And another season comes to an end. Probably the most disappointing for some time for various reasons.

I can’t imagine it’ll be a particularly pleasant end of season review, and it’s clear significant changes are needed to bring back the feel good factor, let alone a trophy.

Lancs need to score 250 and to win to stay up. Our batting so far doesn’t fill me with confidence, so need Worcs to do us a favour.

I’m clinging to the crumb of comfort that it does look like a good batting pitch. And that we’re still in the first innings going into the second session on the 3rd day.
As long as we don’t throw wickets away, we can take time out the game, to ensure it ends as a draw.

Saw someone make the perfect point. This is the part of the season when it matters most, should be the crescendo for teams fighting for the title, promotion and relegation, and the weather is determining the outcome not the players.

Dobell confirming that Benjamin is off to Kent next season.
Not the biggest loss. Has never offered much in red ball.
Got consistently worse in T20, with this season being atrocious.
Probably the best outcome for both sides. Frees up a T20 spot for Barnard or Smith.
Still plenty of keeping in the squad for next season with Davies and Smith.

Andy wrote:

5 batters, 1 keeper, 1 genuine all-rounder, 4 bowlers. I know this forum loves a pile on but we cant criticise that can we?

No, that’s a balanced side.
My comment was more about the rest of the season, when it was clear we couldn’t bowl sides out. But played the extra batter, with Burgess at 8.
It didn’t help out the bowling being a bowler down. And it didn’t really help the batting either because we were still reliant on the exact same players, who were still being put in an equally poor situation.
Compare it to Surrey who have gone the other way entirely and who have either had a team make up similar to this one today, but often just went with 6 bats, and a bowling all-rounder at 7 in Clark. At one point they had Curran at 6. Not dissimilar to Hampshire too. Both go much stronger on the bowling, and bowlers who can bat. Rather than stronger on the batting, and batters who can bowl. You can quibble about different players and their abilities but it’s a point of consideration.

The_Lickey_Banker wrote:

Team:-
Yates
Davies
Rhodes
Hain
Mousley
Barnard
Burgess
Briggs
Miles
Booth
OHD

As KoS said, Robinson has done his usual 'cunning plan' in packing the batting ranks. So, a lot on the shoulders of the 3 seamers (and some aspiring 'CC spinner' called Briggs !). I think Barnard & Rhodes will be called upon a fair bit.

I can’t understand why Robinson has this approach. When we won the championship, Burgess spent most of the season at 6. Bresnan at 7. Then Briggs, Miles, Norwell, OHD.
So now when our bowling is weakest, he keeps strengthening the batting. Part of it is a comment on our consistency with the bat, partly to do with low bowling reserves. But it seems counter intuitive. And I suspect a lot to do with Robinson’s preference not to drop his favourites, as typically they’ve been the ones most vulnerable.

I don’t think Highveld is wrong at all.
We keep trying this formula for the last 3 years, it’s achieved nothing.
Until this year Davies hasn’t been good enough. He got a boost (as did Yates) with the early season Kookaburra nonsense, but he’s backed it up throughout the season. Now he needs to do it again next year. Though his captaincy hasn’t been up to the mark this year.
We’re a bit blind to Mousley and Yates performances because they are home grown and they have the peaks that show their undoubted potential but no consistency, so those peaks are too infrequent. And rarely when needed most.
I think next year they’re heading into crucial years for them as red ball players at this club. Yates will massively have to step up because Rhodes steady hand at 3 will be gone, and Mousley needs to find a way to score match defining 100’s not attractive 50’s.
The need for a top order overseas is hard to ignore for next season.

Manufactured draw incoming.
Surely Notts try produce the flattest of flat pitches. Forget bonus points. 8 each sees both teams safe.

Highveld wrote:

It is not about if Robinson is a good or bad coach, but his methods are no longer effective. That is seen in many walks of life with managers.

What we want is for the club to have good leadership, on and off the field, that performs well and makes sensible signings of players to improve on what we have.
signings like Viari, Ali & Jamaal etc have failed to do that. Also the record on releasing young players, but giving extended contracts to ones who had performed worse than the released players does suggest a number of errors in the clubs internal decision making.

I think this sums it up nicely. What may have once worked in one or 2 places, may not now work in a third.
What must be remembered is that Sussex had the makings of a great squad already, and they’d just been left a huge grant by a supporter that essentially made them the richest club in the country at the time.
Similarly with England women, the ECB had pumped a lot of money into women’s cricket at that time, above anybody else but Australia. And again a lot of the core was already in place before he took charge.

