Poached bowlers and cocktail sausages

Proud Seaxes
By Jeremy Horne
October 31 2005

A familiar feeling echoed around Lord’s on the evening of this years winter forum as it was announced that our summer signing Peter Trego would be returning to play for his home county- Somerset. This report details the story along with all other talking points from an interesting evening.

With another packed house in the Banqueting suite, Ben Hutton opened up by describing the season as “eventful”, “productive” and “the most challenging”. In short, he mentioned that we could have won the Totesport league if our bowling attack was more aggressive and that we could have batted better in the championship, with the main problems stemming from not spending enough time at the crease and our low 1st innings totals, both of which increased the pressure on our bowlers. However it was agreed amongst the panel that both Mel Betts and Alan Richardson stuck to their task credibly. The support of our young spinners is also improving with Peploe and Dalrymple developing well, although Emburey expressed that Peploe “Still has a bit to do” and “gets too much overspin”. In addition to the spinner issue, one member inquired why we don’t have a potent spinner, to which Emburey replied that 90% of counties don’t! On the other side of our spin problems, Emburey responded to concerns of our ability to play spin by commenting that we can, but there are certain types of spin that our batsmen struggle against, with Mushtaq “spinner” Ahmed and Ashley “Wheelie Bin” Giles mentioned as examples. Most batsmen are looking up to Owais Shah and attempting to copy his technique, but the main problem is that they get too tied down and with the runs drying up, the shot selection becomes poor. Hopefully, some time in India may help to resolve some of these problems.

A more pressing batting problem concerns the form of the skipper himself, who admitted that it was a tough season with respect to his own form, something that may have been down to his high expectations of being able to carry the team through the innings. The bad form was also tricky to get away from at the start, although with good support from Emburey, Strauss and some of the more senior squad players, he allowed himself to relax slightly more. He does think that he will become a better player as a result of this season.

The evenings burning issue centered around the format of the domestic game, with yet more changes in next season’s schedule. The C & G trophy will become grouped, with teams split according to a North/South divide. The competition will be played in coloured kits, on a 50-over per side basis, with the matches taking place in the first half of the season.

The second half of the summer will be taken up by the new Totesport league, with the same divisional system as before, but with games lasting 40 overs instead of the current 45.

The third and final one day competition of the season will still be the Twenty20 trophy, which will not differ in format from this season. Middlesex will play two matches at Lords, one against Surrey and one against another side (although it will not be Essex because we are not at home to them in the competition next season). With regard to playing matches at Lords, the financial aspect provides a strong positive reason to do so, although with the MCC denying Middlesex the opportunity to advertise and recruit new members, there is some good reasoning to playing elsewhere.

In general, Middlesex do not view these changes as being good for the game. Hutton is concerned that the increase in games makes the schedule tough, with too much cricket being played. He added that he felt the changes were being made “just for the sake of change”; with the traditionalists trying to get back to the old format of Sunday afternoon cricket.

With the new system a hotly debated topic amongst cricket fans, there is nothing which causes more discussion than the two-divisional county system. This was a major point of discussion during the night, with each panel member expressing a different view. Hutton is in support of the current system, saying that there is a “great incentive to remain in the top flight and with the battle for survival going to the death this season, it made us sustain our performance right up until the last game of the summer. He also commented that the new 2-up, 2-down system (coming into effect next year) will make it more difficult for relegated teams to regain their top flight status instantly. His final remark on the situation was that he believed that most test match players would eventually get picked from the first division.

For those wanting the view from the other side of the spectrum, Vinny Codrington most certainly provided it. He thinks that the championship should be one divisional, in order to attract the traditionalists and members. On the other hand, one day cricket is about selling the game and this is better done via a two divisional system. The current format puts a lot of pressure on teams to sign top players in order to remain in the top flight come the end of the season. He later supported his views when the question of big money transfers (e.g. Pietersen and R**prakash) came up. He answered that such occurrences will become more regular, especially while we have a two divisional system!

John Emburey’s views on the format were mixed. He feels that the championship has improved since the two divisional system began, but this is only since we now have EU/Kolpak players and an increased number of overseas players. This is a problem that will not go away, with teams trying to sign the best quality players in order to stay up.

In a vote taken at the conclusion of this discussion, the floor was strongly in favour of the one divisional system.

With regard to overseas and Kolpak players, next season is going to be more difficult, with a new ruling that will not allow injured overseas stars to be replaced. This means that we will need to get the correct balance with our overseas players, leading to a couple of important decisions needing to be made:

1. Do we really want an overseas spinner all season through as the pitches may not turn that much in early season and we will also be limiting our pace bowling overseas slot to just one.

