**Official** County Cricket 2017

[Howe_zat]

It's getting a bit silly to have the 2016 thread still here when we're talking about new stuff

Anyway MCC include Haseeb Hameed & Ben Duckett for county season opener against Middlesex - BBC Sport

MCC XI:

Haseeb Hameed (Lancashire)

Tom Alsop (Hampshire)

Sam Northeast (capt, Kent)

Ben Duckett (Northants)

Joe Clarke (Worcestershire)

Ben Cox (Worcestershire)

Lewis Gregory (Somerset)

Matt Coles (Kent)

Matt Fisher (Yorkshire)

Mason Crane (Hampshire)

Jack Leach (Somerset)

 

[Howe_zat]

Anyone else feel like the MCC side is turning into an unofficial Lions side?

 

[91Jmay]

Yep, hard to justfiy some of those inclusions other than wanting young players playing more FC cricket.

 

[theegyptian]

Good on Ben Cox getting some recognition. He wasn't really upto it when he was pushed into the Worcestershire team as a 17/18 year old and didn't seem to have the talent. Could easily have dropped out the game like so many do but credit to himself and Worcestershire for persevering and improving someone - and he has improved massively because he really was poor. Unlikely to ever play for England but he seems to be rated as one of the best keepers in county cricket right now by people within the game.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Anyone else feel like the MCC side is turning into an unofficial Lions side?

Realistically isn't that what it should be these days?

May as well get a chance to look at certain young players against the previous years champions. Gives them a taste of some higher level cricket and shows them how far they have to go if they want to make it to the top.

 

[Tom Flint]

Anyway what could lancs top 7 look like if everyone was availible for selection, would buttler take the gloves and vilas play as a batsman. Will shiv bat in the top 4 as opposed to his middle order WI spot? Who's replasing alviro peterson?

 

[superkingdave]

Anyway what could lancs top 7 look like if everyone was availible for selection, would buttler take the gloves and vilas play as a batsman. Will shiv bat in the top 4 as opposed to his middle order WI spot? Who's replasing alviro peterson?

Chanderpaul is effectively the Petersen replacement. I'd imagine Vilas will play as a batsman when Buttler is available but he might have to bat higher up the order. Buttler and Hameed aren't likely to have much overlap in their availability anyway. We don't have many other opening options than Hameed & young Rob Jones (who played about 2 games there) now that Smith has retired. Hope they don't do something ridiculous like ask Livingstone to open.


Hameed
Rob Jones
Procter
Chanderpaul
Croft
Livingstone
Vilas
Mclaren
Kerrigan/Lilley
Jarvis
Anderson

Should see something like that to open the season though they might try to squeeze an extra bowler in their without Smith. Not sure what the prognosis is on Alex Davies ongoing injury problems but the signing of Vilas doesn't bode well.

 

[Furball]

Mods to merge with the 'South Africa asks for its players to stay' thread.

 

[theegyptian]

Kent beat a T+T team including Gabriel, Rampaul and Ramdin fairly easily today. Good result for them.

England u19s under way tomorrow against India. Going to get trashed imo. Hopefully be competitive in the odis at least. Seem to have had an inordinate amount of injuries this winter, not that they would have had much chance anyway.

 

[Stace]

Anyone know anything more about Delray Rawlins other than what I read on cricinfo? Sounds like the next KP, started as a spinner who has now turned into a big hitting middle order batsman. 19 years of age and comes from Bermuda and putting in some great all round performances for ENG U-19's against India.

Does anyone here support Sussex? Does this lad have a chance of getting a few games this season?

 

[Tom Flint]

Who's the favorites for the title then? Got to be mddsx as all thats changed from last year is voges in for bailey which is a massive upgrade esp as he has retired from intl cricket.
Cant see us losing anyone to england in any format either as finn wont get picked, roland jones too far down the pecking order and hameed and jennings favoured over gubbins. Malan would have to score massively to get a look in for englands middle order too.
All looking good, tho i still think rayner punched above his weight last year but if he can chip in again our attack is more than good enough.

