*Official* UK off-season 2009/10

[Richard]

I don't quite understand how they're not county standard if they're being offered contracts by counties to play cricket

Anyon - and the others - have been playing county cricket for a good few seasons now and have always been clearly below the required level. And I mean a long way below.

You don't have to be good enough to play at a level to get offered the chance to do so.

 

[marc71178]

There's a rumour that Sussex have signed James Anyon from Warwickshire. Anyone know anything about him? His first class record looks pretty ugly.

Very unlucky with injuries - was Warwickshire's top wicket taker a couple of seasons ago IIRC so obviously isn't a complete mug.

 

[zaremba]

The club has confirmed his signing. He's always done well against us and has been unlucky with injuries, so perhaps he could yet develop as a player.

Richard will doubtless be sorry to hear that JA's not going to be in the dole queue at Christmas but hey.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Anyon - and the others - have been playing county cricket for a good few seasons now and have always been clearly below the required level. And I mean a long way below.

You don't have to be good enough to play at a level to get offered the chance to do so.

I'm not really sure that that's the point Marcus was making though - the counties need squads of a certain size (however much you disagree with this) and the players who fill these squads are therefore of a 'county standard', regardless if how good they actually are. If county cricket requires, say 360 players (around 20 players per county, the figure is irrelevant though), then those 360 players will be the best 360 available. It would be fallacious to assume that there are far better options lurking undiscovered in the leagues or minor counties.

 

[Richard]

The club has confirmed his signing. He's always done well against us and has been unlucky with injuries, so perhaps he could yet develop as a player.

Richard will doubtless be sorry to hear that JA's not going to be in the dole queue at Christmas but hey.

No, just sorry that he won't be moving on to a career he's better-suited to than cricket.

 

[Richard]

I'm not really sure that that's the point Marcus was making though - the counties need squads of a certain size (however much you disagree with this) and the players who fill these squads are therefore of a 'county standard', regardless if how good they actually are. If county cricket requires, say 360 players (around 20 players per county, the figure is irrelevant though), then those 360 players will be the best 360 available. It would be fallacious to assume that there are far better options lurking undiscovered in the leagues or minor counties.

By "county standard", I mean "good enough to succeed at county level", not "good enough to be among the top <insert number> players in the UK". Sometimes the number of Test\ODI-standard players available to one side are greater than eleven, sometimes lower; there'll still be eleven players in any given international team.

In any case it isn't absolutely neccessarily the case that the best players all turn-out on major county staffs; sometimes there will be league and minor county cricketers who don't want to play professionally who will be a little (obviously probably not that much) better than some who are.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

But who are the counties supposed to employ, even if these players aren't up to the standards you expect county players to reach? And surely 'county standard' is determined by the actual talent pool of players available, rather than your own conceptions of a standard, although that point is probably a little more contestable.

It's not your criticism of James Anyon as been a sub-par cricketer that makes no sense, I'd actually agree with you there having seen him bowl. It's the idea that, despite being effectively the best available option, he still shouldn't be employed by a county that needs to produce a squad of players.

 

[Richard]

Two different points: one, that of "what is county standard?"; obviously there'll be some ambigiuity with such a large base but most players can fairly well be said to be either good enough to be succeeding regularly at county level or not good enough to thus. I'd classify the former as "county-standard" and the latter as "not county standard". It's probably a bit more murky than "Test\ODI-standard" but it's still I think clear-cut enough.

And two, who are the counties supposed to employ? Well, it just astounds me that any county prefers to give a contract to some patently sub-par player from another county instead of either awarding it to a home-grown youngster or just reducing the would-be squad by 1.

 

[zaremba]

it just astounds me that any county prefers to give a contract to some patently sub-par player from another county instead of either awarding it to a home-grown youngster or just reducing the would-be squad by 1.

You might find it less astounding (1) if you knew how bare the cupboard is in terms of young home-grown seamers at Sussex and (2) if you consider how thin the actual squad is at Sussex in terms of seamers of any description. We are desperate and if we had plucked Scott ****ing Boswell out of retirement I'd be pretty happy about it

 

[Jarquis]

Arafat's your overseas for 2010 isn't he zaremba? Sheesh

 

[zaremba]

Arafat's your overseas for 2010 isn't he zaremba? Sheesh

Yep and we've lost Sandri and Dwayne Smith, and our attempts to sign Kabir, Tremlett and Hoggard all fell through. Which means we're going to throw ourselves into the Grand Anyon

 

[Jarquis]

Yep and we've lost Sandri and Dwayne Smith, and our attempts to sign Kabir, Tremlett and Hoggard all fell through. Which means we're going to throw ourselves into the Grand Anyon

Never heard much of Sandri during the season so will assume he didn't have much of an impact. Suppose it all feels much worse when it eventually leads to James Anyon.
I know I spoke to you a little while back and you were craving for a seamer as your overseas. Happy with Yasir?

 

[zaremba]

Not really, no. He seems to be a really nice guy and he's a very useful player in limited overs cricket but he's a bit short of class in FC cricket.

Sandri (Saffer with an Italian passport) hardly played for us but got some wickets against the touring Crims last year.

 

[Jarquis]

Not really, no. He seems to be a really nice guy and he's a very useful player in limited overs cricket but he's a bit short of class in FC cricket.

Sandri (Saffer with an Italian passport) hardly played for us but got some wickets against the touring Crims last year.

Yeah, my initial instinct, when I saw he was your overseas, was to feel a little disappointed. Though he does have a surprisingly good FC record, just seems a little short of quality IMHO.

 

[Pothas]

Yep and we've lost Sandri and Dwayne Smith, and our attempts to sign Kabir, Tremlett and Hoggard all fell through. Which means we're going to throw ourselves into the Grand Anyon

How much do you know about atempts to sign Tremlett? There have been lots of mutterings from certain sections of Hampshire fans (unfairly in my opinon) against him in the last two years but I never even considerd it a possibility that he would leave.

 

[zaremba]

How much do you know about atempts to sign Tremlett? There have been lots of mutterings from certain sections of Hampshire fans (unfairly in my opinon) against him in the last two years but I never even considerd it a possibility that he would leave.

Nothing but Sussex messageboard rumours.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Not really, no. He seems to be a really nice guy and he's a very useful player in limited overs cricket but he's a bit short of class in FC cricket.

Harsh tstl, he's pretty good in my book.

 

[zaremba]

Harsh tstl, he's pretty good in my book.

Yeah he's a good player for sure, and one of the best players in the team, but in the case of an overseas pro you're looking for someone who can really do some serious damage.

 

[Richard]

In which case I suggest a batsman in the finest of Sussex Australian traditions which include Murray Goodwin and Michael Bevan. Not absolutely sure who's available, of course.

Shame to hear the home-grown bowling department of a county that once boasted Lewry-Kirtley-Robinson-RMJ is currently so bare, but the reality is that these things do happen sometimes. No-one can produce talent indefinately. (And yes, I know Sussex didn't really produce Robinson but at least he was a Brit rather than an overseas-player, whether proper or Euro-gleaned.)

 

[zaremba]

I reckon that the Pakistani bowler tradition may be even richer than the Aussie batsman tradition. More names spring to mind at least. Anyhow the deal is done, Yassir is coming back next season and I just hope that he will run through some Div 2 batting line-ups and that the rest of the seamers can either keep it together (JK, RMJ, Collymore) or get it together (Aga, Liddle).