The prevailing rumour appears to be that Northants are the front runners for both Stone and Hose unless Warwickshire offer full contracts, or vastly financially improved white ball contracts. Or someone else comes in with a better offer. Lamb has spoken to a number of clubs but would prefer to stay at Warwickshire but hasn’t been offered a deal to stay as of last week. But it gets worse……

Whilst watching a Birmingham league match this Saturday I got chatting to a coach who does some free lance work, sometimes within the bears set up. According to him, the treatment of players like Hose, Lamb and Stone is apparently rubbing other players up the wrong way, with it seeming new signings in the last year or so, who’ve achieved little for the club, being prioritised over championship winning or long serving players (see Lintott on a full contract but the club not offering this to Stone and Hose). Certain players being seen as undroppable, and non-performing overseas being paid huge sums and keeping others out of the sides, is made worse by the fact the new signings still only achieved a QF exit once again in T20, mostly carried by long serving players, and currently performing worse in the Championship.

With a number of players including Hain, Rhodes, Burgess, Norwell, OHD and Miles all out of contract at the end of 2023, the club will need to get this sorted ASAP to stop a mass exodus of some of its most talented players. It’s not a case of the club not wanting them, and some have been offered deals, but it’s whether they want to stay within the current environment.

With the Sibley news today, who else’s contract is up, and may be a potential departure?

As far as I’m aware it’s:
Sibley (gone)
Stone
Hose
Lamb
Sidebottom
Garrett
Furrer.

Both Hose and Stones apparently both have only been offered white ball only. With Hose potentially following Pollock down to Worcestershire to play some red ball.
Have also heard Sidebottom may be signing for Derbyshire.

I think we’ve seen by Bethells performances though that without doubt the talent is there. But the step up from England u19’s and second XI to first team county cricket is huge.

Burgess seemed to be batting on a different pitch once again.
He wasn’t out of control. Very few false shots. No slogging. Just picked his gaps, took fielders on, and made it look very simple. Why was no else able to score at a similar rate?

I also think in this match it’s really apparent because of how freely Northants scored.

But we’ve seen this a lot this year with Sibley, Yates, Davies and Rhodes at times taking a lot of time to score not many. But it’s usually been mitigated by Hain and Burgess scoring a lot quite quickly.
I’m not sure what the benefit it, because it just produces problems down the line.
Not only for bonus points. But days like today, it allows the possibility of the new ball exposing the tail.
It’s fine if Benjamin, Rhodes and Davies go on, and accelerate to balance it out. But all have got out before posting a decent score.
Now you’ve got the possibility of 3 wickets with the new ball and you’re into quite a long tail. We saw what OHD did with the second new ball.

I think we need to remember that they batted first for a reason.
Could the bowling have been cheaper and more controlled? Definitely. But at the same time, it’s a very flat pitch, fast outfield and I think everyone is very much aware of the limitations of the bowling attack this season. OHD has been excellent but often unsupported. Miles hasn’t been the same red ball bowler this year and Brookes is inexperienced.
And McAndrew is up there as the worst overseas in many years, which is saying something because the club has had some shockers under Farbrace.

Anyone else starting to feel like Robinson has become rather scared to make big decisions regarding team selection in all formats? He’s seemingly decided some players won’t play in certain formats, which is at best lazy, at worst detrimental and poor man management.
I know T20 isn’t a format you always come off in. But we’ve got a number of players who have put in 1, maybe 2 max, performances in 10 games. Yates, Benjamin, Stirling, Davies, Brookes and Brathwaite have all been pretty average minus 1 performance. You’ve got Mousley, Burgess, OHD, Lamb and Rhodes all sat there, with the first 3 in superb form.

The same can be true of red ball, Rhodes, Yates, Davies, Brookes, McAndrew and Briggs have been poor for all but maybe 1 innings. But Benjamin, Johal, Mousley, Bethell and Hose don’t get a look in.

Seems like he’s decided who plays what format, and he won’t change his mind, and I’m not sure it’s a good thing. It also very much seems that he isn’t strong enough to drop a big name player and make a big call. So he’s essentially removed competition for places, when actually they need it to drive performance.

Been disappointed by Briggs this innings. Really hasn’t offered much in terms of control or threat. Just seems like he’s gone through the motions a bit, which isn’t great on a fourth day pitch with plenty of rough for a left hander.