2. There is also the rumour of us signing Johann Louw, either as a true foreigner or on a dodgy passport. If we were to start with him as a Kolpak player and Styris (who is returning) as an overseas player, then this would mean that we could save our 2nd overseas slot for a while, thus giving us a contingency plan if Styris were to get injured. However, signing Louw is only a remote possibility, after the announcement that he has returned to South Africa for good- all depends on how strong the pound smells if the call comes his way!

Moving closer to home, Godelman, Morgan and Compton are all developing well and we also have our eyes on yet another Irish player (although we will have to battle with Sorry over that one)! Steven Finn is also a good prospect with the ball, after making his first class debut against Cambridge University this season. He also nearly made the squad for one of the Totesport league matches and has had time in the England under-17 squad. It is hoped that his ability to swing the ball and his bowling control will give him a bright future in first class cricket. With respect to signing new English players, Emburey stated that it is becoming more and more difficult to recruit players from other counties and we may have to look to our academy for new signings. With the news that Trego has gone, our bowling options do become slightly thinner although Mohammad Ali* may give us an extra option, with his extra pace and his ability to (legally) reverse swing the ball. Despite this, it took until the end of the season for John Emburey to eventually give into the persistent phone calls and hand Ali the chance to play in the 1st team!

Going a little deeper into the Trego issue, John Emburey received a call from Somerset, after they had spoken to Peter and asked him to return. The reasons for his decision are based on the fact that he found it difficult to settle down here, with his family (including 2 children) living in Weston-Super-Mare. He was described by Emburey as a “potential match winner”, a statement that we will hope does not come back to haunt us one day! One member amazingly asked if we would take Laraman back- a question so daft that it received the correct response- none!

Another interesting subject that came up was that of sports psychologists, with Middlesex’s psychologist being none other that the great John Emburey! The coach himself believes that when a player has a problem, it is something that must be dealt with as quickly as possible. In the past, Mike Brearley has been used, with Phil Tufnell having a little more than the odd quick session! Ben Hutton added that he may well have benefited from having such a person at certain times during the season.

The idea of employing a trained sports psychologist is however still one of interest and it is something we may look to do in the future. It is also not a new idea to county cricket, with several other counties employing such a position and our academy using sports psychologists for the younger players.

Turning to membership issues, Middlesex are trying to recruit more members, especially those of the younger generation and are currently partaking in an advertising scheme to attract young developers in the city. Currently, three or four new membership applications are arriving in the office each day, a figure that is highly impressive for this time of year. Many of these new applicants also happen to be children, with the Ashes victory likely to have been a factor in the larger demand for club membership. On a more long term basis, we plan to double the membership figures by the beginning of next season (although don’t tell the MCC this incase they get worried about the large influx of people attending Lords cricket ground regularly).

Questions were also asked on a more specific match-to-match basis, with the games against Sorry at the Oval and Sussex at Lords being singled out. Emburey answered that with respect to Sussex, it does hurt to lose in two days and you sometimes have to credit the opposition for the way that they play and in this case, Sussex totally outplayed us. At 199-6, we got our tactics totally wrong and paid the price heavily. Emburey added that what hurt him more was the defeat to Warwickshire two weeks earlier, in a game that we should have won from the position we got into. This time, the batsmen threw it away and it resulted in Emburey losing out on sleep for the following two weeks! Hutton’s view on the debacle was that everything went wrong when he hit a six into the tavern and the ball came back swinging afterwards!

Moving south of the river, the members enquired whether we took our foot of the gas a little after securing our top flight status early on day two at the Oval. In response, we were informed that the squad selection was based on a gamble that saw Richardson go into the match only 65% fit. During the game, Trego became bust in the brain (also known as his ribcage!) and Styris injured a hamstring. With all the wear and tear taken into consideration, Hutton and Joyce were left to bowl the pace, which, unless you are Mark R**prakash, is hardly the most threatening thing in the cricketing world! Credit to the former Middlesex man for his adult approach to Joyce’s bouncers is also due.

The forum concluded with Chris Lowe crediting the team and Emburey saying how much Owais Shah has matured as a player over the past year. He added that Shah would strengthen the England one day squad come the world cup, with the current selection putting Vikram Solanki ahead of Shah due to his superiority in the field. He finished by saying that Shah took it well on the outside- but not so well on the inside!

As a final point, I would like to reiterate the words of a wise Middlesex man- it may have been a tough year, but three of our players have made the England academy and together with Nottinghamshire, we are the only county to have remained in the top flight for both leagues this season. This must be seen as progress and something that can definitely be built on next year.

Have a good winter!

*It has been announced since the forum that Middlesex have infact signed the former Derbyshire fast bowler Mohammad Ali, to strengthen the pace bowling for next season. Hopefully he will aid the likes of Richardson and Styris and help Middlesex take 20 wickets in a match more often than we did this season. With his extra pace, he should be able to force most players to glove one behind (just had to get that one in)!