Old Boys honoured & Westwood Vice Captain

Five members of the all-conquering 1990's Warwickshire side have been awarded honorary life membership of the club.

Ashley Giles, Dougie Brown, Asif Din, Keith Piper & Dominic Ostler have all been given the prestigious award, which is a nice way for the club to show their appreciation.

The practicalities though seem a little odd; Giles is director of cricket, Brown is head of the academy, Piper is the 2nd XI coach & Din is on the cricket committee. It would seem slightly churlish to charge any of them to attend a match, or bar them from the Tom Dollery suite. Perhaps Ostler had some trouble getting into a game with a gate-man last season, prompting his award of life membership, whereupon the other 4 had to be brought up to same level to avoid any unpleasantness. - another spurious conspiracy theory bought to you by The Raggy Bear.

In other news Ian Westwood has been awarded the vice captaincy for next season, at face value it seems a surprising choice, given his relative youth and lack of prowess in the one-day game. However I think it illustrates the dynamics in the current squad, and how transitional it is. Based on availability and experience (and discounting new signings) the only real candidates would seem to be: Anyon, Powell, Trott, Troughton & Westwood, and of those probably only the last three are serious candidates.

In itself it looks like a brave and forwarding thinking move, however it will only take a few injuries before Warwickshire are putting out a virtual youth side in some matches, something I'll look at my pre-season review over the next few weeks.