Take the draw. Move to the T20 for a bit. But it’ll be interesting to see if there’ll be any changes at the top of the order and with the bowling when red ball returns.

It’s so annoying that we can do this in the second innings, but other than Burgess, the first innings where you can set the win up, passed us by.

Bat like this first innings and who knows how this goes. Wasn’t too dissimilar last year, but the bowling often made up for a multitude of first innings batting issues.

My issue with the Davies situation is I don’t think he should be moved to the middle order as some are suggesting.
Now Rhodes has found some form, you’ve got Hain, Rhodes, Lamb and Burgess as our in form consistent players. I wouldn’t want to mess with that. So he could drop to 3, but we know that makes little difference. So for me, he either opens or is dropped. He was recruited and paid a lot to be an opener, so he either opens or loses his place. I don’t like the idea that he’s undroppable, and we should shuffle everyone else round to accommodate him. Especially after his spineless display in the second innings yesterday.

I don’t know what others think, but for me 1 of the biggest differences in the bowling this year away from personnel has been the amount of loose balls. Miles, Rhodes, McAndrew, Briggs and Brookes have seemed to bowl too many balls that can be left or are boundary balls.
So whilst we seem less threatening, we don’t seem to be able to build up pressure either.

The biggest contract quandary is whether Sibley will sign his extension. Otherwise he’s gone at the end of the season.
Considering Davies has hardly gone off like a train, and Yates seems to have been unsettled by his arrival and sliding to 3; I’m not sure they can afford to lose him.

I’d hate to think where we’d be without Burgess and OHD, with both the bat and in the field. Both have been superb this year.

paulbear wrote:

I don't recall anyone saying that we will make it look like a minefield. They have no Sanderson who is by far their best bowler and looking at the rest, we should be able to make runs on this pitch. It's all about patience and with it still being hot and dry, it would be nice if we make Northants chase the ball around the outfield.

The minefield comment was just what I’ve seen on social media rather than on here. Plenty giving it the “Can’t wait for it to turn into a minefield when we bat”

To suggest the batsmen aren’t determined enough is like saying the bowlers aren’t trying hard enough. That’s an attitude issue, whereas this is a physical issue.
The concept of poor effort or attitude is almost an irrelevance for most players at this level. Because you don’t get to this point without 100% effort, determination and competitiveness.
Batting is 3 things, technique, decision making and execution. Being physically and mentally fatigued dramatically effects all 3 of those.

It’s the same way bowlers rarely do well in a second innings after being bowled cheaply, because they’ve not had enough recovery time.

I think what we’re seeing is the effect of not having 2 top level opening bowlers.
OHD and Norwell were excellent last year. And then when OHD got injured Woakes played a couple. And by that stage you had Miles full of confidence, Rhodes bowling far better and Bresnan being at least economical and also getting some key wickets.
We didn’t replace Bresnan, and we’ve got no Norwell.

You see plenty saying we’ll make it look like a mine field, but actually, you’ve got bowlers who have been well rested for 2 days with loads of confidence and a big total behind them, against batsmen who have been chasing the ball around the pitch, tiring themselves out in the field for 2 days. It’s going to be really tough.

Does Farbrace still have the receipt for McAndrew?

First hour down, and once again the opposition building a good opening partnership.
Though I did think OHD had Young absolutely plumb LBW early on.

It’s just a recurring pattern, OHD comes out and the pressure is lifted, and there’s limited threat.

Bald_Reynard wrote:

BristolBear wrote:

I can’t see them changing the batting. So suspect Lamb stays out, and then Norwell in for Miles.

Lamb will be in for Benjamin, surely.

I would change the batting personally. But I don’t think they will; because I think if they change it, they cause themselves some awkward issues. Like dropping Benjamin, after he’s scored in 1 match about the same as Rhodes has all season. And probably not too far behind Yates and Davies either.
Suspect that’s not a question or situation they want to invite upon themselves.
Let’s be honest if it weren’t for him being captain Rhodes would be out, and I suspect they’d play the extra bowler and have Burgess at 6 like last season. As Rhodes hasn’t delivered with Bat or Ball, and it’s causing a real lack of balance in the side. They’ve felt a bowler short all year, which is ok if you’re scoring plenty, but they’ve been carrying some of the batsmen too.