Here's my match preview:
https://deepextracover.com/2025/04/rothesay-cc-match-preview-warwickshire-v-sussex/

Hamza Shaikh is another to agree a contract extension:
https://edgbaston.com/news/hamza-shaikh-signs-warwickshire-contract-extension/

According to George Dobell in The Cricketer, Dan Mousley and OH-D both needed scans on hand injuries but will be fit for Friday's game. Chris Woakes has an ankle injury and won't be fit until the Yorkshire game (earliest), which is when Latham may also arrive.
Hamza Shaikh will bat at three and Kai Smith will keep wicket and bat at seven.
Fernando will be available to join the bowling attack and Ethan Bamber will also make his Bears debut.
Jacob Bethell is tied up with the IPL so is not available.
Chris Rushworth has a calf problem and is unlikely to be fit for a while.
The only question seems to be whether Danny Briggs will play as a spinner or, if not, who will be added to the pace attack - maybe Michael Booth.
So it looks like:
Davies and Yates to open (sorry, Highveld), Shaikh, Hain, Mousley, Barnard, K. Smith, Briggs or Booth, Fernando, Bamber and OH-D.

Liam Norwell episode here:
https://www.reportsfromarbroath.com/podcasts/liam-norwell

More information here:
https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/cricket/2025/03/27/bears-suffer-blow-after-overseas-star-struck-down-by-injury/
So as well as Latham, Chris Rushworth is injured and OH-D can play but has a broken finger. And the season hasn't even started yet.

Yes some bad choices but also some bad luck.

Brian Halford has just launched his new podcast with an episode featuring OH-D:
https://www.reportsfromarbroath.com/podcasts/olly-hannon-dalby-its-a-strange-life-but-i-love-it

Somebody (can't imagine who it might have been) said last week:
"Sad to say it while still in March, but we do not have a good opening batsmen."
Latest score from match v Northants: Warwickshire 180-0.

Answer to the question - no, responsibility is with Dermot; and to be fair, that is what he says in the article.
I recall interviewing Dermot in 2019 at Edgbaston at the launch of Patrick Murphy's book about the 1994 season. He told a fascinating story, the only problem being that he just didn't stop. Everyone was waiting to start the event and Dermot was still in full flow. I had long since stopped asking questions but he was still talking. Eventually he was told to stop and the event began!

I agree that it is a sad story, not least because Dermot was such a hero to all Bears fans thirty years ago.

Andy wrote:

The Bears team of the early/mid 90s absolutely LOVED the packet.

I think that's a bit of a sweeping generalisation - and Dermot in the article says:
"It wasn't until I worked in the media that I took drugs. I never did as a player."
And reading Paul Smith's autobiography, he talks about the (non-cricketing) circle of friends that got him into drugs and nowhere suggests that other players also indulged.

There's quite a sad article in the latest edition of The Cricketer where ex-Bear Dermot Reeve laments his twenty years of drug taking.
He claims to have had only two "brief" relapses in the last six years; but one of these, as described by him, certainly wasn't minor: "My third wife was unwell...and I took a huge quantity of cocaine....I gambled away our entire savings in online casinos....My wife left me."
His third marriage in 2019 had seemed like a happy story - his wife Nicola was the granddaughter of old Warwickshire steward Billy Carson. Maybe there has been a reconciliation but he doesn't say.
He says several times that he hopes that his story will deter others - "I hope it convinces at least one person not to go down the road I went down."
Let's hope he can steer clear of that road himself from now on.

Probably only relevant to any London-based Bears - but Jonathan Trott will be speaking to The Cricket Society on the afternoon of Tuesday, 6th May at the Union Jack Club in London.
Tickets are available on the Cricket Society website.

As Mark Twain said, never let facts get in the way of a good story.

Since the new coaching structure came into place, there have been quite a few contract extensions signed. Here's another one:
https://edgbaston.com/news/george-garton-signs-new-bears-deal/

sdobbs wrote:

There's a two day friendly on march 25-26 Vs Northampton at Edgbaston listed on https://live.nvplay.com/ecb/?tab=c_matches#c8f6422d9-d87f-4fd9-9084-95f59dc0d112 and a corresponding 2nd XI fixture at Portland road. Behind closed doors?

Confirmed - behind closed doors.

Not sure where he disappeared to. I've edited to put him back in.
Thanks for spotting that!

OH-D speaks out on behalf of bowlers:
https://x.com/brainhaldorf/status/1901919161623687614

Coincidentally, my season preview is on Deep Extra Cover today - I don't think we disagree on too much. I put Danny Briggs in the four day side because otherwise the length of the tail scared me:
https://deepextracover.com/2025/03/warwickshire-season-preview-2025/

You win some, you lose some:
https://edgbaston.com/fixtures/first-xi/warwickshire-v-essex-friendly-15-march/#match-match-reports