***Official*** English Domestic Season 2008

[gettingbetter]

I know, I know, but isn't he an overseas of a Kolpak player?

Also, it appears that Lancashire are the only team with a decent bowling attack. Nottinghampshire come close but with Sidebottom and Broad on England duty, there stocks seem short too/

 

[Richard]

A combined Essex and Middlesex team:

Goodleman
E.Smith
Shah
Bopara
Joyce
Pettini
Foster
Tudor
Udal
Murtagh
Palladino

Not a bad line up, obviously the batting is rewarded more with a pooling of the talent. The bowling still isn't that great, but that just shows what would happen(s) on a weekly basis. Also note that there are no overseas players and I'm quite sure, no Kolpaks.

Ed Smith isn't an opener and would play in the middle-order ahead of Pettini for my money. And obviously, the opening pairing would in reality be England's opening partnership of Strauss and Cook.

What's the point of your post, BTW? Any team will be stronger if you amalgamate - the same would be true of England and Australia, for instance. The question is are things weak enough without to make it an essential move? I think emphatically not.

 

[Richard]

I know, I know, but isn't he an overseas of a Kolpak player?

Also, it appears that Lancashire are the only team with a decent bowling attack. Nottinghampshire come close but with Sidebottom and Broad on England duty, there stocks seem short too/

Lancashire could put out one-and-three-quarters decent bowling-attacks: Cork, Chapple, Flintoff, Anderson; or Smith, Hogg, Marshall. Then the lesser lights of Newby, Mahmood, Croft, Mullaney and Cheetham.

Same was true of Yorkshire a few years ago: if it wasn't Gough, Silverwood, Hamilton, White it was Hoggard, Hutchison, Sidebottom, Fisher.

Surrey at one point could've fielded Bicknell, Tudor, Ben Hollioake, Saqlain Mushtaq and Salisbury, even if there wasn't that much depth. Nonetheless, consider this: in the batting they had Mark Butcher, Ian Ward, Scott Newman, Nadeem Shahid, Alec Stewart, Graham Thorpe, Mark Ramprakash, Alastair Brown Adam Hollioake, Rikki Clarke and Jonathan Batty. And Ben Hollioake too had he not been tragically taken from them before the previous season. Incredible to have batsmen of the calibre of Newman, Shahid, Brown, Clarke and Batty as second-choices. Then the lower-order wasn't exactly weak either with Tudor, Bicknell, Salisbury and Saqlain all being more than capable with the willow - batting down to eleven

Concentration of riches in one county is nothing especially new.

 

[gettingbetter]

Ed Smith isn't an opener and would play in the middle-order ahead of Pettini for my money. And obviously, the opening pairing would in reality be England's opening partnership of Strauss and Cook.

What's the point of your post, BTW? Any team will be stronger if you amalgamate - the same would be true of England and Australia, for instance. The question is are things weak enough without to make it an essential move? I think emphatically not.

The point is that you say that too many teams in CC isn't the problem. With this combined team, it highlights that there is enough talent in England without international players, Kolpaks and (regular) England players, hence sans Cook and Strauss.

 

[Richard]

But there's enough with 18 teams at the current time too, and always has been.

 

[gettingbetter]

Concentration of riches in one county is nothing especially new.

Not at all, but when your riches are in one county at one time, it doesn't really mean anything to those who are lacking players as are most of the counties now.

 

[Richard]

They are?

 

[gettingbetter]

But there's enough with 18 teams at the current time too, and always has been.

Are you saying this with non-England players in mind too?

Lancs: easily the best
Notts: good bowling attack, bit old though and not too many England contenders
Sussex: once again old and dominated by overseas players
Kent: McLaren and Arafat hold them together, solid, but not special
Somerset: old/Kolpaks
Yorkshire: some potential, but no finished articles
Surrey: old/internationals
Essex: rather poor
Leicestershire: no comment
Glamorgan: above, bar Harris
Norths: Kolpaks

There is no need to go through them all, but there is only so much that international players and Kolpaks can do to improve the game in England.

 

[Richard]

Old is not a problem, provided the old is good.

 

[gettingbetter]

This can go two ways:

a) clogging up space for the youngsters to come through e.g. Ramps, Butcher and co, won't be picked for England

b) they are mentors etc etc

Probably best to advise you not to disucss this at much depth as this could possibly venture into financial matters amongst other things.

 

[Richard]

Purely and simply, you want the best players. However old or young they are. And nor is anyone too old to play for England - indeed, had the England batting not been so relatively strong in the last couple of years, Butcher may well have got back in.

A far superior batsman to Collingwood for mine.

 

[Prince EWS]

This can go two ways:

a) clogging up space for the youngsters to come through e.g. Ramps, Butcher and co, won't be picked for England

b) they are mentors etc etc

Probably best to advise you not to disucss this at much depth as this could possibly venture into financial matters amongst other things.

Even if they are absolute ****s who teach their own team-mates nothing, they provide a good standard of opposition for bowlers (or batsmen, if they are bowlers themselves) in other teams.

 

[gettingbetter]

Even if they are absolute ****s who teach their own team-mates nothing, they provide a good standard of opposition for bowlers (or batsmen, if they are bowlers themselves) in other teams.

Sounds like the IPL.

 

[Prince EWS]

Sounds like the IPL.

I think we were talking about cricket, actually.

 

[Richard]

Durham vs Scotland is essentially Scotland vs South Africa\Australia\West Indies. Durham's team consists of:
di Venuto (Tasmanian)
Mustard (Durham)
Smith (Bedfordshire)
McKenzie (Gauteng)
Benkenstein (Harare)
Harmison (Northumberland)
Park (Natal)
Breese (Jamaica)
Thorp (Western Australian)
Claydon (NSW)
Harmison (Northumberland)

 

[Pup Clarke]

Still harbouring some hope that we could win this, Blain can bat and if he can strike to McCallum anything's possible

Speaking of Blain, wouldn't be surprised if counties came in for him (like Nel for Worcester last season) if there bowling attack is injury hit.

 

[Richard]

Still harbouring some hope that we could win this, Blain can bat and if he can strike to McCallum anything's possible

Haha, 90 off 10 overs is near-impossible with 7 or 8 wickets standing, never mind with 4.

Speaking of Blain, wouldn't be surprised if counties came in for him (like Nel for Worcester last season) if there bowling attack is injury hit.

*their bowling attack
Yeah, Blain has been unusually impressive this year.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Yeah, stranger things have happened in Scottish cricket.


Like Nel bowling Flintoff and Yousuf.

 

[stumpski]

Forcing traditional rivals to amalgamate (a combined Yorkshire - Lancashire team, anyone? or Surrey - Middlesex?) will only alienate supporters of both counties. It's naive to assume that a bunch of 'new' supporters will appear from nowhere. I'm not against regional cricket per se, but for me it would have to be in addition to the Championship, not instead of. A bit like in India where the Zonal tournament (the Duleep, IIRC) was played in the last few weeks of the season.

As an aside, how do Surrey manage to play Nicholson and Murtaza in the same side? Does one of them have a UK passport or something?

 

[PhoenixFire]

Like Nel bowling Flintoff and Yousuf.

I think my Grandma could get Flintoff out at the moment, and she's dead.