Houghton plans to give youth its head

Like a few of you, from the emails and messages I have had in the last 24 hours, I was a little surprised at the interview with Dave Houghton  yesterday.

In it, for those who have been out of contact, the Head of Cricket said that we will not be immediately replacing Hardus Viljoen, but will offer opportunity to young players and retain the money in the cricket budget for when someone who would strengthen the side becomes available.

I understand the rationale. As I said yesterday, domestic players will have signed deals somewhere if they are good enough by this stage, while we can only assume that overseas options are either not there at the moment, or are too expensive or too great a risk at this time. The loan market may be one we tap into again, but no county is going to loan us a bowler in January and find themselves short in April.

I applaud the idea of giving youth its opportunity, and none of us outside of the club knows the progress made by Sam Conners, James Taylor and Alfie Gleadall over the winter. If they don't get the chance, we won't know if they can rise like cream to the top, or if they have the mental and physical resilience to make it in the first-class game. They have done well at age group level, so let's see what exposure to a higher level can do for them.

Houghton and Steve Kirby will know the ability of these lads and must feel they have something, on which basis I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt and bow to their knowledge, expertise and closer proximity to the players.

However, with that comes a couple of caveats.

One is that the club MUST now give the Head of Cricket a long-term opportunity to develop the club and the young players passing through it. Like many others, I have grown tired of the constant changing of coaches and John Morris, Karl Krikken and Graeme Welch were not bad at their job. They all had weaknesses, as we all do, but they each brought strengths to the party too, as did Kim Barnett in less of a hands on role.

Dave should now be given five years, if he wants that long at his age, to bring through this crop of talent and others. Let's see what he can do in the longer term, because in the short term he has been hamstrung by a departure ten weeks before the season.

Can we expect Tony Palladino to stay fit all summer and do as well as last year? He is 35 now, while Ravi Rampaul's fitness last summer, a year younger, was questionable. Is it equally realistic to expect Logan van Beek to stay fit for six months and play all cricket as a seam bowler? It is a long time since we had a full season overseas bowler and it will be a big ask again.

My notional side for the opening game would be:

Godleman
Lace
Reece
Madsen
Hughes
Critchley
Hosein
Van Beek
Palladino
Rampaul
Youngster

Outside that eleven, at present, we have two other young seamers, Anuj Dal, Matt McKiernan and Hamidullah Qadri. Perhaps there will be a deal for Tom Wood too, and of course Daryn Smit is around but more likely in the second team and coaching.

So we need a lot of luck with injuries. Having three all-rounders in the top six is an asset and both Luis Reece and Alex Hughes could do well on early season pitches, but we will just need to wait and see. After all, if we signed one more player, we may have one more injury, as that's the way that the game can go...

This isn't like when Mark Footitt left, because he took a lot of wickets. Hardus had talent, but will go down for me as a massive disappointment. His supporters will refer to Hove, detractors to The Riverside and plenty of others when direction was quite simply shocking at this level. Nor was his plastering the trappings of his success all over social media especially conducive to team spirit either, when others are paid considerably less but are contributing much more.

Don't underestimate the value of team spirit. If luck goes our way and a relatively young squad stays fit, desire and togetherness can reap dividends.

Finally today, Gareth asked last night how much I thought we had saved from the departures of Gary Wilson, Hardus Viljoen, Ben Slater and Duanne Olivier.

The answer isn't simple, because the latter, for example, like Lockie Ferguson, has been replaced by Van Beek. You also need to factor in improved contracts for key players too, and the need to do the same for Matt Critchley, if things go to plan.

My guess - and I am no more privy to player salaries than any of you - is that we have the Viljoen salary as our 'pot', as and when there is a perceived need to use it. When the right player or players are available, that could prove very useful.

Only Dave Houghton will know when that is.