GerryShedd
Super Moderator
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.
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
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.
You win some, you lose some:
https://edgbaston.com/fixtures/first-xi/warwickshire-v-essex-friendly-15-march/#match-match-reports
Not sure if anyone on here would have known him; but the Club's Facebook page says:
"We're shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Warwickshire fan Leonard Hall and his wife Pat following a fire at their home in Rugby.
Leonard was a life-long Bear.
We helped him celebrate his 96th birthday here last year. š„°
A lovely man."
There have been rumours that the BBC radio coverage of county cricket was under threat. In fact, the only loss will be the One Day Cup which will not be covered.
The Cricketer reports:
"Every day of County Championship and T20 Blast cricket will again be available.The only change sees the One-Day Cup group stage, which since 2021 has clashed with The Hundred competitions, lost from the schedule."
The Cricketer also points out:
"The move comes as counties themselves continue to shift from using the BBC commentary for their live streams, instead preferring perhaps a more favourable in-house team. The quality and sophistication of streams have exploded in recent years - significantly so since the pandemic - and last summer saw 30 million views across the 18 first-class counties."
And the contract for supplying ridiculously over-priced food goes to...
https://edgbaston.com/news/edgbaston-agrees-new-food-supply-deal-with-fordhall-farm-event-caterers/
It looks like Claire Daniel is moving on so there is a vacancy to be filled:
https://edgbaston.com/news/job-vacancy-operations-director/
He seems almost to have made the grade but not quite:
https://edgbaston.com/news/amir-khan-leaves-warwickshire/
No sign that another county has picked him up yet, which is a shame.
We all have a moan on here from time to time about how the Club is run. Here is a chance to get more involved:
https://edgbaston.com/news/members-committee-vacancy-2/
Unfortunately, I am over the age limit but maybe there's someone else on here who has the time and the commitment.
Interesting article here about past Aussie Bears:
https://edgbaston.com/news/webster-joins-roll-call-of-aussie-bears/
Not sure who wrote it, though it has a Brian Halford feel to it.
I had totally forgotten about E. F. Waddy, an Aussie schoolmaster at Rugby School. It seems that a century ago, he was doing exactly what it has been suggested should happen now - sending Warwickshire's way cricketers from the school, though none of them achieved very much. In later life, as well as being vicar of the Littletons in Worcestershire, he was a beekeeper and an expert conjuror. Not a lot of people know that.
The article also mentions one half of my favourite Bears related quiz question - who are the two players who played together in the same first-class team and were not related but no-one else with the same surname has ever played first-class cricket?
He is speaking at the Cricket Society meeting at Edgbaston next week:
"Steve Perryman, Edgbaston, Birmingham, Tue 21 Jan, 2.00pm
Former Warwickshire, and Worcestershire cricketer in conversation with Brian Halford."
Well worth attending.
Signed for the first part of the season until the end of July - could be a good signing:
https://edgbaston.com/news/aussie-test-allrounder-webster-signs-for-warwickshire/
The latest county cricket census carried out by Wisden makes depressing reading for Bears fans who would hope that a club of the size of Warwickshire would be able to produce more than its fair share of home-grown talent. But:
- in a table of what percentage of players were born in the county or an adjoining one, Warwickshire came 12th out of 18 counties
- in a table showing where county players learnt their cricket, Warwickshire came 13th
- looking at the % of home-grown players, Warwickshire were 15th; and in the table of who had signed the most from other counties, the Bears were second
- overall, Warwickshire were 17th out of 18 in looking at the balance between creation and purchase of players
The New Year report card must say "could do better".
This tournament went (perhaps rightly) under the radar; but from this report, it would appear that, as well as Ethan Brookes, Ed Barnard and Alex Davies also played for the England team:
https://wccc.co.uk/brookes-part-of-england-squad-for-hong-kong-sixes/
Losing to Nepal and Oman doesn't suggest that it was a very successful venture.
This year's winners:
Bernard Flack Memorial Trophy (Multi-Day pitches):
Winner: Lee Fortis (Kia Oval)
Runner-up: Richard Robinson (Headingley)
Commendation: Karl McDermott (Lordās)
One-Day pitches:
Winner: Adrian Llong (The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, Canterbury)
Runner-up: Gary Barwell (Edgbaston)
Commendations: Andy Ward (Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road), Ben Gibson (The 1st Central County Ground, Hove)
Outground Pitches Award:
Winner: Josh Marden (The County Ground, Beckenham)
Runner-up: Christian Brain (Cheltenham College)
Commendations: Nick Johnson (Blackpool CC), Brad Jeffries (Kidderminster CC)
Outstanding Contributor:
Tom Cowley (Hampshire County Cricket Club)
Business Of Cricket Awards, Rising Star:
Jasmine Nicholls (Yorkshire County Cricket Club)
If you want to depress yourself and also can get past the paywall, read the article in The Telegraph today:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/10/29/short-format-leagues-twenty20-prize-money-financial-riches/?WT.mc_id=e_DM443444&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_PrS_New&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_PrS_New20241030&utm_campaign=DM443444
Amongst other topics, it describes how some players sign up for franchise competitions without knowing until they arrive which team they are playing for; and how sometimes it's in a player's interests for his team to lose and not qualify for the later stages because the player is signed up for a different competition that overlaps - what the players call ādouble dippingā: earning from two competitions being played at the same time.
According to The Telegraph, for 2025, the ECB plan to place two rounds of Kookaburra action in the middle of the summer, and two in a similar slot in early September.