mad
Member
Great news about Hamza Shaikh who's spending "time in Mumbai, India during the winter where he’ll gain invaluable experience playing in different conditions and pitches plus, crucially, honing his skills against spin bowling"
Several Bears are overseas this winter a few we are aware of so far;
Jordan Bulpitt is over in Melbourne already and was selected for Kingston Hawthorn's two day fixture yesterday in the Victoria Premier League but unfortunately the entire round was rained off.
Ethan Brookes has also arrived in Melbourne to join up with Prahran CC
Rob Yates is heading over to Perth to play for Bayswater-Morley. They've had two rounds of
50-over matches already and switch to two day matches at the end of October. Henry Brookes spent a few months there the winter prior to Covid. Will Rhodes had two winters with Willetton just as he signed for Warwickshire from Yorkshire and before he took on the captaincy
The WACA Premier League is quite nice to follow as due to the time difference it's on in the mornings until about 11am on Saturdays/Sundays whereas the other grade cricket comps are all overnight.
George Garrett is heading over to Brisbane to play for Easts Redlands which is Marnus Labuschagne's club. The Queensland Grade cricket season begins a bit earlier in the year so they've played lots of T20 since August plus three 50-over games already and just completed their first 2-day match beating Toombul.
I know several other youngsters are over there or in South Africa so will keep an eye out for their performances
Excellent article. And delving into the archives here once again superb; https://edgbaston.com/news/liam-norwell-best-bowling-performance-ever-for-the-bears/
A play-off between the bottom two teams in division one will determine which county is relegated, while a play-off between the top two in division two will decide who goes up to the top flight.
???
What on earth is the sudden obsession with play offs all about???!!!? It'd represent yet another week in the schedule where 4 teams get to play while the other 14 are sat twiddling their thumbs. I'm guessing mid-September??? Or else played overseas??? And if they're drawn matches??? Ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous!!!
What we want is proper season long leagues and proper knockout cups like we had in the 1990's
According to the Leicestershire chairman speaking last night at their forum no date has been arranged for any vote.
Also aligning with the wishes of their members the Leicestershire chair and CEO have stated they will vote as follows;
No - to moving the RLODC to April
No - to the proposed schedule of fewer championship games
No - to reducing the 7 T20 blast home games they currently have
That is a county engaging with its membership fully. Leicestershire members were also very vocal about the need to resist any moves towards creating divisions of six. You can't have a county championship where 2/3rds of the counties are unable to win it.
The situation at Warwickshire is far from clear.
Members at the forum in September were unanimously opposed to reducing championship matches. Yet the club wishes to portray the members as being broadly aligned with the committee??? This appears to be not the case if the committee think 12 is any workable compromise. 14 was the compromise.
If Warwickshire decide to vote for reduced championship games they will do so against the clear wishes expressed by their membership
This needs clearing up
This is on the Worcestershire official website. Counties should reject these insidious moves to shrink opportunities in the English cricket summer. It's as true for the next Olly Hannon Dalby or Ed Barnard as it is for Masihullah Qazkhill
https://wccc.co.uk/from-afghanistan-to-astwood-bank-masih-finds-opportunity-in-worcestershire/
amid all the current debates about the future of the game, maybe it’s vital to note that while the responsibilities of county cricket clubs embrace the production of England players, those duties also extend far beyond that essential role. It is a simple truth that most professional cricketers will not wear the crown and three lions, yet they will still give essential service to the game in this country.
English cricket is not solely about the England team. Rather, it is about ensuring that age-group teams are properly financed and that no players of sufficient talent are left out of them. It is about turning the player pathways into broad highways on which male and female cricketers from any background feel comfortable. And it is about ensuring that the major competitions are valued for themselves as a stern but fair test of teams across the increasingly wide expanse of the season.
Certainly take the point Reabank I think it's reasonable to wait and see what the club is actually being asked to vote on exactly. Also any efforts the club is willing to make to ensure fairness, openness (other counties will lay it all on the table anyway) and full member engagement potentially by way of a vote? Our SGM is a review of their decisions after they're made and we know that unless this gets kicked into the long grass certain dates are key;
End of October (so by around the date of the second Warks forum) the counties will have decided on the exact schedule for 2023 - possibly some minor alterations. We will be informed of this I would hope at the forum if not beforehand. If 2023 can work then I would appeal to counties to try to make it work in 2024 aswell. Why the need for drastic change if 2023 can work? Strauss review is flawed that's for sure.
End of November the counties will have a fixture list for 2023 (probably won't be made public until nearer Xmas mind) so they'll want to know what 2024 will look like.
