13 man squad announced
Rhodes
Ali
Barnard
Benjamin
Bethell
Brookes
Burgess
Davies
Hain
OHD
Mousley
Rushworth
Yates

Norwell has a back issue apparently. Briggs still has a dodgy knee. No centrally contracted England seamers for any team round 1, so no Woakes.

I reckon Benjamin and Brookes to miss out from that 13.

Some useful runs for Davies, Mousley and Bethell.
You can tell it’s pre-season, some real rustiness on both sides.
Not sure the 45 overs a side is a big help, but it’s better than nothing. And looking around the country, I’m glad the Bears went on tour. I know other teams stayed at home, I’ve seen Sussex have had all practice matches rained off so far and their only full warm up match looks likely to be against a university side.

2 openers whose form last year was pretty atrocious is definitely the most worrying aspect of this side. You need top order runs to win. It’s a strong middle order in theory. But if 1-3 aren’t contributing, it starts becoming a lot harder.

I can’t believe Rhodes got a choice. I suspect it was decided for him. Otherwise there’s no way he doesn’t choose someone like Hain, OHD, even Barnard or Briggs. All senior county players with excellent temperaments and consistent performers. I even think when Rhodes was unavailable for a couple of matches in the 1 day cup Burgess captained the last couple of years.

Again it’s just another confusing choice. And you’ve got to wonder what’s driving it because Davies hasn’t performed, he’s got well documented character flaws, he wasn’t a captain for Lancashire where you’d have thought after 10 years there he might have been given that chance. Robinsons fascination, bordering on obsession with Davies seems rather quite bizarre to me.

Not sure what Robinsons love affair with Davies is. How can you reward such mediocrity?
I’d wager this will be Burgess’ last year with the club, if I were him I wouldn’t stick around if it’s clear it’s not about performances. Suspect he’d have plenty of suitors.

I’m not sure Bethell has the skills yet as a championship bowler. He can be quite expensive. But how he develops as a bowler this year and next might give a clue to how this side will look for years to come.

I do hope your feeling of Davies keeping and Burgess not playing isn’t proved true. If it comes to pass, it’ll be a clear sign that it’s a personal issue between Robinson and Burgess, and isn’t to do with actual performances. Which is pretty weak for a head coach and the opposite of how it should work, but it wouldn’t surprise me either as Robinson has shown this with other players and coaches.

I think we’ll end up with:
Yates
Davies
Rhodes
Hain
Barnard
Burgess
Woakes
Briggs
Norwell
Rushworth
OHD

With Ali to come in when he arrives, and then an extra bat, maybe Mousley or Bethell, when Woakes is unavailable.

After the 1st 2 day match against Yorkshire, seems like the same issues with batting as last year.
Lose 3 or 4 wickets early, middle order digs the top order out of trouble. Assume they’ll put a write up on the edgbaston website, but there’s this one on Yorkshire’s https://yorkshireccc.com/news/view/10519/edwards-shines-on-impressive-yorkshire-bowling-day

It’s the perfect length of contract for him. Get his one score, and then moves on before he is just taking up a place.

I couldn’t see any comment as to why he’s leaving. As you’ve mentioned, I really hope it was mutual and Brian has something lined up. If it was change for changes sake, that’s rather disappointing. I understand county cricket media is changing, with the streaming, social media etc, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for someone with Brian’s knowledge and skills.

Just seen Farbrace has signed McAndrew again at Sussex. Obviously he saw something we didn’t.
Feel like Hassan Ali is a clear improvement.

I wonder if it’s about money.
As club captain you’ve got to think Rhodes is on north of £100k. Plus he plays all 3 formats, and has no franchise gigs so he’ll ask for more.
Whereas Lintott, only really plays T20, and probably makes more from franchise tournaments than from Warwickshire. So he’s probably happier signing for less, and has lots of freedom from the club. So makes sense for the club to keep him if he’s cheap enough.

