Day 16: Spin it to win it

Is it possible for a spinner to find the rhythm they need in just a day of match practice? The answer is usually no. However good the conditions. It would never be easy for Jack Leach and Dom Bess. Leach hasn't played much cricket in the last 12 months, and Bess has been under scrutiny during the same time despite five wickets in the first innings. Bess has the credit of an impressive tour of South Africa in the bank, and Leach deserves his chance.

It was also inevitable that Sri Lanka would bat better second time around. England are still on top of course, and with two days to go, it won't be easy. More formidable challenges await in India, but there is no expectation that the rest of the Test series with Sri Lanka won't be tricky. How England respond will be interesting. Of course, this isn't a full-strength England side. Ben Stokes, Rory Burns and Jofra Archer aren't in Galle. James Anderson is having his workload managed. It is a long year of Test cricket for England as ever the build-up is to the Ashes next winter.

With the first two days' efforts, expectations are high with Sri Lanka well beaten in South Africa recently that could have given the position they would roll over. The first innings did little to dispel that.

What England need over the next seven days cricket is to find a way of winning. There is enough promise there, and one disappointing day doesn't make a Test year.

Ireland play

Ireland finally managed to play some cricket today. It wasn't the planned ODI against UAE, but instead, Afghanistan stepped into the breach as the two sides ramp up preparation for the series between the two sides. Ireland lost by 23 runs, but the majority of the squad took part.

South Africa let Luus

South Africa announced its women's squad to face Pakistan. Without the services of Dane van Niekerk, Sune Luus will lead the Proteas.

Pakistan's new coach David Hemp will be hoping to see his side beat a well organised South Africa team.

Make or break day

Australia will be kicking themselves that they failed to reach 400 in the fourth Test at The Gabba. Tim Paine needed to bat well, talk that his place was under pressure not just as captain, but also behind the stumps.

Australia will have to bowl well in the first session. If there was ever a day was made for Cheteswar Pujara to bat all day, then this is.

Day two: looking forward to the action

2 January 2021

As England depart for Sri Lanka, it would be quite possible for the Twitter accounts of some counties to post images of their respective headquarters clad in snow. While in previous years the welcome relief of those in the touring party to escape the cold climate for warmer pastures would be welcome.

These as different times, with bubbles and quarantine, what welcomes England’s is far from the usual trip to distant shores. England taking a full-time therapist with them for the first time on tour is not just sensible but essential.

Already confirmed is that Jos Buttler will start with the gloves in the tests against Sri Lanka, which when you consider Buttler is an essential player across all formats seems an opportunity wasted to give someone the likes of Ben Foakes a spell behind the stumps. What is sure though, as last year there will be a few players in contention for places.

It would be interesting to see the likes of Ollie Robinson to prove they can perform on the big stage. Robinson is a player who I have admired for a while. You can be sure that his name will pop up over the next year.

New Zealand v Pakistan

Of course, there is test cricket going on all over the place, and nowhere looks cooler to watch it from Hagley Oval where New Zealand take on Pakistan in the second test of their series.

Much has been made of how New Zealand has handled the pandemic. There is also much to admire in the way they play their cricket.

WNCL

There are some concerns about the start of the new WNCL season, scheduled to begin in the next couple of weeks. With some state borders likely to be closed. With schedulers nervously pencilling fixtures in it would be unfortunate if plans for this competition were needed.

The standard is incredibly high, and with a 50 over World Cup a year away, it may be the final chance for some players to convince the selectors they deserve to cross the Tasman Sea and pull on the green and gold.

Early Morning Radio

It was good to hear Kathryn Bryce interviewed for the BBC Stumped radio programme. Even if it was nearly three in the morning when it was broadcast in the UK. The Scotland and Lightning captain recently picked up the ICC award for Women’s Associate Player of the Decade. An award she rightly deserved.

One last grand day out

If the buzz phrase ‘match day experience’ was to be applied to any venue in the world it would Lord’s. The famous Lord's hum, a hum of anticipation, a hum of the occasion and sometimes a post-lunch hum of satisfaction.

That buzz or hum is there even at half seven in the morning of the Royal London One-Day Cup Final. The last at this esteemed old ground before it up sticks to Trent Bridge next season. The rights or wrongs of the restructuring of the county season is for a different place though.

When you walk through the North Gate having gone through the security frisk there is activity everywhere. The stewards and St John's Ambulance are getting their briefings. The food kiosks are preparing for a day of non-stop sales.

