Division 1 FC Discussion Thread

[chaminda_00]

ACT – Predicated finish 6th

The boys from the capital of Australia, a side with of a lot of history and pride in WCC. They have always been one of the better preforming sides in WCC. A club that has been managed by some of the highest profiled managers in the game in Brendon Goff and Simon Fitzsimmons. They head into this season as one of only two clubs who will be playing in the top leagues in both forms, the other club being the super power that is Tamil Nadu. The question that many observers of WCC want to know is whether the young rookie manager Matt Luff can balance the task of managing a side in the top flight in both comps.

Let’s have a look at their side, the centre piece being club captain and arguably the Number One batsmen in WCC, Singh Yashpal. One of the few batsmen who last season could combat the bowler friendly pitches that were around. He showed the league last season, in his rookie season, that he could be one of the greats of all time in WCC. But will he be able to guide ACT batting again and will be have enough support around him?

De Villiers, Howarth, Bray, Ul Haq and Cardew have they got it in them to support Yashpal and get ACT another Top 3 finish and maybe even challenge for the championship. This ACT top 6 is probably the 3rd strongest top six in Division One behind the talented line ups for WP Cobras and Tamil Nadu.

They have experience in Howarth, Ul Hay and Cardew who all have 50 plus FC games behind them. Both Yashpal and De Villers have 40 games experience and are by no means an inexperienced line up. But to be success in the top flight you need depth all the way down. In Williams, Phadke and Bray are three batsmen that opposition attacks may target. Overall they should have enough runs to combat the top bowling attack in D1, but there are batsmen outside Yashpal that other team may target. ACT really need atalest three to four of these batsmen to average 40 plus to be successful.

The real question mark over the ACT side is their bowling attack and whether they have enough wickets in them. Last season Ben Marshall led their attack with great success. During his rookie season Marshall has showed the league he was one of the top bowlers in WCC. His expected once again to lead from the front and be their main wicket taker.

Will he have enough support in Goff, Marlowe, Bent and Shelley this season. All four bowlers are know more for their ability to keep it tight at one end, not for the strike power. Will these four bowlers have enough wickets in them to support Marshall and bowl out fellow D1 batting line ups? Unfortunately for ACT fans this might be the weak link in their side that derails their hopes for a top 3 finish. To be successful in D1 you need at least three genuine strike bowlers to be able to regular bowl the top batting line ups in D1 cheaply. This is something ACT doesn’t seem to have.

This season for ACT will be one of lots of ups and downs. There will be some massive performances from the bat and in particular Singh Yashpal. There will be matches where Marshall and co to ripe through some batting line ups. But there will be a couple too many matches where the top bowlers in D1 find ways to knock over the ACT batting line up cheaply and ACT won’t be able to find the strike power in the bowlering department to return fire. Expect them to win a fair few high scoring matches. But struggle when their batsmen get dismissed cheaply. ACT should around mid table this season, but most likely lower mid table and in a bit of regulation battle.

Key player: B Marshall

 

[chaminda_00]

Kent – Predicted finish 2nd

Kent is another side in WCC that has a rich history and have always been a side near top of the tree. Over the last couple seasons they have had some managerial troubles since long term manager Rich Tyman left the club. Since then the club has had five managers in two seasons. In current manager Nick Hancock the Kent faithful are hopeful they have found a man to replace Tyman long term. A lot of their faith in this manager comes from the fact that he guided Kent back into Division One FC, after winning automatic promotion last season. Most Kent fans believe they are back where they belong and hoping they can stay there long term.

Over the last couple seasons one major weak links of the Kent side was their batting line up. A once powerful batting line up, seemed to turn into an average batting line up overnight, as other sides took the standard required for FC batting line up higher.

This season’s batting line up for Kent still lacks genuine top end class batsmen that some other batting line ups in D1 have. But what they lack in class they make up for in depth. With the option of play four all rounders in Hiini, Weir, Ryder and Snow they can bat as low as 9 without affecting the strength of their bowling attack. They also have great depth of the bench with likes of Maher and Hopcutt expected to start in seconds. This depth in batting is only matched by two sides in D1, South Australia and Tamil Nadu, who are also stacked with all rounders.

Even though Kent does have great depth in batting their key success this season with the bat may be the performances of their top end batsmen in Muzumdar and Hiini. In particular Hiini, who is the type of batsmen if he gets going this season, he could take Kent from being a top 3 side to being a title contender. The other major positive of their batting line up is their experience, with only Hiini, McLeran and Hopcott having played under 50 First Class matches.

