Warwickshire's season gets under way today against Yorkshire. I've updated the "latest match scorecard" link at the top of the blog for your viewing pleasure.
Yorkshire have left Brophy out of their squad for the game, which is: Sayers, Lyth, Rudolph, McGrath, Gale (c), Bairstow (wk), Rashid, Bresnan, Shahzad, Wainwright, Hannon-Dalby, Patterson, Pyrah.
Expect probably the first 9 names to be certainties and then the last 2 spots from the last 4 names, although Wainwright is unlikely to play alongside Rashid in early April. Having said that Warwickshire may start with both Botha and Imran Tahir, so you never know.
Update:
Ricky Clarke has a stomach muscle injury and is therefore left out, as is Botha. Side is: Westwood, Chopra, Bell, Trott, Troughton, Ambrose, Woakes, Carter, N.Tahir, I.Tahir, Miller
Friday, 9 April 2010
Season set to start
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Squad to face Yorkshire
Warwickshire have announced their squad for Friday's County Championship opener against Yorkshire at Edgbaston. The made the announcement at the annual "press day" at Edgbaston. My invitation was mysteriously lost, must be the Royal Mail.
Squad is:
Ian Westwood (Captain)
Varun Chopra
Ian Bell
Jonathan Trott
Jim Troughton
Tim Ambrose (wk)
Rikki Clarke
Chris Woakes
Neil Carter
Ant Botha
Naqaash Tahir
Imran Tahir
Andrew Miller
I'd probably leave out Miller and one from Carter/Botha.
Meanwhile Yorkshire are not hopeful of securing a work permit for Tino Best. At the moment he is still in the Caribbean according to the Bradford Argus, so it seems unlikely to be sorted in time. The squad will be announced tomorrow morning, but the Argus reckons on the first 9 names on the sheet being "Joe Sayers, Jacques Rudolph, Anthony McGrath, Gale, Jonny Bairstow, Gerard Brophy, Adil Rashid, Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad all set to play" and the remaining 2 spots in the team between "Oliver Hannon-Dalby, James Lee, Steve Patterson, Rich Pyrah, Ben Sanderson and possibly Best vying for two spots – and there would be no place for England Lions left-arm spinner David Wainwright".
"Gale said: “I can’t see us playing two spinners this early in the season. It’s April 9 and we are expecting it to be more suited to the seamers rather than spinners.” "
So a smattering of some very good individuals, but on paper not a formidable looking team. I could be talking about either team there, I'll leave it up to you.
Season Previews - updated 09/04
The season preview season has well and truly begun with pundits lining up to cast their eye over the counties and make some predictions as to their performance this season.
The Telegraph obviously aren't being paid by the word - basically; Warwickshire have recruited Tahir. They drew a lot last season.
Cricket365 have got in on the act today and have a far more comprehensive preview of how Warwickshire might do and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
I'm sure more will follow, The Guardian, The Times and Cricinfo at least usually get in on the act. I'll add them to this post as and when they appear.
08/04
Cricinfo have an 11 players to watch article, naming Chris Woakes as pushing for England selection as one of the more exciting young pace bowlers around with Steve Finn.
Cricinfo have also added a season preview to the site, the reckon on a solid but unspectacular campaign, possible better in One Day cricket than FC.
The Times have their Division 2 preview today (Thursday), probably with Division 1 to following tomorrow.
09/04
The Times weighs in with a shambolically formatted preview on their website.
The Guardian published their club-by-club season preview yesterday, but it wasn't in yesterday's print edition, which may explain where national paper's priorities lie with regards to domestic cricket! For all that it is probably the most thorough of the previews. They have Warwickshire finishing 8th in the championship, but maybe doing a bit better in One Day format.
Hard to argue with that at the moment. Tahir comes with a good reputation, but it really feels like the season where we had Dale Steyn as overseas - if he fires then he can paper over some of the cracks in the team and get some results but once the England season starts and Bell and Trott leave I can see Warwickshire struggling badly, if Woakes gets called up then it could turn very ugly.