In the place that it matters the hallowed turf the ground staff are busily preparing an assortment of lawn mowers mover across the blades of grass giving it a carpet-like texture while a roller prepares for a future battle. No notice is taken to the pitch that today's action will take place on. You can’t help but notice a green tinge but a dry looking surface underneath.

The stewards in the stands start to check every seat, turning them down before they spring back up. It will be the only Mexican wave that won’t be frowned upon all day.

The paying punter is still an hour away from surging into the ground, the chat the laughter mixing with the sounds of London mixing into the hubbub of it all.

Lord’s has a weird juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern, the famous pavilion, the bastion of the MCC and the old school tie at one end of the ground and the JP Morgan Media Centre at the other which is regularly compared with a spaceship (it landed 20 years ago.)

Adjustable floodlights stand on watch over the famous stands as the flashing advertising boards snake the edge of the outfield reminding the yet to arrive visitor of potential future visits to see the NatWest T20 Blast before it is shoved down the order of importance.

It is overcast but with little chance of rain although the main cover sits over the sponsor's logo on the outfield ready to pounce into action at the merest drop precipitation.

Things start to move up a notch, with the PA system tested and the food kiosks staffed and ready for business the MCC members are let through the gates. It’s not salmon swimming upstream as you are led to believe but a steady trickle. This doesn’t have the gravitas of a Lord’s test match after all.

A jazz band start to burst into life, and the day suddenly feels like it is starting to reveal its true purpose. The players have started to trundle over to the nursery ground where they start to go through their final preparations.

The Warner stand is starting to fill a shock of glass bursts through the top of a traditional looking stand overlooking the playing surface while at the back there is a mix of bright white painted steel and frosted glass.

The media centre starts to become busier, familiar faces and just as importantly voices start to appear. With England playing an ICC World Cup warm-up match at Southampton it would be easy for the media centre to be far from full.

With forty minutes until the toss, the players of both sides are on the outfield going through fielding drills or marking run-ups with long measuring tapes and buckets of paint.

The cloud that blanketed the skies earlier in the morning has burnt away as Isa Guha supervises the toss which Hampshire win. The stands are filling with fans of both sides.

The bell rings to signal the players are on their way. The Somerset fielders spread out and Hampshire’s batsman walk out with purpose. Craig Overton waits to run in and deliver the first ball of the day to Tom Alsop.

The ripples of applause punctuate the air in the early exchanges as both sides work each other out. That is until the third over when Aneurin Donald pieces a cover drive for the first four of the day. A big cheer marks it and we are into the game as Donald flicks the next off his legs to the boundary in the opposite side of the field.

The Somerset crowd roared back next over as Donald’s cameo of 11 from 11 balls when he drives a loose ball from Josh Davey straight at Roland van der Merwe.

Hampshire lost wickets at regular intervals. They needed Sam Northeast to bat all the way through. Northeast reached fifty before swiping across the line and was bowled by Somerset captain Tom Abell.

The biggest cheer from the Somerset fans came just three balls later. Chris Wood toe-ended a Jamie Overton Delivery to George Bartlett who grabbed his chance.

Hampshire's fans finally had something to cheer about when the ninth wicket partnership added 66 for the ninth wicket. Fuller reached his fifty with a second six from the final over of the inning. Mason Crane played a good supporting inning to ensure Hampshire used all their overs.

Hampshire finished on 244 for 8. It is by modern standards a modest total one that Somerset would have been happy with at the start of the day.

In the interval, the outfield near the Grandstand was replaced with youngsters in a range of colourful hats and even bright orange stumps. They got to play on the same stage as the heroes they were there to watch.

Tom Banton the Somerset opener looked at home at the home of cricket at set about tucking into the Hampshire opening bowlers who have international pedigree Fidel Edwards taking the brunt of the opening salvo by the young wicketkeeper. In the third over he smoked Edwards for four, six and four in successive balls.

The Somerset faithful were now in full voice. The boundaries were coming as thick and as fast as the consumption of cider. The usual hum was replaced by the noise of supporters enjoying the afternoon in song.

A chant of “Tommy, Tommy, Tommy Banton” rang around Lord’s as the batsman reached his fifty in as many balls.

Edwards came back for his second spell and he soon saw off his early tormentor Banton for 69. Azhar Ali followed in Edwards next over. By that time the two openers had added 112 for the first wicket.

