CrawlingFox

Aye bit harsh to criticise a fan for supporting their team too much. Ben Mike for England is hardly an outrageous comment. Everyone knows he'd have been leading the Ashes attack in if he golfed and drank more.

Turned down a Warks contract to sign with us so hopefully a good sign he has potential. I like the signing, said a few weeks ago that signings of the ilk of Patel and Scriven - young, hungry and wanting an opportunity should provide the spine of the side supplemented by experience as opposed to the dad's army approach. Good scouting and talent id is vital do hopefully we've spotted something here.

They have ways of getting you out. Batters would face a stern interrogation and going over from their attack.

Thomas has to take the brunt of the blame. Just look at the t20 campaign: Even allowing for injuries selection is musical chairs. Nobody could predict our XI from one game to another. The batting order is musical chairs. Players up, down and everywhere. We don't seem to have anyone with the bottle to open and then to do well. Budinger, Patel, Ahmed, Eskinazi, Mike, Green and possibly others have had a go. 8 players bowled last night and nobody knows who are best attack is. de Swardt is another signing where he bats a bit and bowls a bit but offers no certainty to this side. Should have aimed for a gun batter or bowler to at least fill one role in a side that looks all at sea right now. It's not his fault and to be fair maybe a case of who is available and we should just be grateful they got anyone in. Performances haven't helped but there is no consistency or stability. No structure to the team. It's become cyclical where we're shite so he has to tinker and rinse and repeat.

Get what you're saying but they're both 28. Mulder has played twice as many first class games and many more t20s but he has 15 first class tons, 3 of them at test level. de Swardt has 3 first class tons. Mulder has 12 t20 50s, de Swardt has none. Mulder 235 wickets at 26. de Swardt 86 at 30. I hope de Swardt does well and I think he's a solid addition given his all round skill set across formats. But my expectations aren't particularly high.

Ben Green*, Rehan Ahmed, Ben Cox+, Josh Davey, Ruan de Swardt, Stephen Eskinazi, Joey Evison, Alex Green, Sheridon Gumbs, Josh Hull, Rishi Patel, Liam Trevaskis, Ashton Turner, Sam Wood. For Sam Wood to be in ahead of either would be odd so guessing they must be injured... Eskinazi Patel Gumbs Ahmed Turner Cox de Swardt B.Green Trevaskis A.Green Davey Hull, Evison and Wood to miss out would be my team. Pick everyone who can bat and still plenty of bowling options. de Swardt looks a solid all format player and I'm sure he's no mug but not expecting him to win games for us to be honest, seems a similar player to Mulder but a much more modest record. Welcome addition all the same.

If we're losing Patel and Cox next season it's a real worry. Scriven as discussed doesn't look right either and we'll not always have Rehan available. Hull has gone backwards at a rate of knots though fortunately A.Green shows serious potential. We've a chunk of aging players in Hill, Davey, Holland, Eskinazi and Tattersall and beyond Patel who it seems is going a ropey top order so who do we build the side around? For me in red ball the two Greens and Scriven if fully fit is the bones of an attack and if Davey and Holland are still going there is canny experience to supplement it. T20 may benefit from the same group with Trevaskis and Ahmed adding spin. Batting though is a worry.

Nico must have signed 2 or 3 duds for every gem he found... Griffiths, Welch, Barnes, Davis, Sakande, Walker, Dearden, Lilley, Rhodes, Steel, Finan...

I'd like to see us try and pick up a couple more players in the Patel and Scriven mould rather than relying on half the side being aging and fading players. Experience has its place but can't have half the XI 33+ Young and hungry players with talent discarded by other bigger counties whom we can squeeze that bit extra out of via coaching and support. Patel was a promising but inconsistent batter at Essex and we've moulded him into a very solid opener who has stepped up to d1. Scriven was a batting all rounder who was doing well in the seconds but couldn't break into the first team, he's now for my money (when fit) one of our our best and most reliable bowlers and a more than able lower order bat.

Averaged 40 in the t20 from 8 games with 1 50 (albeit at a s/r of just 120 which highlights how often he was rebuilding). Averaged 54.5 in the County Champ from two games with 1 ton and 1 50. Good signing, good player. Only 4 50s in the t20 - 2 from Turner and 1 apiece from Kelly and Cox. Catastrophically bad.

We seem to be really struggling to turn the momentum around in this format. Confidence seems low and we need to regroup. Bowling has been poor and batting too fragile. A.Green bowled very well today, Ahmed is proven in this format and Trevaskis has been good until today. That's 12 overs. Mike bowled very, very well today. But is usually awful. So you might get 4 more decent overs or might regret them. I'd be mindful to give Turner the other 4 unless Davey or Holland are available. B.Green is a good red ball bowler and whilst he bizarrely made his name in t20 taking a lot of wickets it's usually because he gets carted everywhere and just picks up catches along the way. Basically like having 2 Ben Mikes in the attack.

Great knock from Hill. We were talking about homegrown batters yesterday, when he was primarily a keeper Hill was a very average batter averaging low to mid 20s. Age wise he must have been late 20s or even nigh on 30 when he took on the role of specialist batter and despite often being moved up and down the order and his share of injuries he's been very reliable ever since and that was his 10th first class ton today. He deserves huge credit, and some decision to move away from the gloves by him and the coaches at the time. 2026: 284 runs @ 35 (1 ton, 1 50) 2025: 915 @ 46 (2, 6) 2024: 431 @ 20 (0, 2) 2023: 880 @ 40 (2, 5) 2022: 503 @ 39 (1, 4) 2021: 944 @ 45 (3, 5) Didn't even play red ball in 2020 and came back post covid as a specialist bat and bar the lull in 24 been superb.

