Breakthrough Player of the 2009 English County Season

[zaremba]

Any thoughts as to who will make their name this season?

As is my habit I'll start things rolling with a Sussex name or two:

1. Matt Machan - very highly thought of but may lack 1st team opportunities

2. Ben Brown - talented keeper/batsman but must wait in line behind Prior and Hodd

3. Rory Hamilton-Brown - likely to cement his place in the team this year. A talented batsman and useful offspinner

I've no idea about anyone from other counties but on the strength of some unreliable reports of his extreme pace I'll plump for

4. Stuart Meaker - Slurrey's young South-African-born quick

 

[Richard]

Daniel Redfern was one of those who struck me at the end of last season as doing well, briefly, at a young age. I hope he can continue that this year.

dav will surely mention Karl Brown, and obviously we've all been waiting and hoping with Tom Smith for a good couple of years now.

I wonder if Stuart Broad will ever make his county breakthrough too TBH.

 

[Goughy]

Meaker is interesting. Ive not seem much of him at all.

Id like to see Finn progress.

I have my fingers crossed that Mark Lawson can produce at Derby out of the shadow of Rashid.

Im interested to see if Jonathan Bairstow will get any FC opportunities.

I think we are all hoping to see if young Harris can carry on with his fine form with bat and ball and have a real breakout year.

 

[oitoitoi]

Meaker is interesting. Ive not seem much of him at all.

Id like to see Finn progress.

I have my fingers crossed that Mark Lawson can produce at Derby out of the shadow of Rashid.

Im interested to see if Jonathan Bairstow will get any FC opportunities.

I think we are all hoping to see if young Harris can carry on with his fine form with bat and ball and have a real breakout year.

If Sam Northeast get's some chances he struck me as a good young player. Finn has a lot going for him, but having to play at Lords isn't one of them. Needs to get his pace up TBH. It would be nice if Dawid Malan could really progress in the FC game.

 

[Richard]

Harris and Northeast are of course two of the most apparently prodigious youngsters going around - but still, despite having been around for seemingly ages, barely out of their teens. I'd not be surprised if it was at least another year for each.

 

[Pothas]

Will be looking at a number of players for Hampshire this year, Dawson is an obvious one but I think we could see some good stuff from Hamza Riazuddin, especially in the one day game. He seems to be very economical and can bat as well.

Then there is the players who might finally do something worth while, chief amoung these are Lumb and Ervine, both look really good when they are playing well but are more infuriating than Ian Bell. Am waiting for one of them to actually have a good season but it's probably not going to happen.

 

[SM*]

Jeetan Patel.

Excellent off-spinner, gets massive drift, and is a capeable tail ender.

Shrewd signing for Warwickshire

 

[cpr]

Daniel Redfern was one of those who struck me at the end of last season as doing well, briefly, at a young age. I hope he can continue that this year.

dav will surely mention Karl Brown, and obviously we've all been waiting and hoping with Tom Smith for a good couple of years now.

I wonder if Stuart Broad will ever make his county breakthrough too TBH.

First thing that came to my mind was Smith, see if he can add together all the parts and turn himself into a fine bowler. Interesting performance with the bat in the uni game n all, cant see him rising to be a proper all rounder though.


One i'd like to see finally make the breakthrough is a name thats been around for many a year now. Kyle Hogg. Injuries and the rise of Anderson/Mahmood have held him back, shown some promise pre season and got a feeling Lancs might be starting to trust him a bit more in the longer game. Having a bowler as captain may well help.

Wouldnt mind seeing one of the young SLA's come through, Keedy cant go on forever.......

 

[brockley]

Sam robson i think middlsex's batting weak heaps of opportunities,more likely to star in the one dayers tho.

 

[superkingdave]

First thing that came to my mind was Smith, see if he can add together all the parts and turn himself into a fine bowler. Interesting performance with the bat in the uni game n all, cant see him rising to be a proper all rounder though.


One i'd like to see finally make the breakthrough is a name thats been around for many a year now. Kyle Hogg. Injuries and the rise of Anderson/Mahmood have held him back, shown some promise pre season and got a feeling Lancs might be starting to trust him a bit more in the longer game. Having a bowler as captain may well help.

Wouldnt mind seeing one of the young SLA's come through, Keedy cant go on forever.......

Problem for Hogg is he'll be in his captains spot, unless he sets the world alight early he will be straight out the side once Chapple is back.

