A bit of juggling needed I think. That is until Pakistan suddenly realise they have a squad to pick for a series and need to pick Hassan so they can leave him out - Again.

Was Whitehouse a good enough player to play Test cricket, a first-class average of 32 would suggest otherwise. Yes we do have other places to get players from in the county but the Birmingham League is supposedly as strong as any in the country, so it does make me wonder what happens to good players whilst they are playing well in that particular league.

Looks to be better with the bat but it could turn out to be a good signing, at least we appear to be getting in players into the team who's name isn't followed by a question mark.

The main problem from what I have seen over the years is that despite lack of success, Birmingham is a 'Football City' and even though over the last 10, 15. 20, 25 years, Warwickshire have won more trophies than all the local football teams put together, nowhere in the city, do I see/hear much to do about cricket. On the recruiting front, what we have done is get players from other counties and turn them into better players once they are here - Ambrose, Clarke, Rankin, Chopra, Evans spring to mind unlike Nottinghamshire who just steal players who are close to their peak as soon as they realise they are worth signing. But, yes, it is a big question about us not producing players from the local clubs but it has been the same for decades.

Yes, Have a great New Year everyone and let's hope the coming season sees us not having to fight relegation, winning a trophy of some sort and getting to T20 Finals Day, if only to shut up the other county fans who use the word 'Bottled' all the time through lack of originality.

I would leave it, with Woakes, Atkinson and Carse at 8,9 and 10 it is a long batting line-up. Pope kept well, made runs and so why bring in a new 'keeper who hasn't played in a while and is making a debut. It appears to be a bad move to change things if it not really needed.

A Test average of 60, can't complain there can we.

Glad someone on here knows how to start a new thread. I saw this on my phone at 4.30 and was quite shocked, one Kiwi in another one out. The amount of changes at this club since Will decided to move, is unbelievable but as you said BR, we were hoping for another person to leave.

Not sure how to start a new thread but Gavin Larsen has announced he is leaving.

I do hope he is getting all his fielding mishaps out of the way in this series and when he is finished helping England to get more runs, he is up to scratch at the start of the 2025 season.

New Zealanders on the whole, never come across as being a problem like signings from other Test nations, so hopefully this is a good signing and he is international standard. His strike rate at T20 isn't that special but compared to what we have had since Jeetan, it represents a feeling that the club have actually thought about it.

Yet another huge blow to the side. Burgess must have really wanted out, to go at such a young age. Maybe the route he is taking seemed so much better than playing for Warwickshire but surely there must be something more to it. If I was him, I would have been furious about being left out of the T20 side whilst a lesser batsman in no form had a place in the side whilst being a much more inferior wicketkeeper as well. A decision that left so many on this site, totally baffled and in my case, just bloody annoyed. Can't help but think the way the club is operating at the moment and strange team selections, won't have had some bearing on all this but then again, I am just speculating. So Sibley, Rhodes and now Burgess, all terrific players in their prime, all gone and much work for the management to deal with. We need strong replacements, not "Oh we THINK this player has potential and we THINK he could be what is needed for the team....". Too many players at the club have had potential but you cannot keep talking about the potential a player has, 5 years later.

What we have to remember here is that we saw Benjamin, not only failing to score runs but looking as though he had no confidence and at times looking as though he didn't know if he was holding the bat correctly. What got up people's noses was he kept wicket whilst not scoring runs whilst we had an in form player in Burgess who is also one of the best keepers around and to keep him out of the side, most on here seemed to feel as though the wrong option was taken. And when Davies did take the gloves, Rhodes was in form anyway and was also a better option than Benjamin.

I think we all echo what the above poster's have said. It's horrible to lose a player when he has had a terrific season, even if by the end, he could just as well have not bothered to try, but he did. The pig-headed management will again come up with excuses if tackled about how they let a player go like Will. My abiding memory of him, was carrying around the CC trophy in 2021 but not showboating and was so humble rather than being big, showy and fist-pumping. He was happy to have got the job done and watch the rest of the team have their photo taken with the trophy and enjoy the moment. I cannot see how Robinson can carry on but if he does, then he had better hope that we have a good season in 2025 and that he doesn't leave worthy players out and come up with stupid team selections or other players will leave as has been pointed out already, Barnard and Burgess are 2 who might scratch their heads and decide they want to go elsewhere.

Any good South African player would be a step up and if you consider how many of them dropped out of their New Zealand tour recently to play T20 cricket, they are not exactly prioritising their Test careers.

Dennis Amiss and Eric Hollies perhaps.

