Houghton interview gives interesting pointers

Yesterday's interview with Dave Houghton on the club website gave some interesting pointers for the future.

“We will look at a couple of loanees, but we need to up-skill our youngsters. If you recruit you can often block the path for youngsters and we’ve got some good youngsters coming through" said the Head of Cricket.

He is absolutely right and the potential in the likes of Gleadall, Conners, Taylor and Qadri is without question. Yet it would be naive, I think, for supporters to expect them to step into first team cricket and make an impression when second team cricket, for most, has proven a challenge.

As it was always going to, of course. While Qadri is the most advanced, the others have all had injury challenges. The potential of Gleadall with bat and ball was obvious at Durham this summer, but he needs to be wary of pushing his young body too much, as they all do. They are only 17/18, so need to be carefully monitored.

The interest in a return for Duanne Olivier was worthy of note, but as I have previously mentioned, other counties will be keen on his services and Houghton referred to 'other irons in the fire'. One would assume that the likeliest source of these would be South Africa and New Zealand, given the county links with those countries. 

There was no mention of a Kolpak signing, though that may be considered if deals were reached to release either Ravi Rampaul and/or Hardus Viljoen. There are one or two from South Africa who may consider such an offer, especially those in their thirties whose international opportunities may be coming to an end. 

Such players as Farhaan Behardien and Chris Morris may be among them, but the key factor is the qualification ruling. Unless a foreign player has an EU passport, they cannot be signed as an overseas or Kolpak unless they have played either one Test match or 15 one-day/Twenty20 internationals in the two years prior to the official application for paperwork. That would exclude a few others who came to my mind and South Africa are getting canny in not giving Test caps indiscriminately, then risking losing the player. 

As for loans, they would make sense in our current financial state. There is an obvious 'in' at Middlesex, where Houghton has spent the last few seasons, while Surrey must surely be an option for a loan bowler, given they have so many. Two Currans, Morkel, Clark, Clarke, Dernbach, Plunkett, McKerr and Meaker is an embarrassment of riches. They might even go for Olivier...

Don't discount our dear neighbours in Nottingham either. Their signing of three batsmen and a bowler in the season's closing weeks looks like leaving a few players facing second team cricket and players like Jake Libby, Chris Nash and Billy Root will struggle for regular first team chances.

We'll see.

Enjoy your weekend.