CrawlingFox

Hopefully the tail can get us something more respectable. 40 would be good.

I appreciate he drops the odd clanger but I find Rae's voice quite relaxing and don't mind it. The other guy they have on the stream sometimes has dropped some worse clangers. Pretty sure he described someone as "black headed" once.

I'd probably agree with that. He's had one big innings which defies description but outside of that has been pretty poor. If there is room in the budget I'd probably keep him as a white ball player though, he's capable of box office batting and whilst he's had a fallow year he could win us 3 or 4 Blast games next season if he's on song. I doubt he's on big money and importantly doubt we can afford many others with that destructive potential.

Should get the last few games to make a stake. Open with him and Patel and Holland can bat further down given his bowling workload.

I think Ahmed could go any way currently. Could end up a top order bat who bowls a bit and is handy when it's turning. Could be a genuine all rounder. Could be a bowling all rounder whose useful when you need someone to come in and score quick runs. He's had such a weird career with hardly any second xi cricket and early England appearances that it's not clear what his strongest suite will end up being. Even for us he's been shuffled all over the order, when he scored that ton at 5 I thought that was where he'd stay and still think he could end up there in the longer format whilst still bowling a fair bit and also being a genuine all rounder in white ball cricket. Leggies always get extra hype and he's not a bad one but I think his batting could be stronger.

The counties should never have voted for the Hundred. I have quite a miserable outlook when it comes to this so apologies for this rant... The success of the likes of Somerset is built on selling out 8k seats every t20 game (and previously most One Day Cup) games at hefty ticket prices. Now the ECB have set up a rival competition that downgraded the latter competition into development status overnight and increasingly is positioned as the premier short form competition in terms of marketing and media attention marginalising the Blast. By the sound of it the IPL investors will herald a change to t20 format whilst keeping the name (which is mental in of itself) so Counties like us will find it ever more challenging to attract fans to our white ball games. If we wanted to try and emulate Somerset it's more difficult than ever now and they may end up struggling as well. The ECB have wanted rid of us for years and I think we've had it frankly, as have the other smaller counties. I think in a few years the Hundred franchises and test match venue big counties will bleed into one and will be playing top tier 4 day and t20 cricket and the likes of us will be playing some sort of forgotten second tier feeder level 3 day and t20 leagues along with the minor county sides. Not a secret that the ECB have wanted a consolidated top tier for a long time, expect they're annoyed that the Test team is doing well currently as it means they can't blame us for it's woes.

Scrivo is a ridiculously good bat to have at 10. When he signed I actually thought he was a batting all rounder. His bowling has been good and I still don't think he'd look out of place at 6 either. Some player.

Holland, Scriven, Green and Hull seems the likely attack with one or both of Ahmed and Trevaskis spin options. We should be batting deep given Hull is the only bowler who doesn't bat well enough to be considered an all rounder in the 13! Feel like Budinger is likely to play so hope he can finally carry the one day form over...alternative would be Patel and Hill opening which I'd not mind as means Kimber, Ahmed and Trevaskis all in the middle order.

These numbers are all speculation. Stirling was on his way back to playing domestically in Ireland. Probably paid him a fraction of £10k. Neesham may have cost something but again he was only here for a few matches so might have only been a few grand for a weeks work. Given we lost Mulder we may have only been re-investing the money saved by him leaving early as well. I'm also big Lewis Hill fan but he's not having a good season and his t20 record isn't great. The club had a punt chasing finals day and fair play to them. Would rather that than meekly accept failure. As I said before about Rahane if he scores lots of runs in the remaining CC games and we get promoted is it still a waste of money? Probably not. In my opinion the club is right to show ambition on the pitch and the playing budget isn't the issue. Where Jarvis has work to do is off the pitch.

Just to add Rahane is maybe more of a debate but isn't he here for the run in? If he scores a lot of runs and we're promoted suddenly it's money well spent.