Clearly the mood music over the next couple of weeks will help determine any decisions with regard to serving the SGM
https://www.phoenixfm.com/2022/10/06/98-not-final-show-grumbler-george-dobell-mark-butcher/
Forward to 1.05 for George Dobell comments following the cricket writers dinner earlier this week
The whole radio show is good
And another
"By reducing teams or games, you reduce the pool of people who play. We need boys and girls being able to watch cricket in summer not just at the test grounds but at Worcester and Chelmsford too. We need to play cricket in as many parts of the country as possible and at the highest level we can"
Well said Anthony McGrath.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0d4w5km?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
Afternoon reabank yes a number of us are in possession of more than 250 signatures. The figure was reached primarily during the Somerset championship game. These are in addition to those that have been posted/handed into the club already or completed online.
I do not know the answer to your second question but it's clear attempts have belatedly been made over the last three weeks or so to help make the committee more visible just a shame it's now October.
Reading around I found a nice summary appraisal of the Strauss Review today I thought worth sharing;
... so empty and lacking in explanation and detailed reasoning as to lend credence to any who might suggest that the Review committee not only concluded with its conclusions but commenced with them also. There is nowhere an attempt to recognise or balance the competing interests within the game. There is nowhere any explicit consideration of the threat to domestic scheduling and domestic player contracts from overseas leagues. There are no proposals for managing player demands to participate in overseas leagues where it would not serve the interests of English cricket for them to do so. There is no consideration of the viability of certain counties as centres of first class cricket. There is no consideration of splitting the domestic game between red ball and white ball squads, as England does, with no requirement for counties to participate in both or either forms. The 'rationale' presented for each recommendation is a 'why we are right' justification rather than an explanation of why alternatives were rejected. Fundamentally, there is a lazy and contestable assumption that player talent simply needs to be better managed within the current domestic pipeline, rather than that it needs to be more aggressively pursued in schools against other sports. Worst of all, the entire assumption behind it takes no account of the very diversity it seeks to promote: for example, that different types of leadership might be excellent, that there might be more than one set of qualities that have 'what it takes to win', that the talent to be 'identified' and 'developed' might (as is true of young people generally) be idiosyncratic and asynchronous; that players may need to play, train and rest in different proportions at different times, that 'the right' players might not always be selected were selection to rely on 'clear selection criteria', or that there might be different versions of 'strong performance culture' that would benefit individual players differently.
Finally, there is no consideration of the county structure as reservoirs of expertise in any of the things the Review thinks it needs: leadership, knowing what it takes to win, player/talent development, quality time on task, selection and performance culture. If the aim of this Review is to win potentially dissenting voices round to its point of view, it does not seem to have addressed any of the issues from their perspective or sought to make a case for why its view should prevail.
This is a thoroughly inadequate piece of work that does its authors no more credit than it does domestic cricket.
It's a worry so many county CEO's and chairs were falling over themselves to fawn over the review. I know some see it for it's true worth and are simply being polite with their response
Irrespective of all these comparisons with baseball the fact remains they have agreed for 2023 to be played with the same number of matches as this season.
If - and it is a really big if - there was any issue with player welfare arising from the schedule in 2022 then they would not be agreeing to arrange such a schedule for 2023.
Player welfare clearly wasn't a concern either when a random unecessary and divisive 4th format was plonked right smack in the middle of summer meaning the rest of the schdule had to be fitted into 5 months instead of 6 months
Half the players are sitting around for the bulk of August and quite a lot of June and July also - prime cricket season
Several players and coaches have already spoken out about the need for a sensible schedule rather than cuts to the schedule
This is achieveable whether or not they have championship games in August but I would prefer some in August. Just don't make them play 6 CC games in a row in April and May again that's what players have asked.
Next Wednesday, Lancashire will hold their first special general meeting since that point in the mid-1960s, although the nature of the debate will be focused around the future of English cricket as much as the specifics relating to the county, who have just completed a strong season. Indeed, all around the shires a small revolt has been growing among county membership in the face of the potential reforms pushed by Sir Andrew Strauss and his high-performance review.
As well as at Lancashire, extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) have been called at Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Enough signatures from members for EGMs have been gathered at Somerset, Glamorgan, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Surrey — although they have yet to be served on their respective clubs. Each of these clubs may have their own particular issues, although it is the possible future direction of the game that has given members a cause around which to coalesce.
One point from the Middlesex forum last night. The county was baffled by the data presented in the HPR that most county cricketers and apparently 94% (i e all but one) of Directors of Cricket were in favour of playing less cricket. This was emphatically not the case for Middlesex, for whom the scheduling rather than the volume is the problem.