Will Rhodes signs an extension.
Interestingly it’s only a 1 year extension. I wonder if that’s all he was willing to sign, or all the club was willing to offer.

With this dragging on for so long, I assume Robinson is the one now tasked with choosing overseas’, and dealing with all the nonsense that comes with it. As well as all the other contract negotiations that go on this time of year for players in their last year.
Not exactly what you want your coach doing, especially as the team will be on their preseason tour come February or March.

They need the right person, but they also need to hurry up and get it sorted asap.

Both strike me as odd candidates, especially considering the club has approached them.
I wonder if the role isn’t as popular as the club expected.
Silverwood did well as a coach, but hasn’t been a DoC as far as I’m aware. Plus I imagine Sri Lanka would want some compensation which is never ideal.
Irani wasn’t just unpopular over the alcohol accusations if memory serves me right. Plus whilst Essex did well during his reign, I’m not sure how much he contributed, and how much was good timing, considering they had a great crop of home grown youngsters on the squad when he took up his position, plus they had a lot of Alastair Cook after he stepped down from England.

Excellent news.
I hope they just let him play and don’t limit his overs or pick what matches he can and can’t play.

I do wonder if this has come from a realisation from Woakes that he’s maybe fallen down the pecking order a bit, and needs to perform.
With Robinson and Wood now ahead of him. Plus Archer will be fit this summer. Obviously Anderson and Broad. And there’s plenty of long term absences who are going to be healthy, lingering around the squad like the Currans, Overtons, Mahmood, Stone, Cook. Seems like there’s going to be some interesting selections to be made with the seamers for England this summer.

Not sure what others have seen or heard, but seen some interesting rumours floating round on this.
Seems it’s right back to headhunting and applicants again. Lots of names getting chucked about by journo’s, pundits, podcasters etc. 2 of the most commonly mentioned are Steve Rhodes and Chris Adams, both have had success but a whiff of scandal around both.
As usual some old boy names are raised with Dougie Brown seemingly the only realistic contender. Though I wonder with the turning down of Giles there’s been a decision to stay away from the old boy club.

I think Giles burned his bridges with leaving twice, so understandable scepticism there. Plus they’ve had Farbace leave now, so as stated in the article they want a long term appointment, hoping that it’ll lead to greater consistency and prolonged success instead of the rollercoaster of the last decade.

But I wonder, is part of the problem for an appointment the fact that Robinson is a famously difficult man to work with? It’s been shown in previous roles that he has success in a short space of time, but then players and coaches do tire of his approach. We’ve seen it already within the coaching staff, Farbrace, and some players, clearly disliking his approach and leaving or falling out with him.

Also is a long term appointment viable anymore? With so many opportunities at an increasing number of franchises, plus more international sides now, will you get DoC’s and top coaches willing to stay for 10 years?

Might be on my own on this one, but I’m of the opinion they can do what they want to the outside really. It’s become such a jumbled mess, at this point I’d just like it to look nice, and that it all belongs together, even if it doesn’t look particularly like a cricket ground.
I would however, like them to be more delicate with how they do the seating and the stands, and that they don’t make it a featureless ground that could be anywhere like Cardiff, or a modern monstrosity like Old Trafford.

I think they’ve made a shrewd hire here, it’s clear from his CV why he made sense to them.
He knows what it takes to be successful in county cricket as he was at Surrey last year. He’s been at Somerset and Gloucestershire too. Where the second aspect comes in, he knew Norwell coming through and knows how to manage him well. So hopefully can keep him fit.
Then as a bonus he’s got international experience with Bangladesh and the England Lions too.
The issue will be, as with Welch and Farbrace, can he get on with Robinson?

Interesting to see people reported Farbrace didn’t apply for it though.
The concern for me is, does he try take a few players with him. We have a few going into the last year of their contract. I’ve already seen on some Sussex accounts fans rumouring he’s going to try get Burgess to go back, and apparently Ed Pollock too.