Regardless of how good any teams batting line up is the thing that will win D1 is the quality of a team’s bowling attack. Such is the nature WCC, bowler not only win you matches, but also win you championships. In Snow and Hawkins, Kent have two of the most feared spinners in WCC. They struggled to combine last season, but from all reports from Kent HQ, they found the mix to perform better together.

On paper this spin attack in par with a possible Muralitharan and Warne combination. You have the out and out strike power in Snow and then you have the more controlled spinner in Hawkins with great strike power homself. But like a few other top line spinners, they have fallen away in the last couple seasons. Do still they still have enough in them to win a championship for Kent?

The key to success of these two spinners may however be the performance of the seamers to take early wickets. Jesuraj and Weir are expected to take the new ball this season. At one end you have an experience seamer in Jesuraj with only seven First Class matches to his name expected to regular knock over some of the best batsmen in WCC. At the other end you have a batting all rounder being asked to perform a front line seamers' role. Both have the potential to care out these tasks, but will they be able to do it often enough to get Kent a championship.

Kent are expected this season to say in a lot of matches due to depth in their batting. But it will be up their bowlers from there to win matches. Hawkins and Snow looked primed for a big season, after a below par season from them last year. Bowlers of this quality don’t have two poor seasons in a row.

The real question however is whether Jesuraj and Weir, are they ready to take the task of leading an attack from the front. Probably not, but they should be able to do enough to get Kent a top three spot. They will most likey fall short of challenging Tamil Nadu for the title due to inexperience of these two openers at this role. They do however have the likes of Kumble and Fayyaz off the bench. The use of these two could be critical. Also Ryder and Hiini will be required to take a fair few wickets this season. They should have enough to push for a top three finish, but will require a top season from Jesuraj to support Hawkins and Snow to push for a championship.

Key Player: R Jesuraj

 

[chaminda_00]

Lancashire – Predicted finish 7th

Lancashire is another club with a massive history in WCC and one that has always been near the top of WCC. In the last couple seasons they have probably been able to give Tamil Nadu the biggest challenge for the championship, finishing a gallant 3rd two seasons in a row. But like many clubs in WCC have struggled to maintain consistent leadership, as they go into this season with their 3rd manager in three seasons. Under new manager Thamba Mamesh will they be able to keep up their lofty status in D1 and once again push for a top three position and maybe even win that elusive first class championship.

Going into this season Lancashire probably have the second weakest batting line up out of the top flight sides, with only fellow English county Leicestershire weaker. But this is nothing new around Old Trafford. Lancashire over the last couple years have always had a weak batting line up, but have found ways to get the most out of limited resources. A tribute to the managerial abilities of their last two managers Graham and Dave, but is Thamba good enough repeat similar feats with this current batting line up.

Even though this batting line up is weak compared to other batting line ups in D1, in terms of talent it is probably stronger then past batting line ups for Lancashire. But what this batting line up lacks to past Lancashire sides is experienced batsmen to make up for lack of talent. In Christian, Compton, Arshad they have three very inexperienced batsmen that will be required to score a lot of runs to keep Lancashire competitive.

They do have good experience in Kale, Yapp and Midlane, but most sides in D1 have four to five of these experienced batsmen. The key for their batting may be keeper batsmen Badrinath, who looks to be the most talent batsmen in their squad. They will need big season from him to stay up.

Bowling wise things are a little bit rosier for Lancashire with Andy Freeman leading their attack. Like Ben Marshall, Lancashire has a fast bowler who is rated by many as one of the top fast bowlers in WCC after only his rookie season.

On paper they do have the depth to support Freeman with a choice of Gangodwila, Mongia, Gordon, Weerakon, Guinness and Nawab to support. All six bowlers are more then capable of being successful in D1. But the question is are any of them good enough to dominate D1 along with Freeman. What it takes to be successful in D1 is having three genuine strike bowlers to push for a top 3 finish.

There is a chance that two of those bowlers maybe good enough to preform those roles. But there is also as much chance all six will fail to delivery to the high standard required. Finding the right combination early to support Freeman may be critical in Lancashire ability to not only push for a top 3 positions, but to survive in D1.

What can the Lancashire fans expect from this season then? Either a season of lot of positives if they get everything right and find ways to get runs out of a below par batting line up and find the two to three bowlers required to sufficient support Freeman. If they do this Lancashire could really push not only for a top three spot but also maybe for the championship.

