CrawlingFox

Good position to be in at this point. Piles the pressure on them to score as well and whilst they have the runs in that batting lineup, I don't think they can score them at the same pace.

Clearly has bucket loads of ability but so far for us has failed to make match winning contributions in either four day or more worryingly given his playing style t20 cricket. Hopefully this season he turns that around.

I noticed Ahmed batting at 3 during some franchise stuff in the Winter. He's moved around all over the order for us but wonder if he's targeting a top order role now he's a bit older and worked on/knows his game a bit more.

A knock for Wright is a blow but in theory Hull who was apparently near a return is exactly what we need in the attack so we do have someone to come in. Left armer, rapid, homegrown, already capped by England... He's generally been pretty poor for us in four day cricket so far. 16 wickets in 10 games at 63. But he's going to come good eventually and if it was to be this season we could be in serious business. This is the first innings I think where Budinger played normally and even though he didn't go on it looked promising I thought, especially if Patel will miss a few week (admittedly another blow). Guessing Kimber will come in and any of Hill, Holland or Kimber could open, based on previous selections they'll draw straws.

Mike's a capable bat when he's in the mood. Think if he'd converted that 99* where he got stranded a few seasons ago then he might have pushed on on that regard. Would have given him great confidence.

It's sobering to see. They're probably at or around the same level of shiteness as us, maybe slightly worse in fact but at least seem to have it together off the pitch and haven't haemorrhaged money at the same time as being awful. Sounds like they've been able to steadily invest in improvements to their ground as well and won't need to spend any of the Hundred money on clearing debts instead being able to invest for growth. It's worrying as we'll lose out on a chunk of that money through having to clear debt and given what we've been losing each year we have a lot of ground to make up before any investments cancel out the losses. Should be some hard questions for Jarvis on how they can break even consistently and we lose big 6 figure sums each season.

Scriven is an odd player. He bats well enough at times that he looks like he could be an option in the middle order. He bowls well enough (season before last especially) that he looks a frontline bowler. At other times he looks very much bits and pieces. No doubt this is why he's with us but if he can put it all together and find consistency - do a Patel so to speak - then we've a serious player.

Last season's pace bowlers in the CC, wickets and avg: Currie 29 at 31 Mike 26 at 35 Holland 14 at 36 Green 11 at 39 Salisbury 10 at 44 Scriven 15 at 58 Wright 2 at 80 Wood 2 at 92 Hull 2 at 182 We could be in trouble if several don't step up massively.

Hadn't considered Kimber as an option for captaincy. Hope it suits him well. As a batter he's capable of box office hitting with a strike rate above 150 but he's very inconsistent. 4 50s and a high score of 59* and an average below 20 is poor for someone whose shown enough glimpses of being a proper big hitter with power to spare. I really hope he can find the consistency this year to offer more match winning knocks.

Masood could be a useful signing. He brings experience, captaincy and he's potentially a heavy run scorer. I think van Beek is an ok signing. He's a reasonably ok bowler who can hold a bat as a bonus. Our red ball bowling was absolutely woeful last season with the exception of Currie so a gun pace bowler would have been nice but budgets probably mean van Beek is our best bet. An attack of van Beek, Wright and Holland is dads army stuff with Salisbury not fsr behind so hopefully Mike steps up, Scrivo finds his form from the tail end of 2023 and Wood, Hull and Green get and take opportunities.

Rehan Ahmed is playing in the UAE t20 league. Came in at 3 in his first game and hit 46 off of 27 balls. Perhaps he'll develop into the big hitting fulcrum the top order needs.

Budinger and Evans are basically opposite ends of the scale. One has the temperament but scores at snail pace and the other has all the aggression and scoring shots you could want but only plays one way which normally doesn't result in many runs. Need to merge them into one player.

Agree with this. No doubt the best we can do with our budget is find players with the raw materials and hope that our coaches can help them smooth off the rough edges or adapt their mentalities. Hill and Patel are examples of where this mostly seems to have worked with the former previously evolving from an ok keeper into the fulcrum of our batting and the latter turning from Essex cast off into a very good all format opening bat. That being said both finished the season absolutely awfully (Hill never really got started) and all can look to Handscomb for an example of where they need to aim. Bowling was pretty atrocious all round and needs sorted. Need to make sure Hull and Green maximise their potential as can picture the calls for Hull to move on if he continues to shine for England but toil for us in red ball.

Be careful what you wish for. If the ECB gets its way we'll be playing the minor counties regularly when they decide the likes of us and Derbyshire or Northants are standing in the way of their test ground based franchise cricket dreams.

What level will he be playing at? Fair play to him.

The pitches are either absolutely roads or they're very lively indeed.

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.