It was the Somerset stalwarts of Peter Trego and James Hildreth that made sure that Somerset didn’t get carried away and throw a great position away.

Hildreth batted for the rest of the innings for an unbeaten 69 from 68 balls. A player many feels was wrongly overlooked by England showed his true class and it was fitting that he hit the winning runs with 39 balls to spare.

There were 15746 in attendance to see the curtain fall on the domestic 50 over final at Lord’s. It was a shame really. Scheduled on the same day as England playing Australia and other scheduling matters meant the opportunity to go out with a full house was missed. This was a competition with the help of finals at Lord's help to create memories. Sat in the stands watching their heroes represent the county that means the most to them.

Goodbye old friend.

Notts and Somerset battle out enjoyable days play

In a competition between in form batsman and an inform bowler, it was the latter that took the honours today at Trent Bridge.

Lewis Gregory who helped turn Somerset fortunes in the first round of the Specsavers County Championship was at it again returning figures of 6 for 68.

Somerset liked the look of a pitch with a healthy helping of green grass on the surface. It was more for decoration than anything that would cause batsmen any real trouble. Tom Abell the Somerset captain was happy enough to have a bowl first up and the was no toss.

Abell’s decision was looking a great one when Jack Brooks saw off Ben Duckett on of Notts inform batsman. Duckett was heavy footed to a ball that straightened and had nowhere to go but the pavilion.

It wasn’t a happy time after that for Brooks, his first spell would see his four overs dispatched for 29 runs as Chris Nash and Ben Slater tucked into the shorter of the two boundaries.

Notts were plundering on a pitch that offered assistance to the bowler who got it in the right areas but anything slightly offline was going to the fence.

The Notts second wicket partnership soon passed 50 from only 51 balls before Slater edged one behind off Josh Davey and Steve Davies taking a comfortable catch behind.

Joe Clarke who started the season with 112 and 97 not out against Yorkshire soon followed for 2.

Nash who has a very good record at Trent Bridge and that form looked set to continue. He has always been good on the drive and when Brooks fed him early on, he was intent on getting his teeth into the Somerset attack.

For the fourth wicket, Nash again shared a fifty partnership with Steve Mullaney. 52 were added before Mullaney was lbw to Gregory for 26.

The Notts middle order all made starts without going on Samit Patel was bowled for 33 again by Gregory who removed two of Patel’s stumps to opposite sides on the pitch.

Patel along with Tom Moores were looking comfortable in their 58-run partnership.

Once Patel was gone Moores started to play and miss and a number of deliveries before Craig Overton and Marcus Trescothick combined to send Moores back for 47.

Luck Wood who last week had been on loan at Northamptonshire and he ensured the lower order didn’t crumble with a 64 ball 52 before being the last man out as Notts finished on 263 just after tea.

It was an interesting innings by Nottinghamshire. They maybe lack a batsman that can slow things down a bit in the middle order. The batsman dominated in spells but lost their wickets at times where they should have just hung in the game for another half hour. Nash being the perfect case of this as he pulled Gregory straight to Jack Leach at deep mid-wicket for 58.

Notts have the type of bowling attack to pull things around on this ground and Stuart Broad did just that. Alongside Jake Ball, neither bowler tried too hard and bowled good lines and lengths to make the openers think about what was to come.

Each of Somerset’s top three were dismissed for 10. First to go was Azhar Ali lbw to Broad. Trescothick who had batted for the best part of an hour was to be Broad’s second victim in a spell of 2 for 19 from 9 overs.

James Hildreth who has moved up to third in the order was caught behind off Luke Fletcher’s first ball to one down the leg-side. Captain Tom Abell and George Bartlett saw Somerset to 74 for 3 at the close. 189 runs behind Notts.

Reflecting on the day’s play Nash summed up the day perfectly when he said, “It has been a really good days cricket on a good cricket wicket and a quick outfield.”

Day two promises to be more of the same.

How I became a women's cricket fan

It is when you aren’t looking for anything particular that you find the extraordinary. Once in a state of boredom, I switched on the T.V. to see Usain Bolt break the world record. It wasn’t planned, I didn’t know he was running, or that it would be televised. It’s just one of those where were you? Moments.

