I don’t know about the rest of you, but something stood out to me when re-reading the piece that I highlighted yesterday on IMWT.
John Morris indicated that he expected the bottom to fall out of the market for players in the light of current financial difficulties around the country. With what appear to be ‘average’ players currently looking for £50,000 salaries, I have a feeling that Morris will sit tight for a while until reality perhaps hits a few of them.
That reality is that few counties have that sort of money to spend on anything but the finished article. While the likes of Owais Shah and Ryan Sidebottom will command impressive salaries, lesser lights may have to accept that the gravy train is fast running out of Bisto granules. If they are serious about remaining in professional cricket, their expectations may need to be lowered somewhat. Playing for £30,000 may be anathema to some, but is perhaps more palatable than demanding £50K and finding there are no takers for your services and that others have now taken the position that you could have had.
Of course, if the player’s self-valuation and Morris’ own match we may see action sooner, but I was also intrigued by the comment that even with the penalties some Kolpaks could be better value.
That should keep a few eyes on South African domestic cricket this winter…
A good observation Peakfan, which I only picked up upon after a couple of reads myself.
ReplyDeleteOf course, we can only read in between the lines, but there appears to be a strong pointer towards overseas solutions. The West Indies cupboard is pretty threadbare, so South Africa would seem the more likely hunting ground. To be be quite honest, I think there is a very good chance that the official overseas player may come from the same destination. There are few Aussies that really satisfy Morris's likely selection criteria, taking all playing and financial factors into account.
We will have to keep track on which South Africans pick up caps this winter, as a few fall short of the ECB qualifying rules. I scribbled down a few possibles the other day, but some may prove to be too expensive. Anyway, this was my roughly assembled list:- Petersen, de Villiers, Botha, Harris, Prince, de Wet (if fully recovered) and Parnell. McLaren and van der Merwe need a few more games under their belts from recollection.
If we were plumping for a couple, I suppose we should opt for a batsman and a spinner (if Peterson's departure is confirmed). de Villiers and Prince may be too expensive though and I do wonder if van der Merwe is that effective in the longer game, where wicket taking becomes the primary aim, rather than containment.
MASTERVILLAIN