodes was somewhere between mediocre and poor and had plenty of chances in his early career with the Bears

from 2019 to 2021 he had 35 games. he played virtually every game, and, forgive me for shooting bambi here, but he basically stank the house out. he was an awful T20 batsman. Which his average being under 20 and his strike rate being way under 130 very quickly shows.
Sam Hain scored more runs in the 2024 year than Rhodes managed in 35 games over 4 seasons.

His best year was 14 matches for 258 runs at 134 strike rate. Chris Benjamin gets absolutely crucified on here for having better seasons statistically.

I'm all for mourning the ones we regret losing but perhaps some perspective?

Some fair points there. You don't mention, however, that in his last T20 season (2021), Will ,Rhodes easily topped the T20 bowling averages with 14 wickets at 11.71. And as for batting, Chris Benjamin's figures this year of 114 runs at an average of 11.40 and a strike rate of 117.52 don't compare too well with those 2021 figures for Rhodes (192 runs at 19.84, strike rate 134.37), modest though Rhodes' figures were.

GerryShedd wrote:

Some fair points there. You don't mention, however, that in his last T20 season (2021), Will ,Rhodes easily topped the T20 bowling averages with 14 wickets at 11.71.

good point!

And as for batting, Chris Benjamin's figures this year of 114 runs at an average of 11.40 and a strike rate of 117.52 don't compare too well with those 2021 figures for Rhodes (192 runs at 19.84, strike rate 134.37), modest though Rhodes' figures were.

ok but its hardly fair to compare CB's worst season with Rhodes's best, lets compare Rhodes with compare Benjamin's best season, 2022, 354 runs average 39 strike rate 163 absolutely annihilates Rhodes's best season

I can entirely understand his moving to get T20 opportunities, for what its worth, as there is so much money to be made and careers are short. I think he may be a bit optimistic, though, and doubt he will be doing the Franchise circuit, unless his white ball game has significantly improved.

ITE7376 wrote:

GerryShedd wrote:

Some fair points there. You don't mention, however, that in his last T20 season (2021), Will ,Rhodes easily topped the T20 bowling averages with 14 wickets at 11.71.

good point!
I was comparing Will Rhodes' most recent season when he played T20 with Benjamin's most recent season.
I agree that Will may find that he doesn't really have a T20 future. I just think that, if I had been coach, I would have given him an opportunity to show what he can do now after two seasons out of the team if the alternative was for him to go elsewhere for the chance to play.
And as for batting, Chris Benjamin's figures this year of 114 runs at an average of 11.40 and a strike rate of 117.52 don't compare too well with those 2021 figures for Rhodes (192 runs at 19.84, strike rate 134.37), modest though Rhodes' figures were.

ok but its hardly fair to compare CB's worst season with Rhodes's best, lets compare Rhodes with compare Benjamin's best season, 2022, 354 runs average 39 strike rate 163 absolutely annihilates Rhodes's best season

Barnard deserved a shot in the t20 lineup before Rhodes did in any case, and Yates didn’t play much this year and has a better record than Rhodes, so it’s something of a moot point. I think there is very little case to be made that Rhodes was one of our 6 best t20 batsmen.

What we have to remember here is that we saw Benjamin, not only failing to score runs but looking as though he had no confidence and at times looking as though he didn't know if he was holding the bat correctly. What got up people's noses was he kept wicket whilst not scoring runs whilst we had an in form player in Burgess who is also one of the best keepers around and to keep him out of the side, most on here seemed to feel as though the wrong option was taken. And when Davies did take the gloves, Rhodes was in form anyway and was also a better option than Benjamin.

Sure, but in my opinion he wasn’t a better option than either Yates who has a better t20 record, or Barnard, who was in incredible white ball form

Rhodes was not the next cab off the rank even if they did drop Benjamin, which I agree they should have done.

You mention Burgess which is a really good point and I’d have him in the t20 team ahead of Rhodes, too.

Assuming that Chris Woakes was not available, we could have had a squad of 13 for the Blast:
Davies
Hain
Moeen Ali
Burgess
Bethell
Briggs
Mousley
Yates
Garton
Lintott
Gleeson
Rhodes
With injuries and non-availabilities, Rhodes would probably have got a few ganes.