It is kind of the way that I started to follow women’s cricket. I was the day of the World Cup final at Lord’s. It was the first I had known of the tournament, and there was England in the final against New Zealand. It was an aspect of cricket that I had known nothing about. It wasn’t something that was on television, or in the newspapers, although the 1994 Wisden comments on the ‘excellent media coverage’ much of which I was oblivious. There was no internet to follow scores or social media to help get to know the players better, no one to bounce opinions off.

I was sold there and then. It didn’t matter that these weren’t men, I didn’t see a difference in terms of the competition. I couldn’t care less if the bowlers weren’t bowling at 90 miles an hour, or that the ball wasn’t clearing the boundaries. It is an argument I’m still making to this day to people who are dismissive of a game that is improving rapidly and with an event like the Big Bash and Kia Super League will only prove the quality of those pioneers that are taking the game into a professional era.

Before the time that all the home fixtures at least started to be covered by Sky Sports, it was as I’ve stated before hard to follow women’s cricket. That has of course been partly my fault. Some of it has been down to where the games have taken place at international level. I could have sought out the county game better. As I write this I have only ever been to two Sussex women’s games (more of which later.)

My first live experience of the England side was in 1998, an ODI between England and Australia. A month after my last GCSE exam I went to Hove. I would only be able to stay for the first innings as I had to take my sister to a school play that evening. The England side had a few of those world cup winners, Jan Brittin, Barbra Daniels, Clare Taylor (not to be confused with Claire Taylor, who was 12 on the scorecard) the wicket keeper Jane Smit, and captain Karen Smithies. There was also a young opener by the name of Charlotte Edwards who would become a truly household name.

Australia had won the toss and had chosen to bat and little did I know then just how good their batting line-up was. Belinda Clark, Joanne Broadbent, Lisa Keightley, Karen Rolton, and Mel Jones. Broadbent and Rolton both made half centuries.

I missed England fall 35 runs short, and also the chance to see just how impressive a bowler that Catherine Fitzpatrick was. I was on the verge of going away for the summer to work and prepare for college. Moving to Mansfield for the summer meant that I would be away from Sussex but not from cricket. It meant that I was near enough to Worcester to go to a day of the Women’s test match there.

It was overcast all day but I don’t remember it being cold. It was my first time in a new part of the country. I arrived at the ground just in time for the start of play, no time to explore the cathedral or the rest of Worcester. The crowd was also different to the ones I was used to. It was younger and there were more women around. It was friendly and I soon got into the day's play. England was in the process of having its tail put up a small amount of resistance. On the scorecard, I put England’s score down as a rather exaggerated 414 when they had in fact mustered 243 all out.

I only saw three Australian’s bat that day Keightley (50), Clark (136) and Rolton who finished the day on 97 not out, this after there were at least three extra overs bowled over than scheduled. I went to the wrong railway station on the way back and had to sprint to the other to catch the last train home. This after promising I would get the train before.

I was determined not to let England be the only team I would go to watch. When I got back home I found out that Sussex had a friendly against Derbyshire and I was going to go. I missed the bus and ended up getting the train instead even though it was cost ten times as much.

I got to the ground and they only had one umpire, to which for some reason volunteered with ‘I’ll do it’. I can’t believe they agreed to it. So there I was having only done a spot of umpiring in school games in the middle of a county match, albeit a friendly. I was given some good guidance from the other umpire. I turned down an lbw appeal from a Sussex bowler that I still wonder if turning it down was the right thing. I was paid £10 which just covered the cost of my travel expenses, so I can’t have been that bad at it. I couldn’t do it again. It wasn’t until 2015 that I saw Sussex play again.

It was the same summer job that allowed me to watch England the following year at Trent Bridge in and ODI against India that went down to the final ball with captain Smithies scoring an unbeaten 110 after Clare Connor had taken three wickets to restrict India to 220.

I didn’t get to another women’s game until 2006. A combination of being nowhere near where the games were being staged and a combination of work and university meant opportunities to get to any form of cricket was limited.

2005 had given Women’s cricket a higher profile, England games were given more prominence, and the players even got to take part in the open top bus ride around London with the men who had also won the Ashes that year.

That optimism didn’t seem to continue into the next year. With T20 finals day becoming an event in the men’s domestic calendar I booked that week off work. It coincided with the women’s test match at Leicester. I would be able to go to all four days. On the walk to the ground every morning I was passed by the coach carrying the England side.

