Posts under topic: ‘County Cricket’

Michael Vaughan’s recent comments on the state of the County game have stirred up the debate. Here are some ideas for an organised protest movement.

Piyush Chawla will be Surrey’s overseas player for 2010, as they continue to try and hoover up the better county performers from last season.

With Hoggy being released by Yorkshire, there will be a queue of counties all jostling each other to sign him up for 2010. Leicestershire have declared their interest, and now Kent have followed suit. In truth, there are probably 14 others who would love to have an experienced former England seamer on their books, especially one who is only 32.

Rob Key has signed a new contract and will continue as Kent captain, despite rumours that he was to up for Surrey’s cricketer relocation project. This is good news.

Sussex coach Mark Robinson knows a few things about getting the best out of players. Sussex won the Twenty20 Cup and the Pro40 this season, and were runners-up in the FP Trophy. So when he publicly states that his team are having to play so much cricket during the summer that they can’t train properly, you would think that the ECB would pay attention. They won’t.

Matthew Hoggard has been released by Yorkshire without so much as an “ay-oop lad”. It would seem that Hoggy is among the first victims of the ECB’s new age-related incentive payments, as Yorkshire naturally resent having to actually pay his salary themselves. So much for 15 years of loyal service.

The ECB are considering whether county cricket needs a transfer system. The move of Steven Davies from Worcestershire to Surrey recently, and of Stuart Broad from Leicestershire to Nottinghamshire in 2007 highlights the problems for smaller counties who develop talented young players from an early age. This is one area where cricket could learn a valuable lesson from football.

You may, or may not, have noticed the identity of the Young Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year for 2009. For scoring 898 runs in 11 innings with 4 centuries and an average of 179.60, the award was given to James Taylor.

This summer, Taylor has been appearing in the middle order for Leicestershire who, despite their reputation for an unending sequence of Kolpaks, have a number of good young players. And he has been doing rather well.

It’s hard to keep Dominic Cork down for long. And today he did for Sussex in the final of the FP Trophy with 4/41, including the first 3 wickets in his opening spell.

Contrary to popular opinion, GCW does not have the ear of the bigwigs at the ECB. Or at least, we didn’t think that was the case. Now we are starting to wonder.