But if they can’t find the right formula, its going to be a long hard season where they will be fighting to stay up from ball one. The first four rounds of the season for Lancashire could be critical as it could make or break their season. It may decide if they are contenders, challengers or just here to make up the numbers. Expect them to win a lot of low scoring matches but struggle in high scoring encounters.

Key Player: S Badrinath

 

[cometer]

Interesting read so far.

 

[chooka_nick]

Kent – Predicted finish 2nd

Kent is another side in WCC that has a rich history and have always been a side near top of the tree. Over the last couple seasons they have had some managerial troubles since long term manager Rich Tyman left the club. Since then the club has had five managers in two seasons. In current manager Nick Hancock the Kent faithful are hopeful they have found a man to replace Tyman long term. A lot of their faith in this manager comes from the fact that he guided Kent back into Division One FC, after winning automatic promotion last season. Most Kent fans believe they are back where they belong and hoping they can stay there long term.

Over the last couple seasons one major weak links of the Kent side was their batting line up. A once powerful batting line up, seemed to turn into an average batting line up overnight, as other sides took the standard required for FC batting line up higher.

This season’s batting line up for Kent still lacks genuine top end class batsmen that some other batting line ups in D1 have. But what they lack in class they make up for in depth. With the option of play four all rounders in Hiini, Weir, Ryder and Snow they can bat as low as 9 without affecting the strength of their bowling attack. They also have great depth of the bench with likes of Maher and Hopcutt expected to start in seconds. This depth in batting is only matched by two sides in D1, South Australia and Tamil Nadu, who are also stacked with all rounders.

Even though Kent does have great depth in batting their key success this season with the bat may be the performances of their top end batsmen in Muzumdar and Hiini. In particular Hiini, who is the type of batsmen if he gets going this season, he could take Kent from being a top 3 side to being a title contender. The other major positive of their batting line up is their experience, with only Hiini, McLeran and Hopcott having played under 50 First Class matches.

Regardless of how good any teams batting line up is the thing that will win D1 is the quality of a team’s bowling attack. Such is the nature WCC, bowler not only win you matches, but also win you championships. In Snow and Hawkins, Kent have two of the most feared spinners in WCC. They struggled to combine last season, but from all reports from Kent HQ, they found the mix to perform better together.

On paper this spin attack in par with a possible Muralitharan and Warne combination. You have the out and out strike power in Snow and then you have the more controlled spinner in Hawkins with great strike power homself. But like a few other top line spinners, they have fallen away in the last couple seasons. Do still they still have enough in them to win a championship for Kent?

The key to success of these two spinners may however be the performance of the seamers to take early wickets. Jesuraj and Weir are expected to take the new ball this season. At one end you have an experience seamer in Jesuraj with only seven First Class matches to his name expected to regular knock over some of the best batsmen in WCC. At the other end you have a batting all rounder being asked to perform a front line seamers' role. Both have the potential to care out these tasks, but will they be able to do it often enough to get Kent a championship.

Kent are expected this season to say in a lot of matches due to depth in their batting. But it will be up their bowlers from there to win matches. Hawkins and Snow looked primed for a big season, after a below par season from them last year. Bowlers of this quality don’t have two poor seasons in a row.

The real question however is whether Jesuraj and Weir, are they ready to take the task of leading an attack from the front. Probably not, but they should be able to do enough to get Kent a top three spot. They will most likey fall short of challenging Tamil Nadu for the title due to inexperience of these two openers at this role. They do however have the likes of Kumble and Fayyaz off the bench. The use of these two could be critical. Also Ryder and Hiini will be required to take a fair few wickets this season. They should have enough to push for a top three finish, but will require a top season from Jesuraj to support Hawkins and Snow to push for a championship.

Key Player: R Jesuraj

Very impressed with this review - not because my predicted finish is 'second', but because that is a very realistic outline of my Kent squad in general. Keep up the great work!

 

[cbuts]

Doesn't seeem to be a great deal of interest in previews. Do you guys want me to do D1 previews or leave it?

Im interested

 

[cbuts]

Sorry bout the non-submittal, got caught up with other things. wont happen again though!
I'M sure Kent are happy though......

 

[Cloete]

Good stuff Tharmi.

Am very pleased with TN's win in the first game too

 

[chooka_nick]

Sorry bout the non-submittal, got caught up with other things. wont happen again though!
I'M sure Kent are happy though......

Kent County Cricket Club Board decline to comment