Can You Ruin Your Overseas Pro?

[Teatime FatCat]

Here at the home of cricket, we have had an unfortunate habit of ruining our overseas pro's and sending them home as shadows of their former selves.

I think back a few years to 'Hampo' (nicknames used to protect the innocent), our big strong Aussie, who was talent spotted by one of our members whilst on holiday. After his welcoming night, and several buckets of ale, he fell asleep on the cooker whilst preparing a snack, and managed to grill the side of his face, with a resulting criss/cross scar. During the season he put on 3 stone, and returned to Oz to play two grades lower than when he left!

There was 'Mango', a skinny Aussie from Steve Waugh's club. He was so traumatised by his season with us that when he went home, he took holy orders and now lives in a monastry!

There was 'Gunny' our first (and last) Sri Lankan who stole a member's credit cards and went on a huge shopping spree before his flight home, leaving our furious member with a huge bill.

....and finally, who can forget 'Hatty' our barking mad Saffer with Tourettes. A fit young man with a great cricketing future ahead of him, he has left us for the last time this season with a hopeless addiction to Mars bars and an alcohol dependancy!


Still - they were all jolly nice fellows.

[Goatman]

Sound like a rum bunch to me....

A large and ancient (founded in the 19thC!) club in NL got a young Aussie as thier overseas player, back in the late 80's. He liked NL so much he stayed, got his residency and went on to become the most effective batsmen NL have yet had, playing in 2 world cups. However, more than a decade of watching this man, who we shall referr to as "Jongen", boshing tons against hapless Dutch bowling attacks seems to have left the club in stasis. Jongen is still the clubs "proffessional", still the clubs leading and only bat, and now doubles up as the clubs groundsman and batting coach to the current NL team. There is currently not a single other bat in the club worth the name, the club has thus been relegated from the Hoofdclasse and further decline seems inevitable as Jongen moves on towards retirement.

Do very good pros make a club too complacent and lazy to bring on thier own talent? It seems to have in this case.

[Teatime FatCat]

Don't know about that Goaty - we've never had a really good pro.


The best we had was a Saffer Doctor who was working at the local hospital, and waited until halfway through the season before he popped down to his local club 'to see if he can get a game'. We didn't have an overseas boy that year, so we took a leap of faith and nervously stuck him in the 1XI for the next game.

It was 3 weeks before anyone got him out. He scored over 500 runs in 8 games, including 2 tons and 5 fifties.

We asked him back properly for the next year.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Teatime FatCat

Here at the home of cricket, we have had an unfortunate habit of ruining our overseas pro's and sending them home as shadows of their former selves.

Still - they were all jolly nice fellows.

Difficult to say TT. Very difficult.

Should be able to run through the whole horrid affair for my lot.

Staffy (West Indian) promised much in his first game and delivered partially, unfortunately nobody now knows anything of his whereabouts.

Crags (Australian) produced an excellent fifty in his first match - against the weakest opposition we ever played and then moved to old South Wales to play part-time on an entertainment circuit!

The DG (Zimbabwean) after imposing himself on some of our midweek fixtures retired to play more tennis.

Bails (Zimbabwean) after lots of laager, vast handfuls of wickets and a great deal of big talk disappeared at the first sign of a well paid IT job.

Scottie (Australian) produced an excellent fifty against strong opposition in his first match, was out first ball in his next and bowled five overs for 496 (perhaps not quite as many as that, but by all accounts it wasn't very good) and was then poached by our specialist fixture secretary who just happens to be life president of a high flying Surrey League club. We never saw him again.

Disney (Australian) stayed two seasons scoring more runs than anyone else had ever managed in that time without ever quite bringing up three figures - very consistent though, and returned to Australia (sadly) to play two grades higher than before he came.

He is our one true success.

Mitch (Australian) promised much and showed little - he suggested that he'd be taking our highest ever score record and in reality he only fell 120 short of it.

We think he's coming back for another season, but quite frankly, I doubt it.

Though, as you say, they were all nice chaps and Mitch could be instrumental in my clubs mooted 2006 tour to Sydney.

It has fallen upon Mitch and myself to make this happen.

[flanflinger]

Goaty,

My club made a very strategic decision, and one that I have always appluaded.

Rather than invest in a pro who would bring instant success and would cost a lot, but may not be a long term option, we opted to invest in several ECB coaching qualifiactions and build up a colts system. The result is tha we are producing our own good young players, who will be around for years.