I don't think it would make much difference in any of these examples. The difference in what we offered Wright or Patel vs what we'd have to pay replacements isn't touching even a fraction of 500k and neither are short term overseas signings which frankly don't cost that much. Handscomb was here for the season in anycase and imagine Neesham and Stirling signed relatively cheaply on a gamble of making the knock outs. I'd rather the club was ambitious and fell short than settled for achieving nothing. We might risk financial hardship with the former approach but guarantee it with the latter. A much bigger risk in my opinion would have been not signing these players, being crap again and losing whatever positive momentum we do have. Of course we might be doomed either way.

I don't necessarily mind us sticking with the squad who got us to the knockout stage. It does irritate me immensely though that we lost 4 players who played 2 games each. 4 key players, 2 of them really promising young prospects and they've played a couple hours cricket each during an entire summer month and none of it for their county. In a few years we'll be wondering why England are shite again and probably blaming us and Derbyshire for it.

I was wondering the same about Patel and Hull as well unless I've missed that they're injured.

Yeah Bashir and Crawley (after a rocky start) both seem to be making a good fist of Test cricket without having first excelled at County level, especially the former whose done really well straight away though Crawley has done really well to his credit since McCullum came in. Probably eventually be used as some sort of narrative of how County cricket fails to develop players but the mighty England staff can identify and develop them anyway. "Josh Hull marooned at little old backwards Leicestershire but an arm round the shoulder from Rob Key turns him into world beater". There is a lot to like about Hull to be fair but he's not done anything so far to suggest he isn't a white ball specialist. Needs overs in the format though so hopefully won't hurt.

They just pick players they like the look of these days. Must be a few top performers this season feeling a bit annoyed they've not got a look in.

Very disappointing. The engine room of the batting in terms of Hill, Handscomb and Rahane didn't offer enough.

The number of teams thing and the argument about quality is a smokescreen for the reality where the ECB just want city based franchises (ideally which they control or at least get a cut of the profit when flogging). The ECB hate that they don't control the counties directly and think that the riches of something akin to the football Premier League are only a restructure away. Absolutely deluded and they're killing the unique and fantastic product that County Cricket is and could be. The T20 Blast should have been backed instead of the ludicrous Hundred. Just allow Counties to recruit 4 overseas for it instead of 2 and supply the funding for that and a big marketing push.

I'm not so sure, he's always had a really good 50 over record and it was what we basically signed him on the strength of. He's shown very little ability to transfer that form into either the longer or shorter format. So far he's something of a flat track bully, able to make hay against the weakened attacks in the One Day Cup but comes undone when facing first choice attacks in the CC or Blast. Really hope he can take the confidence and push on in the run in once we're back to four day cricket as if not then it could mean we've seen both he and Evans whom he plays ahead of fail this season and we'll need to seriously think about a new partner for Patel next season. I hope Evans actually gets a shot in the CC as well, perhaps he and Patel open followed by Hill, Handscomb and Rahane with Kimber and Budinger coming in lower down where they could do some damage against an old ball and tired attack. Might mean we're limited to a 4 man attack + few overs of Kimber though.

That would be handy given the collapse last time round.

Jake Tarling who is (or was?) in our academy with a decent knock against Kent for Bedfordshire. 141 off 140 balls.

Kimber will be in the Hundred. Other available will be Swindells, Evans, Walker and Wood I think so probably sub in Swindells for Kimber. Not sure when Holland is back from the US.

They both average a 50 every 25 innings or so with Lilley having played a hundred games more. Budinger averages 13 at 134 and Lilley averaged 20 at 147. If Budinger is going to play 100 more he'll need to significantly improve though at least he seems to control his discipline.

Class player.

This is going well.

Ben Mike epitomises our side and no more so than with his bowling today. First over carted and then goes on to bowl miserly at the death. Pleased to see Neesham get a good knock in. Hopefully helps him feel part of the team and sets him up for big contributions in the last couple games. Hopefully Rishi gets back in the runs and then we're in business.