 

[theegyptian]

Who's the favorites for the title then? Got to be mddsx as all thats changed from last year is voges in for bailey which is a massive upgrade esp as he has retired from intl cricket.
Cant see us losing anyone to england in any format either as finn wont get picked, roland jones too far down the pecking order and hameed and jennings favoured over gubbins. Malan would have to score massively to get a look in for englands middle order too.
All looking good, tho i still think rayner punched above his weight last year but if he can chip in again our attack is more than good enough.

Yep hard to look past Yorkshire and Middlesex as favourites. Middlesex seam depth is an obvious strength and should be stronger than last year with Finn around. Helm has barely played (through injury and non selection) and yet is with the England lions this winter (along with Fuller and TRJ). Very stong first 14 or 15 men in the squad. Yorkshire remain strong also, even if some of the first xi bowling is ageing - got some really good young bowlers coming through. England players will flit in and out but they always seem to do well for Yorkshire unlike for instance Broad at Notts. Root should be available at start of season as he's not going to the IPL and Bairstow has a high auction price so may not get picked up.

Wouldn't surprise me if Somerset won the title (with a heavy emphasis on spin as per last year) or were relegated. Don't particularly fancy any of the rest.

Be interesting to see what Hampshire do with their batting though with Carberry coming back and the signings they've made.

 

[Bijed]

Be interesting to see what Hampshire do with their batting though with Carberry coming back and the signings they've made.

Hadn't realised he was coming back (had just assumed he wasn't tbh), really great to hear otherwise

 

[Tom Flint]

Good news regarding carbs, hopefully he has a really good season personally but the rest of his team mates fail miserably and get relegated.
Interested to see how surrey go too, they seem to have concentrated on bringing their youth set up through the last few years and i think this is the season theu should start to see some results. If sam curran develops a bit of extra pace being a year older and stronger and if roy can realise his potential and actually bat well with a red ball then they could be a threat.
Expecting yorks to be just as good as every other year lol and to be middlesex' biggest challenger

 

[Scaly piscine]

Yea I'm not sure anything I can say about Hampshire and specifically that piece of **** Bransgrove that would be allowed on here. But I will be supporting every team that plays them as much as I support Durham and England.

 

[theegyptian]

Bell-Drummond flopping in the West Indian 50 over. Hasn't done great in lions overseas cricket. Playing in div 2 I really think if you want to be playing international cricket you need to be standing out when you have the opportunity to play in other comps. DBD seems a fair way short of the standard required to play international cricket at present. They normally do 2 or 3 years in the lions then England leave them to their own devices to see if they can improve further (if they haven't reached international level).

Interesting from a Sussex perspective that Rippon and Zaidi have gone off to had success in white ball competitions across the world when they couldn't make a sussex white ball team that has struggled in recent times. Zaidi for instance couldn't make the Sussex team and yet was player of the tournament in the Bangladesh premier league and did really well for Essex last year in T20. Rippon barely played for Sussex but got picked up by Otago this winter and has done well. Doesn't look great from a sussex perspective.

On the topic of sussex they have a nice bowling fast bowling group now for 4 day (2nd division) and white ball cricket. Philander(overseas), Magoffin, Jordan, Shahzad, Mills, Archer, Wiese, Garton, Whittingham, Robinson

Only really Notts can come anywhere close to that kind of depth in div 2. They should be competing on all fronts with that kind of bowling lineup. It covers all aspects really.... Pace, white ball skills, batting, youth, experience.

Laurie Evans and Van Zyl are nice pickups for the batting but no Joyce. Should be a big threat in white ball cricket with that squad.

 

[Tom Flint]

Will broad be playing I the championship up until July then? Assuming he doesn't get called into the one day side that is

 

[S.Kennedy]

Will broad be playing I the championship up until July then? Assuming he doesn't get called into the one day side that is

Presumably. I read somewhere that Anderson would be playing around eight fixtures for Lancs, and that Cook was looking forward to some (almost a rarity for him) division one runs, so presumably the same applies to Broad.

Should be a better than usual season in terms of the internationals playing for their counties because of the delay of the test stuff starting.

 

[S.Kennedy]

More proof (if ever there was needed?) that the ECB want to destroy county cricket,

ECB report puts pressure on county academies | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[vic_orthdox]

If you are trying to produce the best facilities, doing it at the county level is always going to be difficult without providing advantages to some counties. How much does the ECB contribute towards county facilities?