Morning after thoughts

It is always nice to be able to write a piece the morning after and reflect on a win.

While one has to take into account the standard of opposition, and Glamorgan, with a couple of exceptions, were a poor side, you can only beat what is in front of you. Our win was the result of a real team effort on a tricky wicket, with most of the side contributing well. Runs were harder to come by and I think you see the real merits of a batsman on such tracks.

Many a flat track bully has boosted their season average on flat wickets and against poor attacks and there are plenty in the international game whose impressive average is inflated by some big innings against lesser sides.

Conversely, there's a certain pressure with bowling on wickets that help you. It's nice when you rip your fingers across the seam and it jags sideways, but there is then an expectation that you do your stuff. As Edwin Smith once said to me, most of our wickets in the 50's were prepared for Gladwin and Jackson, who seldom let us down, but he had to be ready to do his stuff when the opposition prepared a turner.

There's been a lot of discussion about the signings of Tom Lace and Martin Andersson. I have previously made the point that Lace was a 'horses for courses' signing as an opener and he has impressed so far. My understanding, from a comment made at the member's meeting, is that he 'might' be available for next season, though whether as a loan signing or on a permanent deal wasn't made clear. He is contracted to Middlesex until the end of 2020, so a loan would seem the most likely scenario, if there is one.

Despite a comment elsewhere on the blog, Andersson is contracted to the same date and only recently signed a new deal. Both, one would think, might better develop their careers playing in our first team than Middlesex seconds and they have plenty of players ahead of them at that county.

I would have no issue with either, from what we have so far seen and they appear to have fitted in well. The question, as I have said before, is the inference it makes about our own development structure.

I know we have no opening batsman and no seam bowlers so far advanced in their development. My concern is the message it sends out about the current younger players and about the academy structure itself.

At present, we seem to develop a handful, let them go when they haven't made it by 21 and then start again. Leicestershire picked up Parkinson and Taylor and are rumoured to be in the wings should Will Davis be released. Tom Knight was messed around dreadfully and there are plenty who argued the case for Ben Cotton's retention.

Either these players were poorly managed or they were never quite good enough. Yet we need to look at this. Why play Tom Wood all season, watch him score a thousand runs and not play him, given opportunity? What does it say to Callum Brodrick?

The second team played last week at Chesterfield and there was no coach with them. Mal Loye was apparently away with the Academy and it cannot be right that the players we are hoping will step into the senior side have no one to guide, nurture or fight their cause. How can you know, from a distance, that a fifty was classy and skilled, or full of edges and mistimed shots? Or that five wickets were well-earned, rather than the result of poor shots and blinding catches?

I cannot now see a way into the side this season for Anuj Dal. It may be that the consensus is of style but no substance, but perhaps we will never know. For what its worth, whatever structure David Houghton comes up with must surely include someone who handles the second team and someone else to take the academy. Otherwise you end up with someone spread too thinly to do either job well. Like a good few others, I have struggled to get a handle on many of the second team players this year and too often it has appeared a bit of a rag, tag and bobtail outfit.

It's a shame and needs to be sorted over the winter.

Postscript: I note that the giant 21-year old Zimababwe fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani, who has held talks with Northamptonshire, has not yet signed for the county.

Muzarabani, who quit international cricket for a county career, played for our seconds earlier in the season.

I just wonder if he might be on Dave Houghton's radar? Were there any interest, or the money for that matter, the Head of Cricket's status as a national cricket legend would do us no harm.

Post postscript.. He signed this morning for Northants. Maybe I reminded him he had a contract offer to sign...