I have seen a number of clubs in my league put all their money in one overseas pro for short term success, but actually rather than ruining the pro I have seen it ruin the club. The problems I have seen

1. Other players leave as they do not get the cahnce in the 1st XI
2. Lack of investment in youth
3. The Overseas player goes back home and the club is no longer competive
4. Young players not getting experince

As far as I am concerned only clubs in the heighest leagues should have a pro, all other clubs should be investing their money in colts, and longer term success.

[Teatime FatCat]

I think in the case of the 'Home of Cricket' pro is a rather ambiguous term. We find work and lodging for promising club players who should by rights by a cut above any of our players and we try to get them to stay for a couple of years at least to develop relationshps and to get the most out of them on the coaching front.

Financially this is not a big strain on the club, it takes up one place only in the 1st XI, and if you get a good one they cosch the youngsters and drag up the standards of training - so I'm all for it.

Hatty, our most recent boy was with us for 4 seasons and is much loved, despite his penchant for getting really ********** on colts nights and announcing to the assembled parents that he was "off to drain his lizard" every 1/2 hour.

The reality is that at our level (our 1stXI is in Div 3 of Surrey Championship) the kind of player you find / are offered has to be taken on trust. Therefore, every other year you end up with a ropey one who has hyped his reputation, and when a good one comes along, you try to keep them.

[Oliver]

Ah journeymen... you remind me of a discussion I was having with a friend who came up with this:

Originally Posted by Friend

"Why do so many counties sign journeyman foreign players when it would be a heck of a lot better to develop players like Chris Schofield and Rikki Clarke who have played Tests but at times been unable to get a game even for their county?

"Looking at the Gloucestershire squad. They played no less than five overseas players this year plus Craig Spearman (who has at least said that he wants to play for England). Ok, it is true that 9 of the C&G winning team were England qualified, but who the hell are Shabbir Ahmed and Nathan Bracken? Shoaib Malik - 6 matches, 134 runs and 10 wickets - has had two absolutely fruitless seasons in Bristol but seems likely to return... why? Of the overseas players only James Franklin (3 matches) put in any major contribution. Between all of them in 24 matches they took just 45 wickets and scored 782 runs (John Lewis, an England reject, took 57 wickets and 193 runs in 16 matches). On the traditional "20 points per wicket and 1 point per run scored" the mottley imports averaged 70 points per match. John Lewis, who is not regarded as being good enough to play for England even in ODIs, averaged 83...

"Enough said. Gloucestershire are not even the worst offender. Long gone are the days when overseas players had to be outstanding and Mike Brearley rejected signing Terry Alderman for Middlesex as he was "not world class" and stated that he had no interest in signing anyone only marginally better than the home players on the staff. If I recall rightly, Alderman took 41 England wickets that summer."

Yup, he really waxed lyrically on that subject... any thoughts?

[Teatime FatCat]

Yeah - county sides should be restricted to 3 x non British players. That includes Kolpak, Overseas Pros and Backdoor Bunnies. Of course, if they try and do that for the good of the game, they'll get taken to court.

In my opinion, county chairmen should be more responsible over who they recruit.

Derby & Gloucs are two of the worst culprits, with many 'grey area' players in their squads ahead of home-grown talent. If you don't recruit 'em, you don't have to pay 'em or play 'em.

Grant Flower playing as a UK qualified player is a disgrace.

It's the same at top flight club cricket. Jimmy Adams played two divisions above us a few years back, whilst he was still an international.

Last year, a club in our lowly league had 2 Pakistani fringe internationals playing for them who did all the batting and all the bowling. Where's the point in that!?

[Oliver]

Which was the best sandwich, by the way? Sausage and Ketchup I thought. Couldn't be the chicken tikka - far too commonplace now.

[Teatime FatCat]

Sausage and Ketchup it is!


Right, in the pantheon of Chertsey CC Mega Stars, what do the following do (you'v got a 50/50 chance here Frog Boy)


Dave 'Buttocks' Butler A) Hairy Arsed Longhopping Fast Bowler B) Bouncy Young Keeper


Umoon the Moon Monkey A) Medium paced dobbler B) Pea-Brained Opening Bat


Glen Ford 'Transit' A) Kiwi Ocerseas Allrounder B) Treasurer


Streetcrime Gawley A) Tearaway Quick B) Off Spin Lobber


Spiros the Greek A) Dark Haired fiendish Leg-Spinner B) Bar Steward