Getting into the ground you would barely have noticed that this was an international fixture. The small crowd was made up mainly of friends and family of the England side. There were no more than a dozen Leicestershire members, although among them was Lewis. He was a well-known figure at Leicester and even had his own catchphrase, ‘I’ve got me Brandy.’  

The game didn’t explode into life until the final day when England declared during the lunch break leaving them two sessions to win it. India held on with two wickets at the end, as fresh gloves and extra jumpers were brought on the field. With three of India’s top four dismissed for ducks England would have been disappointed not to have won.

Two Sussex players made their England debuts during that game. Laura Marsh, a fast bowler. The other was Sarah Taylor, someone who would come to score plenty of runs for England. It is her wicket-keeping that has made headlines and there are plenty examples to view on YouTube. It hasn’t come without setbacks and is currently taking her second break from the game.

The test was over, I went to thank Edwards for a fabulous and nearly tripped over a batting helmet at the same time. I also seem to be wearing a Sussex shirt whenever I meet her, which she always points out about Kent being better.

It was by accident that I became a volunteer at Trent Bridge for the World T20 competition in 2009. Looking for tickets for the England v Scotland warm-up game there was a notice looking for volunteers. Myself and a friend signed up and we got access to all the games at Trent Bridge. I don’t remember much about those games, but it did get me tickets for the finals day at Lord’s. We would do a lap of the ground to show the importance of those that helped make the competition possible.

England were in the final after beating Australia in a tense semi-final at The Oval. A game that has been cast as an example of just how exciting the women’s game can be. The final was more straight forward and England were busy celebrating while I got ready for my cameo appearance.

This was only months after England had taken the ODI World Cup in Australia. Having seen Laura Marsh make her England debut as a fast bowler, it was odd to see her now bowling spin, albeit very well. It just showed how out of the loop I was.

In between then and 2012 I had continued to follow the team on the radio and television. The coverage was getting better and under the stewardship of Charlie Dagnall and Ebony Rainford-Brent, I would listen while traveling all over the country. Their enthusiasm for the game is infectious, something that I have tried to install in my niece.

I took her to her first game when she was only a year old. I had won tickets for a T20 international at Arundel against West Indies. I got her a programme and helped her to get it signed by all the players, they couldn’t have been better with her. Edwards took the longest with her, asking her questions, while my niece waved her Sussex flag.

It was a game that showed signs that West Indies could become a force in the game, and it came as little surprise when they won the World T20 earlier this year.

England didn’t have a good time at the World cup the year after the trip to Arundel, they never really got going and went out fairly early. The teams that they had beaten easily a few years before had played catch up and in the case of Australia had overtaken them.

The men’s Ashes series of 2013/14 was going so horrendously that, even those that had never followed women’s cricket were looking to Charlotte Edwards and her team for some of the hope. Which is exactly what they delivered. The test match of the series was one that swung one way then the next. It was a low scoring game where Australia’s first innings total of 207 was highest of the game.

With a points system weighed in favour it was going to take something for Australia to take the Ashes series. They won two of the three ODIs. It wasn’t a surprise when England won the first T20 to win the series.

While England’s players were being paid to be ambassadors by Chance to Shine, it showed just how important women’s cricket was becoming to the ECB when they were rewarded true professional status after the successful Ashes series.

It was everything that the players deserved. With more money being generated from television money, it was only right that some of this was shared around the game. When England won the world cup in 1993 it was still seen as okay by the MCC to omit women members from Lord’s, now here they were 21 years later becoming part of the mainstream.

That isn’t to say that Women’s cricket gets the respect it is due. During the 2015 Women’s Ashes, I spent half a day arguing with a Derbyshire fan why an International match was more important than a Derbyshire versus Yorkshire Royal London One-Day Cup game. It would, after all, have been better for his county if he had attended the game in the flesh.

That series also raised the issue of whether the women’s game benefited from test matches. England had lost their first test as a professional team the year before to India, under far more scrutiny than there had ever been. It was put down to a blip, a team still getting used to their new status.

The Ashes test was different; it was a dour affair under leaden skies. There were people watching that were not used to the way that the women’s game worked. Yes, there were arguments to be made that a professional side should be looking to score runs faster and look to take the initiative. It was unfortunate that is wasn’t a greater spectacle but then the same things had been said about the men’s side in the last couple of years.