Here he inherited a squad that was enjoying their cricket together, all seemingly performing at their peak and got some luck with fitness.
But it needed building upon to account for age, fitness, depth, form. And what’s been obvious is, very few of those players have performed to those levels again consistently. In fact you could argue the more Robinson has interacted the worse some have got.
The reinforcing of that squad has been very poor, for various different reasons.
And it seems there is a lack of accountability within the club currently because we seem to be rewarding failure. That’s at all levels, execs getting increases, longer contracts for underperforming players whilst better players get 1 year deals or leave, coaches who succeed are allowed to leave whilst those who have a history of poor outcomes continue to be allowed to stay in their role.

Can anyone tell me what style of cricket we play in 4 day cricket?
I look at Surrey, Somerset, Essex, even Hampshire and know instantly.
Surrey will batter the opposition their seam attack, no let up, lots of batters who can occupy the crease. Accumulate, keep sides in the field, rest the bowlers and go again.
Somerset, bit more attacking with the bat, make the opposition work for every run with the ball, spinners who can dry up the runs or attack, at least one seamer who can be a point of difference.
They cover all their bases but also, the roles are very clear depending on the conditions and situation.
Are we looking to be aggressive with the bat because we’re suited to it. But our bowling is the complete antithesis. Our bowling thrives in conditions completely unsuited to our batting. We lack a consistent top order player to bat around, on those tracks where our batters thrive, we don’t have the seamer or spinner who can really take advantage.

Just seems so disjointed. And it’s made worse by the fact we make poor decisions in the field repeatedly.

100% senior leadership plus cricket coaches.

If you asked the senior club management what their aim was for their job. Not 1 would answer “win trophies and make Warwickshire the most successful county and grow the game in the county”.

You’d get, make edgbaston a top venue for live sport, conferences and weddings. Maximise revenue through investment into a redeveloped ground.
Continue being a venue for test matches and international sport.

The way we judge success needs to change. And that means hiring people in the head coach role and director of cricket role that work together to achieve those aims.

If this team is able to get up off the canvas and put in a good performance against Notts I’d be staggered.
Not because they’re not capable of it, but they just look broken. All the confidence seems to be drained from them. Those in charge are already scrambling to save themselves, by shifting blame.
The disquiet is obvious to all by the play on the pitch, and there are those amongst us that have been privy to information confirming it as such behind the scenes too. (No I won’t be saying how, because that’s a betrayal of trust, so accept it or not).
The leadership is not there on so many levels, building a balanced squad that can compete on all fronts, funding recruitment, inspiration & motivation, and repeated demonstrations of tactical ineptitude.

That looked way too familiar. Being unable to finish off teams.

Also, staggering tactical naivety. Field settings made no sense, I understand in theory with no Rushworth, you want to ensure OHD is good to go for the new ball. But it’s 1 wicket needed, a 10:30 start, 20 overs until the new ball, give OHD a proper go at it in conditions suited to him.
Once again, we just let it drift. And a poor start to the batting too.

We’ve seemingly approached the rest of the season on the back foot, why change now.
And to be very cynical, Robinson won’t want the season ending poorly because his job might depend on where we finish in the championship table.

We’ve definitely tried to over bowl on this pitch.
We’ve been searching for big swing and big movement, and that’s almost the opposite of what they did.
They stuck to the basics, top of off bowling, made us play as much as possible and it just did enough to miss the bat or find the edge.
Whereas we’ve gone looking for big movement (understandably considering the position we’re in) and it’s resulted in too many over pitched balls or balls on the legs, and then over compensating and going too short and wide.

Tayls79 wrote:

I'd honestly give speculating about relationships in the squad a miss. We'll never know the true situation. We don't know whether it is disharmonious, toxic or anything else. In any other working environment it would be and should be here, confidential. All we do here by speculating on it is gossip.

100% not speculation.

Hain looks so out of sorts.
I do hope this isn’t a sign of bigger problems from the start of the season.

Though I do wonder, if the environment and the fact that apparently almost the entire squad hates Robinson, and he’s sucked the joy out of the sport for some of them, is having a very visible effect.

I had the same thoughts about his post match interview.
I do wonder if Robinsons approach to interviews was a clue to his mindset for the year. Didn’t seem too fussed by the CC or even the ODC. Gave platitudes, cliches, kept saying it was fine. Because what he cared about was the T20.
Now they’re out the T20, he’s realised he’s let everything else slide, and the pressure is really on.

Lancs are now 36 behind us, due to play Somerset next week.
As rain is going to play a larger role in the next 2 weeks, it would take an almighty effort for them to win 2 and us lose 2.
Thought that match summed up the frustrating nature of this season.
Good new ball bowling, but then letting sides score too many, the ability to score runs quickly but the constant potential for a match turning hour with the bat undoing all the hard work, followed up by a battling spirit, and the weather intervening at crucial moments.
There’s a lot of talent in this side. It would only take an extra player or 2 to plug some obvious holes, and some more consistency (which is a mental issue rather than talent), to really push on.