Am hoping for big things from Smith (again) and interested in how Cheetham goes in the OD game. We need a batsman (or three) to step up, but I can see who, Brown is still looking too young and it seems Lancs are still wary at giving him a chance to open (as demonstrated in the UCCE game). My biggest hope is that we play on result pitches at OT.

The trouble in the spinning department is we aren't going to get much opportunity to see if Parry or Kerrigan are any good unless Keedy is out for a period.

 

[superkingdave]

Outside of Lancs, apart from those already mentions, the players i'm looking out for are Joshua Cobb(Leicestershire) and Jaik Mickelborough(essex). Will also be interesting to see how Jonathan Clare backs up from last season.

 

[oitoitoi]

Jeetan Patel.

Excellent off-spinner, gets massive drift, and is a capeable tail ender.

Shrewd signing for Warwickshire

I don't think he really qualifies as a 'breakthrough' player, he's already pretty well known and is 30+.

Anyone heard of a bloke called Paul Muchall (Gordon's younger brother)? If he can break into the Durham squad I think he could score some runs. He completely dominated schools and club cricket in the region from a young age.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Im interested to see if Jonathan Bairstow will get any FC opportunities.

A couple of friends of mine saw Bairstow playing for Yorkshire U15s at our club a few years back. Apparently he was a cut above anything they'd both seen before. So yeah, always nice to see someone you've heard of from a very young age do well. Shame he's from Yorkshire though.

I'm hoping Northeast gets a few chances, would like to see Godleman have a big year as well. Liam Dawson was another who impressed me last year.

 

[King Pietersen]

Surrey have a good young bowling attack, that could shine this season. Jordan, Dernbach and Stuart Meaker are all pacey and wicket takers. Meaker's been timed at 95mph at the England National Academy and had a decent start to his FC career, outbowling Shoaib in a CC game. If Meaker does bowl at over 90 clicks you know he won't be given time to settle into FC cricket and work his game out, he'll be straight on that plane to South Africa.

Also, I know he's not exactly breakthrough, but I think this could be a big season for Dawid Malan. He's been consitently impressing for a little while now, and had a good pre-season tournament in Abu Dhabi, think he could really pile on the runs this year. I've certainly been impressed everytime I've seen him bat.

 

[Goughy]

Surrey have a good young bowling attack, that could shine this season. Jordan, Dernbach and Stuart Meaker are all pacey and wicket takers. Meaker's been timed at 95mph at the England National Academy and had a decent start to his FC career, outbowling Shoaib in a CC game. If Meaker does bowl at over 90 clicks you know he won't be given time to settle into FC cricket and work his game out, he'll be straight on that plane to South Africa.

Also, I know he's not exactly breakthrough, but I think this could be a big season for Dawid Malan. He's been consitently impressing for a little while now, and had a good pre-season tournament in Abu Dhabi, think he could really pile on the runs this year. I've certainly been impressed everytime I've seen him bat.

Jordan, Dernbach, Stuart Meaker and Malan.

All good local boys

 

[stumpski]

Meaker and Jordan both went to schools in Surrey or South London. They've been England qualified since they joined the county.

 

[craigyc43]

Will be looking at a number of players for Hampshire this year, Dawson is an obvious one but I think we could see some good stuff from Hamza Riazuddin, especially in the one day game. He seems to be very economical and can bat as well.

Then there is the players who might finally do something worth while, chief amoung these are Lumb and Ervine, both look really good when they are playing well but are more infuriating than Ian Bell. Am waiting for one of them to actually have a good season but it's probably not going to happen.

Yeh i like the look of Riazuddin, kinda reminds me of a Mark Ealham type player...

Bit harsh on Sean Ervine what about the season he took us to glory in the C&G final with hundreds in semi and Final!! What a glorious day out at Lords!!

 

[superkingdave]

Dernbach is complete turd

 

[TT Boy]

Dernbach is complete turd

Indeed and the only thing interesting about Meaker aside from bowling quick in the nets (once) is that his South African.

 

[Pothas]

Yeh i like the look of Riazuddin, kinda reminds me of a Mark Ealham type player...

Bit harsh on Sean Ervine what about the season he took us to glory in the C&G final with hundreds in semi and Final!! What a glorious day out at Lords!!

Yeah it was a great day and I shall always love him for it, but after seeing him score two brilliant hundreds in the semi-final and final he has been a pretty big dissapointmnent ever since, with the occasional exception like his 90 odd against Durham last year to give us our most important win all season.