This was the only game I had made of the series. I was in Sussex for the T20 Blast quarter-final the night before, a game that David Willey won single handed. I had won tickets for the test at Canterbury thanks to a competition on the Kia twitter page. Kia are a company that has taken women’s cricket to its heart, being a sponsor independent of the men’s side as well as sponsoring the new women’s super league.

I picked my tickets up and was checking them when a woman approached me asking where she could get tickets as her friend needed one. I had a spare ticket so I said she was welcome to use it. “She used to play for England, I don’t know if you have heard of her. Enid Bakewell.” I was a little surprised but I knew who she was. A woman born in the next town over from the one I was born in, she is considered one of the best all-rounders.

I gave my ticket over and thought nothing on it as she went off with her friend. I the afternoon, as the rain fell steadily she came and joined myself and the other competition winners in hospitality, we were entertained with stories of her playing all over the world. The others were surprised that I had only met her that morning but enjoyed the experience. Though shocked that former players weren’t looked after a bit more.

So it was a shame that there was so much negativity around that match. There were moments of really exciting cricket, but people want high scoring games apparently. Paul Allott was coming out with nonsense like shorter pitches and lighter balls, and better judges of the game were calling for tests to be scrapped altogether. There should be more not less. T20 is a good introduction and list A cricket is entertaining but players need to be tested over a number of days.

It will come, maybe not in the next ten years or so, but then if you had told me the health of the game after that test at Leicester in 2006, it would be hard to believe.

The rise of professional leagues like the Women’s Big Bash and the Kia Super League are a good start. They raise the standards of the players just below international level, which if like England the only professionals are those who play for England, this is only a good thing.

The Kia Super League was a successful tournament, in the sense that no one knew what to expect. The crowds were good. I went to the first game played in the competition at Headingley as the Yorkshire Diamonds, took on Loughborough Lightning. There were people waiting for the gates to open and populated by a mix of ages and genders. This wasn’t just family and friends but people who wanted to watch good cricket.

As Sussex didn’t have a team in the competition and not willing to support a Southampton based team: for many reasons, Loughborough would be the team I adopted. I took my mum and she enjoyed the experience; not a traditional cricket supporter (her last game had been 20 years before), she got into the spirit of things and there we were two Loughborough fans in a fairly partisan crowd, which she liked all the more.

I went to the next Loughborough game, a home game against Lancashire Thunder. It was professionally managed and the entertainment was spot on. Loughborough looked well out of the running, until Thea Brookes and Paige Scholfield took the game down to the last over, made all the more nerve racking sitting feet away from Brookes family.

This was what part of this competition was about, giving those players just under the international places the chance to prove that they could mix it with the best. They were not the only ones but then again they weren’t playing for Loughborough.

In a lot of ways, much of the support and willingness to access the Kia Super League was not under assessed at the outset. It is dangerous to use the Big Bash as an example of how to do things (just ask some of the county sides), but they had televised the event and got good figures. The future of the tournament needs to be on free to air television. I don’t think it will detract the numbers going to games.

Clare Connor said that she was really pleased with the number of boys that were going to games because it was important to the future that they saw women playing cricket as ‘normal’. This, as I have stated, has been something that I have grown up with. There are times when your motive for watching women’s cricket is questioned, but never by anyone at the games I have been to and if anything my support has been welcomed.

I want my niece to see that she can achieve anything she puts her mind too. That might not be in the world of cricket, but I hope to give her a number of examples of women who have done just that.

Last year I finally went to my second Sussex Women’s game. I had meant to be playing cricket all day that day, we lost so heavily that when I got home I had enough time to get a bus up the road where Sussex were playing Nottinghamshire at their base of Welbeck Cricket Club. Sussex won, I came away thinking that I can’t leave it so long before the next time I see them again. Maybe one day I will watch my niece play for them. But then again it’s her choice.

Shakeup at Sussex expects results

At the end of the 2015 season Sussex were relegated in deflating style at the hands of Yorkshire, coupled with a surge of form from Hampshire. It was a different mood from the start of the season where they were some people’s outside tip to win the LV= County Championship.

Disappointing exits in both the Royal London One Day Cup, and blasted out of the NatWest T20 Blast by an extraordinary innings by David Willey meant that the south coast club came away with nothing.

There is change in the air at Hove this year, with the retirement of Michael Yardy, Luke Wright replacing Ed Joyce as captain in all formats and Mark Robinson leaving as coach to take on the challenge of the England Women’s side. Mark Davies steps up from the second team to coach the first team, while Keith Greenfield will become Sussex’s first director of cricket.

