Moving musings

It can’t be a lot of fun to be a Gloucestershire fan at the moment. John Bracewell was today denying that Anthony Ireland and William Porterfield were joining Middlesex and Surrey respectively, while out of contract Vikram Banerjee and Gemaal Hussain have been the subject of approaches from other counties. The latter’s refusal to sign a tabled contract from the one county to give him a chance after years of rejection speaks volumes to me for loyalty, or the lack of it. If there is any truth in the stories then I’m surprised by the Porterfield move. He’s a fair player, but Surrey have a lot of talented young batsmen who will presumably be shunted back down the queue should it go through.

Banerjee is a decent bowler though and with the dearth of decent spin options around the country will perhaps not lack for suitors. His average is not especially impressive, but he seems to be an improving bowler and at 26 should be at the stage where he knows his game pretty well.
John Bracewell has today berated his Gloucestershire batsmen for their batting in 2010, saying that they averaged only 66 balls per innings. While neglecting the fact that Bristol was marginally easier for batting than a cabbage patch, it is a startling statistic more appropriate for a club side. It was also announced that the county will have a £200K cut in its playing budget for next year, as the difficult financial climate around the country takes yet another victim.

Meanwhile Ryan Sidebottom is set to return to Yorkshire, a move that should see them with the best pace attack in the country. Now that he has retired from the international scene he will be a huge asset and should command a suitably inflated salary to match. Given their well-documented financial issues I’m not clear how they can afford him, but they’re presumably banking on future international revenues.

Another seamer who has been released is Danny Evans at Middlesex, a young bowler who has looked a player of talent for some time. Were we not so well off for seamers I would have been happy to see him at Derbyshire, but I’d not be surprised to see him return to his roots at Durham following the retirement of Neil Killeen.

It’s all very quiet on the county news front, though don’t think that means things aren’t going on behind the scenes. I’m sure John Morris has made contact with several players to test the water over potential moves but these things go at their own pace.