Think Evans had 3 tons in the season he broke into the team. Unfortunately with Azad established he was never going to get a proper go as they were both too slow let alone both together. When he got a few more chances didn't look up to it though.

I think there is something there for the coaches to get their teeth into. Might help add some bite to our batting but needs to stay off the wine.

Sam Evans looked he could have become a decent opener, but he was just too slow. Swindells wasn't bad but after starting young he never seemed to push on. I think both might have scraped along for us if we were less ambitious but neither really good enough for prolonged county careers.

Interesting, from that list I'd say Patel is the most important to keep as a pretty reliable opening bat which is hard to find. Trevaskis also offers a lot I think and could be ever more important the more Ahmed is unavailable. Holland and Cox are good players who I'd keep but we need to be succession planning as they're getting on. Hill has been a great servant but again is old and doesn't feel irreplaceable... Wood, Mike and Hull I feel a bit unbothered about to be honest. Mike used to be a promising player but seemingly hasn't progressed beyond that and is now well in to his 20s. Too often his main contribution is to get a hiding with the ball and neither his batting or bowling ever pushed on enough to be a strength. Wood is 22 soon and again can't tell if he's a batting or bowling all rounder. Feels like maybe neither suit strong enough and a bit like players like Walker in the past feels a bit like he's never going to challenge for a first XI place. Hull for all his potential...can't help but feel he's been mostly rubbish in terms of actual returns, his record is pretty poor. Not sure if it's coaching or confidence or if he just needs time. Would renew and not write off yet as he is young but hope we see him find some form. Be interested to see what others think.

Good to see two academy lads in A.Green and Ahmed leading the way with that bowling performance. The two old stagers in Davey and Holland were solid and even though they're all different styles of bowlers a lot our young players are hopefully learning about the mental and tactical side.

He couldn't do much worse so be worth chucking the ball. Scrivo has a good t20 bowling record, hopefully back bowling soon.

Economy rates so far (overs in brackets) then wickets: Trevaskis - 6.89 (19) 6 @ 21.8 Turner - 7.3 (13) 5 @ 19 Holland - 7.33 (12) 5 @ 17.6 Davey - 9.4 (12) 6 @ 18.8 B.Green - 10.99 (17.5) 7 @ 28 Mike - 11.9 (11) 3 @ 46.7 Hull - 13.7 (7) 1 @ 96 A.Green - 15 (2) 1 @ 30 Spinners superb, Holland good, Davey ok just, everyone else woeful.

Slogman up top, that's the way. Half the time he'll go early but the other half he'll make sure we've gone well in the powerplay. I'd pair him up with Budinger if he's fit and look for a big powerplay. Edit: Just read above no Budinger so have to hope Patel us on it.

They can bang him on a short term deal easily enough.

Given how poor our batting has been surely Gumbs can't be far away from a go soon.

I'm not saying it's falling apart now but without the Hundred windfall enabling some investment it's not hard to imagine that with the losses the club had been making that we'd have been looking at only the bare minimum investment in the ground going forward and that it would start to both creak badly and older parts would start requiring even more money just to keep open. In that scenario you'd end up with a falling apart ground in 20 years. Hark at Old Trafford, bigger scale and it's still viable but obvious that huge under investment in keeping it up to date over the last 20 years means it's got a leaking roof and is riddled with all sorts of issues that have rendered it a long way off the modern stadia of Man Utd's rivals. Utd at some point will likely wangle the building of that new Circus tent. If GR gets into a state then we might not be so lucky. As a result I don't think they'll be looking to use money just to pay off debts, they'll be looking to invest in areas that will generate increased income and the use that income towards paying down debts. Depending on how favourable the repayment and interest rates on those debts are this is more sensible. Everything in these plans and investment and redevelopment is geared towards sustainability so that the club avoid the creeping losses and growing debt that had threatened to drag them down in the future. Equally pretty sure the ECB have told the counties they'll get this windfall but may not be able to rely on the current contributions the ECB make forever. So going back to your question of whether I believe it, it's this or nothing so I prefer to be positive.

The Hundred money means it's a unique opportunity to invest in our facilities so don't see why not. In 20 years we've either used that money well and have a modernised Grace Road with investments providing income streams and the club still existing or we haven't used it well, Grace Road is falling apart and the club might barely exist or already have packed it in. I don't think we'll have a completely modern, shiny world leading venue by any stretch but that money does mean we've got a chance of something still decent and much improved. The club seem switched on to the value in wider community and sport in the city outside just cricket and the importance of generating new income streams so I like the plans. These aren't just wild ideas, we know the money is there (or at least £24m to get started is), as much as I dislike the Hundred the money is a lifeline for the club.

Sounds good to me and sensible use of the Hundred windfall. The phased approach is logical and I'm sure the £60m is a bit of a rough but impressively high number that will be spread over a long, long time but suggests continued plans for investment. Phase 1 sounds like an excellent start, investment in retail and residential space around the edges will provide vital income going forward whilst improving the training and academy facilities should help player development.