That was the 2008 season

For a third year running i didn't manage to get to the ground as often as i would have liked but its due to circumstances not any lack of desire. What i did see didn't overly impress me to be honest, for a lot of the season the Bears seemed to be playing with a lack of sunshine. Occaisionally there were glimpses such as on some of the televised one day games i saw but in the championship it was a grind for a long time but we have to expect a new regime to take some time to get things going as they would like. I think Giles' team is going in the right location and if we can get the openers sorted out we could be a real threat to Durham's title next season.

Some things did baffle me, i personally would have preferred to see Luke Parker persisted with for another season. I'm not 100% sure with Nav Poonia yet though i did see him play a blinding innings in a SET game last year so the potential is there. I wonder at the seemingly desperate attempts by the club to sign every player out there (though a lot of it could have been rumour and paper talk) however the signing of Ricki Clarke will be a good one i feel.

My player of the season was Ian Salisbury, its great to have a wicket taking leg spinner in the side. Its just a pity he is even older than me. Hero though has to be Tony Frost, the sort of gritty county player we need more of. Not flashy but dependable. Jon Trott had a brilliant season with the bat and lets hope that can continue.

For 2009 i'd like the club to improve it's image both with us members, the general public and the cricket community. A few times this year the club came across as smug, mean spirited or evasive. Lets be sunshine cricket both on and off the pitch.

Giles : Warks a work in progress in one-day cricket

Warwickshire are a "Warwickshire remain a work-in-progress in one-day cricket" according to Ashley Giles, yeah we noticed! There has indeed been some progress, Trott opening has worked and i always thought it would after seeing him open in a friendly against Ireland a few years ago. I'm not sold on Carter pinch-hitting though he has had a few good scores this year. Personally i think he is too hit and miss for the role and if he fails it can derail our whole innings. Two spinners acting in unison has also been very good and i hope they continue with this (though i assume a replacement for Salisbury will be needed in a year or so).

We could do with a finisher coming in down the order to get us home or give us the end of innings final push at around #6 or 7, maybe Ian Westwood can continue to develop his batting skills and work into that role. We could do with a new captain, personally i think Maddy's captaincy is not that great, Westwood did really well in the T20 and i would like him to be made the captain full-time next season.

England captain?

Who should be the England cricket captain now that MP Vaughan has finally stepped down? Obviously the answer is myself but that's probably too left-field a selection. KP Nuts is the pick of many a pundit and it could likely be him but i'd rather the captaincy went to someone with a bit of experience in the job. I'd like to see Robert Key given the gig, though of course there is a problem with him not being a current test team player. However the last time he was in the side he did score a double century at Lord's in front of the Queen so he isn't that bad a player.

A problem with central contracts is that players often do not get to play for their counties anymore and hence do not get much captaincy experience. Of course some players can respond to the challenge, for Warwickshire i always thought Ian Westwood was a fringe player and maybe would never make it but he was made captain after injury to Darren Maddy and responded brilliantly, not only did the team start winning but his own batting form really responded well.

But then again there are cases like Iron Bottom and Flintoff who's performances have suffered when given the added burden of captaincy. Both were top class all-rounders though so perhaps the fact they never could relax was the problem. Anyway we'll find out later...

Update : well it was KP anyway. What a surprise!

A great day... so where was the cricket

Cricket is a strange sport in this country, Sunday was a glorious day with probably the best weather of the year so far, so you would expect such a Sunday in July would have lots of top-level cricket on show. Well there was South Africa versus Bangladesh A at New Road, Worcester and... that was it!

I know it was T20 Finals Day on Saturday and they had to have a reserve day for the 4 counties involved but what about the other 14 counties? Couldn't they have arranged some fixtures for a Sunday in July?

Musings on the changes to the domestic game

The new structure of county cricket was announced last week which includes a shiny new English Premier League T20 tournament in the middle of the Summer and the Pro40 replaced by a T20 league. Broadly i am happy with the changes though there will need to be some work to differentiate between the 2 T20 competitions. Care will also need to be taken that T20 overkill does not occur.

The county championship has been left unchanged which is the most important thing for me, talk of 3 randomly drawn conferences sounded like a death of a 1000 cuts for the first class competition. Talk of city franchises would also have been the thin end of the wedge. I don't feel the British like artificial club franchises, they like clubs with history behind them even if they don't know anything much about the history (take the largely negative reaction to MK Dons for example). I am a Warwickshire CCC supporter, and although i might watch the Birmingham Barbarians (or whatever it would be) i wouldn't have the sense of history and memories i get from the Bears.

Ah the memories, that cup final won with a 4 off the last ball, the county championship glory years, Lara's 501, heroes like Dermot, almost getting hit by a 6 hit by Carts, getting sunburnt in the Raglan stand...

To be honest i became a cricket fan because of watching the Bears, on BBC2 on Sunday afternoons. But now to England. Darren Pattinson's call-up got a lot of criticism but he didn't do too badly. I suspect he was picked to have a look at him with the Ashes in mind. That is a problem with England though, they obsess too much about the Ashes when they should be concentrating on the matter at hand. I think the media and pundits have been a bit unfair on the lad and hopefully he'll have another chance one day.