This needs to be reiterated with Warwickshire. We will not swallow their bullshit about players apparently wanting to play less and have their fellow players thrown on the scrap heap
I'm far less concerned about home away integrity than others. I think probably better to have 8 in the top division to ensure this but I also understand the arguments for 10 in the top division to prevent short term thinking among counties. Having watched the recent Lancashire forum available online they are against a six team top division for this very reason so I wonder if we might see proposals to go to two top divisions of six with one feeder division? That was one rumour a few months back. I hope not because I think 8, 9 or 10 are the best sizes for divisions. There's barely enough teams for two divisions let alone three.
14 games can be made to work if we have some championship games in August. England and Wales is patently unsuited to only ten games with weather much more of a factor. The ECB are offering a schedule with 14 games anyway (10 CC + 1 play off + 3 random friendlies in August) an idea that almost everyone thinks is crap, so they may as well have 14 proper championship games
16 would be brilliant but I just don't think our season has room for 18 rounds of CC cricket within it anymore. 14 rounds there definitely is room for if they're skillfully scheduled.
https://play.acast.com/s/2fd1e566-c888-4214-aeeb-58c19269d813/45847682-c642-11ec-b957-8f724e8e51ab
interview with Sam Robson forward to 24 mins Backs retention of 14 CC matches just spread more evenly not all in April May but more in June July August. Some very astute observations about need to avoid clubs being stuck in feeder leagues for decades at a time. Wants to keep two up two down. I definitely agree with him there
Really thoughtful hope the club's listen to him
Podcast with George Dobell and Steve Harmison.
Almost no chance of Strauss review plans being voted through.
Unlikely to even be a vote
Next 8 weeks critical
Hundred is losing more £££ than the ECB have been letting on
Listen here👇 first 15 mins about Liam Norwell then Strauss review
https://play.acast.com/s/d0e70954-32ac-4e91-86c3-1c34bfb4a075/6336ca3ea84a980011ad00a6
Harmison spot on "the members just wanna watch cricket - 25 days in a whole summer is just ridiculous"
Found Olly's championship stats
Bowler, Balls bowled, maidens, runs, wickets, best bowling, average, 5-wickets in an innings
OJ Hannon-Dalby, 2834, 141, 1256, 53, 6-40, 23.69, 3
2834 balls bowled equates to 472 overs across the 14 games
Carried that team
Cheers for that - some lovely writing about the game isn't there
Wasn't there for Botham 81 but was at the MCG in 98 for what was the longest day AND the longest session in test history - Dean Headley and Darren Gough skittling the auld enemy leaving Steve Waugh stranded. I think for pure drama, situation of the match/season and importance Norwell 2022 tops even that great day
Derbyshire statement is appropriately firm. I totally understand Warwickshire not wishing to make such a statement but the direction of travel is clear now surely Strauss isn't gonna get his way. Few if any inside the game really want it
Derbyshire County Cricket Club held a Members’ Forum on Wednesday 28 September with the sole purpose of allowing Members the opportunity to voice their opinions regarding the High Performance Review and to discuss the report with the Club’s Supervisory Board.
The hybrid Forum drew the greatest attendance of a Member event for a number of years, highlighting the strength of feeling among the Membership for the topic.
Chairman, Ian Morgan OBE, and Chief Executive, Ryan Duckett, provided an overview of the report and its potential impact on Derbyshire commercially, as well as its fundamental changes to the fabric of the game.
Head of Cricket, Mickey Arthur, praised the standard of the county game, as well as the loyal support of Members up and down the country, while stressing his view that the issues remain with scheduling rather than the quantity of matches.
Members raised questions and spoke with passion, with the overriding expression being one of opposition to the proposals which impact the domestic structure, including a reduction in the amount of cricket played across all formats.
The discourse suggested emphasis should be placed on the schedule, rather than structure, while there is no compelling argument within the current proposals to suggest that change would necessarily be for the betterment of the game.
The Club would like to thank the Members for their ardent and considered opinions and the Supervisory Board will take these views into account should the parameters of any vote be confirmed by the England & Wales Cricket Board.
Apologies poor phrasing on my part I didn't intend that to sound negative - I meant it was great to see them all out on that balcony at the very end which it was. They'd not have wanted to jinx things beforehand. Great to see them enjoy the moment just like us members on the opposite side
Definitely wasn't having a dig it simply struck me at the time that here at long last was a rare moment of united joy at the club rare indeed in these times of heightened anxiety for all manner of reasons. Evrn the sight of Matt Lamb and Michael Burgess, Graham Welch and Keith Barker going for a stroll around the ground during the day added to this sense.
Will be watching highlights of that for a week and possibly again at xmas if there's nowt on