There are a couple of review out there at the moment previewing the second division of the county championship that are worth a look.
Cricinfo has the Bears as realistically looking at a mid-table finish, although could be higher if the bowlers fire.
The Telegraph has a comprehensive round up of the teams in the division, but does not go so far as to chance a prediction.
For a Warwickshire preview you could do a lot worse than George Dobell's squad review in the post, which is frankly so comprehensive it makes me wonder if it was some kind of pull-out...
My own attempt runs thus:
Wicket-keeping: Ambrose continues to go from strength to strength and should keep his place in the England squad for the early summer at least. Meaning he is unlikely to play for Warwickshire. Tony Frost has a lot of hard work ahead of him to maintain his fitness and was already batting with a runner in the 2 day match against Oxford UCCE. He remains a big concern over 4 days and I hope that one of the other batsmen is competent to take over the gloves at need. Richard Johnson is a fairly unknown quantity, but I think his lack of opportunities in the three pre-season matches indicates he is not exactly pushing Frost hard for a place at the moment. He is almost certain to get a first team chance at some point, although George Dobell doesn't rate his batting, with the lack of proper allrounders he could unbalance the side.
Batting: The batting line up looks fragile. Maddy, Westwood, Trott and Troughton pick themselves, but beyond them there is not much. Westwood continues to develop, Troughton to frustrate with inconsistency. Trott had a bad last season, but has the class to get back to his best. Maddy needs to continue to enjoy an Indian summer to his career (preferably not in India!). In order to be truly competitive this year either (or both) from Poonia and Parker need to step up and deliver. The arrival of Jayasuriya for the Twenty20 could prove a welcome boost.
Seam Bowling: Allan Donald is by far the best signing in the seam department and he won't bowl a ball in anger all summer. Zondeki, when available, looks a class act and should be among the wickets. Of the rest the front line are Tahir, Anyon, Carter, Groenewald, Rankin & Daggett. I am not sure whether it is a good sign of depth, or a symptom of a lack of proven bowlers that it is virtually impossible to pick the first choice 3 or 4 from them. There is a lot of promise and hopefully the competition will encourage some development, Carter apart, the other 5 could still develop into 50 wickets a season bowlers, or conversely wash up at Northants in 2009.
Spin bowling: Botha looks the automatic first choice and Salisbury seems a strange signing as a player; as a coach he might be a decent capture. Nick James really needs to improve or I doubt his contact will be renewed, like Loudon he possibly suffers for not knowing his role.
The Verdict: going into the season it is hard to pinpoint a part of the Bear's squad as a certain strength. That said they do have an awful lot of promising players in their early 20's, particularly bowlers and you have to think at least one or two should respond to Donald's coaching.
I predict a strong start in the Championship but unable to sustain a challenge for promotion. Finishing 3rd.
I think qualification from the group stages of the Twenty20 cup is on. Although I can't see the team being consistent enough in the One Day game to either get to the latter stages of the cup or to gain promotion in the league. I do think though that the cricket will be a sight more interesting and enjoyable than last season. I for one will be in the RV Ryder stand at about 5.10pm tomorrow with a pint and I might even take my sunglasses. Never let it be said I'm not an optimist.
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Season reviews - UPDATED
Friday, 14 September 2007
All change in cup competitions
There have been a couple of announcements towards the end of this week that will affect domestic cricket next season in England.
The first, and probably most minor, is the reorganisation of the two domestic cup competitions. The Friends Provident Trophy (The C&G to most!) will be operating with a different league structure from next season, with 4 groups of five teams, (the 18 counties with Ireland and Scotland) each playing each other home & away. These divisions will be regional in the same model as the Twenty20 cup in previous seasons. This will help eliminate the farcical dead games from this years competition, but whether it will instil greater excitement is not clear. I am personally disappointed that there is so little difference between this and the Pro40 and Twenty20. I would much prefer a proper cup format with the chance of upsets, by all means with a league section (like the UEFA cup, or Champions League in football), but most importantly with all the minor counties involved in qualifying rounds. The romance level would significantly raised by the possibility of ties like Northumberland v Middlesex at Lords, than any contrived league system.
The Twenty20 Cup meanwhile will be modified so that each of the groups (of 6 teams) play each other home and away, but apart from that remains unchanged.
Both these changes raise the possibility of playing the same sides throughout the season and risking spectator apathy. For instance it is perfectly possible that Warwickshire will now be playing Northants a minimum of 8 times over the season in various competitions, when there is not really any degree of local rivalry to speak of. I am also concerned that with every competition being a league there is a chance that many of these games could be "dead games", and that is where the possibility of match-fixing rears its head. The ECB will need to be very careful that with so many meaningless repeat matches, and the low rewards on offer, that we don't get our own domestic Cronje, or Azharuddin.
The other news, which might not have a direct impact on Warwickshire next season, is that India will host a "Twenty20 Champions League" with the top two teams from Australia, India, South Africa and England (i.e. the finalists). With prize money totally £2.5m, including £1m for the winners. Considering test-match and one-day revenue is reckoned at about £2m a match, and a ODI £500k (gross - from flicking through Wisden). This raises an interesting prospect of counties aiming for a different "golden egg" and tailoring their squads for Twenty20. Although good news for the importance of Twenty20 and good news in terms of more money for a few counties, it does mean the fun of Twenty20 might start to be stamped out of the game by the administrators. It being what they are best at.
I understand that Warwickshire might be putting in an application to represent South Africa at the Twenty20 club championship as a franchise, if they can secure a couple more Kolpaks.
- "two kolpaks short of a franchise". Is that a euphemism? It should be. It is now.