Ian Westwood in charge.

7 weeks before the start of the new season. As reported by Dobell.

No DoC, no head coach now.

Cameron Green got injured then Mitch Marsh lost form (he looks done as a red ball player) hence Webster now in the side.

Yes he took a wicket with his off spin today.

Australia have announced a Test series away in the Caribbean starting end of June.

If he's selected this will affect Webster's availability as he's meant to be us until end of July...

Has signed

I'll be honest, I'd have probably moved on from him and looked elsewhere. He's on the slide.

More anti Birmingham rhetoric...

Latham should keep but I suspect he won't. Kai Smith needs to develop more with the gloves in my opinion.

Really good player who has transformed himself over the past 3 years from being a bit of a bits and pieces cricketer who batted 7 or 8 and bowled a few fill in overs to somebody capable of batting in the top 6 and a genuine change bowler. He's not express but he's quick enough to keep the opposition honest and he has height. Also has been known to bowl off spin. Think he's a fields in the slips too.

Does he have a CA contract? If so expect him to be pulled out of any deal with us at extremely short notice.

I've been banging this drum for ages. Things seemed to stall drastically in this regard when Gilo was at the helm. We're just not a county that backs locally developed cricketers and we do poach from other counties quite a fair bit. The bowlers situation is just embarrassing and the fact that we do not have a steady pipeline of homegrown seamers coming through means our hit and miss recruitment style gets exposed.

Re. Homegrown players, we have got better though, Yates, Mousley, Shaikh, Bethell, Hain (just), Woakes etc, all first teasers when available, generally.

Caught glimpses of him last year, he looked good, bit quicker than others around his age as far as I could tell, good action.

About time we started bringing on some homegrown seamers.

I think it's fair that Stuart Barnes did the chat on this as opposed to Robbo.

It's been pretty quiet all winter on social media from the club comparison to previous off seasons.

Called up by England Lions to tour Aus in January.

Goodness me another drop

96

Watched him up until lunch, he was on 34. Looked absolutely sublime to be honest.

Troughton has been Head Coach for us before hasn't he? 2018-2020?

Think DoC may suit him this time around.

Doesn't expand too much. Sort of insinuates Larsen has jumped before he got pushed. Links Troughton to the job though acknowledges he currently works as batting coach at Surrey. Nothing mentioned about Robinson at all.

Interestingly in the Cricketer article about the Latham signing it mentions about the Performance Review that the state of the often lifeless pitches Edgbaston for 4day cricket will come under scrutiny too. Its not a dig at Barwell or his team but anybody with eyes can see that low and slow getting lower and slower is very much a theme for our home games. That square is dead. Looking at investing more in hybrid pitches, this will be a good thing.

Don't think much of his slip fielding going off this Test!

Don't know of its been covered elsewhere but I seem to have a memory of Latham keeping wicket a bit at one point? I could be mistaken though.

Looks a decent signing. Definitely got the experience, he's done the gig before at a few counties, I seem to remember him doing well at Durham.

Availability a huge plus, especially in this day and age. As Paul alluded to though I think he'll be an odd pick in t20 cricket. Great if he plays the One Day Cup however.

Excellent to have a cricketer with such vast experience around the place.

Wouldn't be keen on him doing the captaincy, not that hes ever struck me as being a bad captain, just let him bat.