Monday, 5 April 2010
More comment on Championship Changes
Vic Marks writing in this Saturday's Observer also picks up on the self-inflicted problems of the ECB's flagship first-class competition and it's uncertain future. Following on (although not necessarily linked!) to earlier pieces by Brian Halford and The Raggy Bear.
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Brown on England shortlist
Dougie Brown, along with former bear great Allan Donald has been shortlisted for the job of England bowling coach. Could be bad news for the bears if he goes as the position of assistant coach would be empty right at the start of the season. With Brown's short tenure in the job so far for Warwickshire the jury has to remain out on whether it will be a good thing or not for England if they appoint him! For Warwickshire's pack of young seamers consistency has to be desirable, they were only under Donald for 2 years, then he was replaced by Brown and then Welch a matter of months ago, for another new coach to be bought into the squad after he's worked with them all winter would only add confusion.
Although the situation for England is possibly even more unsettled, I make it at least 4 bowling coaches in 5 years (Troy Cooley, Kevin Shine, Donald and Ottis Gibson) including several spells (such as this winter) without a bowling coach at all. For this reason I would expect them to be looking toward the Ashes in the winter and beyond and try and pick someone who will last the distance. Brown's inexperience and his application coming only months after being appointed to a new position at Warwickshire may count against him. Donald's own confusion over where he wants to work, which was surely the reason he didn't get the bears' job, will likely mean he has some convincing to do.
Craig McDermott is being touted as the favourite, but perversely his ambition may possibly count against him. England have already lost one ambitious young bowling coach to a higher position (Gibson) and this is where Donald, who has not expressed any ambition to coach higher than as a national bowling coach may prove to be an attractive candidate.
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Brian Halford Article
A good article on the future of the County Championship by Brian Halford on his Blog. Well worth a look, with a handy breakdown of the scant opportunities afforded the CC fan to actually watch any weekend cricket by yours truly in the comments section.
A fuller breakdown of my "working out" follows:
If you break the calender for fixtures down into groups of matches starting within a day of each other, you get 21 distinct blocks of fixtures. Americans would no doubt call these "game days". Of these the first three blocks (2, 4 and 4 matches respectively) fall on weekends in Mid-April. Two more, blocks 9 & 10 (3 fixtures each) fall on weekends at the start of June. And finally block 14 is the last weekend in July (3 fixtures). Apart from 4 lone fixtures that are shunted a day later to finish on a Saturday, none of the final 7 blocks of fixtures, (the final 3rd of the season) fall on a weekend.
Allowing for no weather interruptions the breakdown by county is as follows:
Days of Home Championship Cricket falling on a Saturday or Sunday. (NB: 8 home fixtures = 32 days of cricket, maximum home days possible = 16)
Essex - 5
Warwickshire - 7
Durham - 3
Notts - 5
Yorkshire - 4
Somerset - 2
Kent - 6
Hampshire - 4
Lancashire - 2
It's a bad year to be a Somerset or Lancashire fan with a job.
Friendly Cancelled
Unfortunately due to the poor weather of the past few days the friendly against Leicestershire has been cancelled. Apparently the ground at Grace Road is unfit to host cricket and is waterlogged.
A bit of a shame for Warwickshire as their bowlers have not had any time bowling in the middle in the UK so far, and I believe there are no more matches scheduled before their opening championship match on the 9th.
The breif tour to South Africa pre-season is starting to look like a good decision, as at least it has given the players some experience of match cricket before the season start, albeit not top competitive cricket.
Chopra is already with the squad (and was probably due to start in the friendly). Imran Tahir is joining the squad on Monday (flying in on Sunday), and is likely to go straight into the side, but it leaves an interesting selection decision as Botha will probably then be surplus to requirements. Two spinners in the side on a (wet) early April pitch would seem an embarrassment of riches.
No news as yet as to whether Bell and Trott will be released by England to play in any matches. I would expect so as neither made the ICC World Twenty20 squad yesterday, so their next England committments will be the Bangladesh series in mid-May.