There are a few titbits of news around the game today.
First of all, the Nottingham Post reports that Nottinghamshire have offered a contract to Lancashire’s talented all-rounder Steve Mullaney. An aggressive batsman and seam bowler, Mullaney is in his mid-twenties and at an age where he needs to be playing regular first team cricket. Whether Lancashire can afford to let him go is debatable, especially as he’s scored a lot of runs in their Seconds this year. He’s a good player.
They also report that Nottinghamshire have yet to decide whether to offer another contract to Bilal Shafayat, so if the all rounder is a part of John Morris’ plans we should not expect something to happen sometime soon. If they were to release him, I’m sure that there would be several counties interested in securing his services.
Our local rivals also seem wary of entering into a bidding war for Stephen Moore of Worcestershire, who may, reading between the lines, find the options of a move from the Pears limited by his demands. A better season might have helped him, but he may find himself at the scenic ground for at least another year.
Some might wonder (including DCCC Forever) why Neil McKenzie wasn’t part of my poll on the site at present. The answer is quite simple. McKenzie would need to play as a Kolpak and if we assume that John Morris will not be signing Kolpaks, a deal is a non-starter. If we do sign one, my guess is that the player concerned would be a bowler or all-rounder. I have no doubts that McKenzie would strengthen our batting and would score more heavily than Wavell Hinds, but I’m not the man with the budget nor the task to improve our cricketing fortunes. I genuinely feel that with the return of Chris Rogers and continued progress of younger players that the batting will take care of itself. The addition of another middle order player might be useful, with only John Sadler, Dan Redfern and Paul Borrington competing for two batting places. It may be, of course, that Chesney Hughes is expected to battle for a batting berth next year.
I certainly wouldn't want just Borrington, Sadler and Hughes competing for two of the top six places. Durston or Shafayat would be a welcome addition.
ReplyDeleteBorrington is still a rookie and Hughes is a complete tyro at CC2 level. I think both have promise, but still have a lot to prove.
Sadler has even more to prove in my eyes. As an experienced batsmen, probably on a good contract too, he has done absolutely nothing of note for DCCC yet. I know he had some health issues in 2008, but much like Lungley, he fails to spark season after season.
Here endeth my rant. Must get Sadler out of my system!
MASTERVILLAIN
Yeah, I think we need another batsman Mastervillain.
ReplyDeleteSads for me did little wrong this year and did average over 70 in the Championship, albeit on the back of three not outs! Who's to say what he'd have done had he not got in at 420-4 or similar?
Having said that, next year must be last chance saloon. He needs a big year and so do we.
I agree on Hughes. Seems a good talent, but not an integral part of a batting engine room - yet!
Peakfan, when John Morris released Wavell Hinds he was at pains to stress in his interview that he would not rule out signing 'Kolpak' players in the future so we should not rule it out. Surely, Morris got rid of Hinds to replace him with a better batsman. Looking at your list of 'batsmen to chose from' I don't see a better batsman than Hinds so forget them all, although Durston can bowl a bit of spin. We need a quality middle order batsman to replace Hinds and I would plumb for someone like McKenzie.
ReplyDeleteDCCCFOREVER