Andy wrote:

Can't understand the overseas situation. Have we been massively unlucky? Maxwell was/is one of the worlds leading white ball cricketers, was so clearly the best available player to us at the time. Did we expect too much? Was he as bad as we remember? I'm not sure he was. Was fair to expect more though.

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Re. Worrall. Hold on a sec, he played for Gloucestershire for 3 or 4 seasons so it's not like Surrey unearthed a gem out of nowhere. Only when he gained his British passport did Surrey pinch him. Good player though, clearly.

Jeets what a player, clearly. Crucially NZ schedule was quite light for a such a long period. We did lose him to international duty on a couple of occasions, 2012 he was gone for about 6 or 7 weeks as NZ toured India and 2017 he was part of NZ's Champions Trophy squad. He also turned NZ down on a couple of occasions so as not to jeopardise his Warwickshire contracts. He was a bit more highly rated by his country than you may think. And rightly so.

We've struggled with T20 overseas players for so long. Shoaib Malik in 2014 was good for us but even he missed Finals Day for the CPL (I think?). Even Jeets, as incredible as he was, used to get caned in that format in his 2 or 3 seasons with us.

I think the only way you can guarantee player availability (fitness permitting obviously) is to engage a domestic player from SA, Aus or NZ who is largely unheralded and not really on the radar of national team selection. Even then Cricket Australia are so difficult to work with, look at Kent and the Xavier Bartlett situation, all agreed for all formats, then on the eve of the season CA pulled him out and only let him play the Blast. Nightmare.

I didn't realise that Worral played for Gloucestershire but either way, Surrey still went for him despite him not being proven so the same example applies. Maxwell, if you consider his reputation, it is as a hard hitting and fast scoring batman who can bowl decent off-spin, well his off-spin was no better than decent and his batting was not a success from what we were probably expecting, 'The Big Show', he was not. I do not recall many games where Jeetan got caned and he did play a lot more than his "2 or 3 seasons". As for his fellow-countrymen, well if he was so highly rated, they would have played him a lot more than they did, not one performance did he get in the last Champions Trophy tournament that was played in the UK.

I cannot comment of the women's game as I do not know the in's and out's of how much the club has concentrated on that subject. As for the T20, I think many on here have commented on too much emphasis on this format as we still have struggled to get an overseas player who appears to be a specialist at T20 and can really make their mark, unfortunately, Hasan Ali despite the odd decent game in this format, does not fit the bill and Glenn Maxwell did not cover himself in too much glory when he played last season. I have always believed that you should build a good overall squad and you try to make CC cricket your strong suit and you should build your T20/50 overs team from that. The overseas player is a subject which annoys so many as we appear to have not tried hard enough and if a club of our size with a successful record of 16 trophies since 1989, better than most counties, cannot get players to come here then we need to ask about our process of how are the club looking for players. It can't be just money, Surrey picked up Worral, how, why and who. No one was aware of him and when he first appeared on the scene, no one had any idea about him or where he came from and yet here we are a few years later, asking the question of how we cannot manage to grab a player like that. Also, just what are we looking for in an overseas player, someone who was a good Test player who is now just looking to play a few seasons of county cricket, a player who hasn't yet hit the mark but is inexpensive or someone who is a proven Test performer who we are happy to get 8-10 performances out of in the CC. Also we need to ask ourselves how many different formats we can get from an overseas player and if we can not wear him out before the season is over. There are so many things to consider before we recruit a player, age, experience, longevity over a season and how many formats that player wants to commit to. In Jeetan Patel we got so lucky as he came here with no reputation and I for one asked, "Why him, his record is poor and an off-spinner, seriously". Boy, did I get that wrong and we were lucky that New Zealand did not appear to rate him so he never missed much cricket, wanting to play every game and racking-up 161 consecutive game in all formats. We will never get another like him, he was a one off, but I would love to know the clubs criteria for recruiting the overseas players.

Welcome Lickey_bear, Yes, very bad news and if that situation didn't affect Sam Hain, then nothing will. Looking at the batting stats, it doesn't look too bad from that point of view but not being able to win after setting Essex and Somerset, big totals, it does look like a case of strengthening the bowling. No point having bowling that has a side 5-6 down and cannot finish them off. We will never win many games if we cannot bowl side out twice and lots of bowlers at the same pace and over 30 will just get samey and allow any opposing batsman to score easily once they are 'In'. The bowling stats are the poorest I have seen for us in years and that must be a priority for next season.

Well done Mr Hain, very pleased for him, a typical innings from him. Very pleased he signed my picture of us both with the CC trophy in 2021, at the beginning of the season. It will go on my soon to be inherited piece of furniture in my dining room in a frame.