With the tragic death of Matthew Hobden at the start of the year left the club in a state of shock. Hobden was such a promising young player who could have thrived in Division Two of the Specsavers County Championship.

The restructuring of the County Championship from 2017 means that there is only one promotion spot available. Sussex will be expected to challenge for that one spot but the likes of Worcestershire will be close challengers.
There is a feeling that a number of the younger players will get a chance to challenge for first-team places, with an emphasis to improve form in the limited- overs arena. There is no reason that this cannot be achieved.

With Steve Magoffin now qualified as an English player Sussex have been able to recruit an extra overseas player and in Ross Taylor signed up for the first half of the summer it looks like they will have added strength in the batting department which has seen the loss of the experienced Yardy.

The fact that Murray Goodwin is back as batting coach will see a focus on scoring not only a large amount of runs but runs when they matter. With the likes of Ed Joyce, Chris Nash and Luke Wright they have players of doing just that. Last year was a breakthrough season for Ben Brown who was even mentioned as a possible candidate to take the gloves for England.

The signing of Danny Briggs will strengthen the spin department that has never fully replaced Mushtaq Ahmed. It feels a little unlucky on Will Beer. Beer is a match winner in white-ball cricket but has not really been given the opportunity in the championship.

On the bowling front much will rely on the fitness of a number of bowlers, Tymal Mills will be limited to the short forms of the game as the pressures of four-day cricket is not good for his back. Ajmal Shahzad showed in the small amount of cricket he was able to play that he is a real asset. Much will depend on James Anyon regaining fitness as he is a good strike bowler who takes wickets at regular intervals, if not a little expensively.

One real find last season was Ollie Robinson, who was really on his final chance in county cricket, over perceived attitude problems. He scored a hundred batting at nine and took a bucket full of wickets. There may be hopes that George Garton the England under-19 player will be the next player to make their impact at Hove this summer.
In terms of bowlers in T20 there is the signing of Mustafizur Rahman the Bangladeshi pace bowler who has impressed in a much improved Bangladesh team.

So while there are a number of intriguing questions to be asked about just how well Sussex will consolidate and improve, much will be expected of them in the championship even though it will be more difficult with the restructuring on the county championship for 2017.

County Cricket is back!

It wasn’t long ago that the traditional curtain raiser to the county cricket season was staged in front of a sparse crowd at Lord’s as the MCC take on last year’s county champions. Things have moved on. Abu Dhabi now hosts the game and last season a pink ball was used.

There is a special breed of person that looks forward to another season of county cricket. Some may not venture into any of the countries county grounds, some may follow it in the daily paper and others on the internet, but their passion isn’t any the less because of it.

Last year I started this website with the intention of covering as much of the county season as possible. This died a death rather quickly as new ventures came to the fore. I want to revive it. But with a different intent. I will update when possible maybe not as in-depth and missing games that you would figure have more prominence. Some of it will be from games I have been to, watched on television or read about.

One thing you get will be my opinion. I don’t support a county with a test venue for a ground but I wouldn’t have it any other way. You may get fed up with my opposition to Franchise T20 in this country, but that is the way I see things.

So, for now, what am I looking forward to this season?

1.       The new Specsavers County Championship – A new sponsor means it will take a while to get used to. But the same intrigue will be there. Can Yorkshire make it three from three? Who will go down? And who will come up? With only one team being promoted ahead of a shift in the structure of the county season from 2017, it will be a hard fought season with a Worcestershire and Sussex heading the queue.

2.       England – The rebuilding of a young side continues, and it is an exciting prospect. With Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the two touring sides will offer some interesting battles, which England would expect to do well in. There are still places up for grabs at the top of the order which will keep things interesting.

3.       England Women – A new coach in Mark Robinson and a new intent about an already talented line-up will be looking for more consistency that saw them lose last year’s ashes series.

4.       Women’s Super League – After the success of the WBBL over the winter, it will be interesting to see how a first franchise style league plays out in this country. It will also hopefully help grow the international talent pool outside of the centrally contracted players.

5.       Ireland – I have followed the Irish side for a while now and am a big advocate of more opportunities for the associate nations.

6.       Sussex – I am a big Sussex fan, so I will always have something to say about how they are getting on. I will be at Northampton to see them kick-off their county championship season of April 10^th. It is a time of rebuilding. Much is still expected of the side captained by Luke Wright.