2008 County predictions

[Notts Exile]

I assume Jason Brown is an honourary South African? 'Cos every other bowler Northants have is a Saffer. Six Saffers in the Northants side yesterday. Leicestershire played at Trent Bridge yesterday with six Saffers and an Aussie! And Kent at full strength would have three Saffers and two Pakistanis. This is a disgrace. The real positive will be if these sides fail miserably this season.

Hopefully the ECB will restructure the payments given to counties for fielding England qualified players. They should make it so that those fielding fewer than eight or nine are penalised to the extent that they would struggle financially to continue down that route.

[darksideofthemoon]

The ECB should only give a county money for England qualified players in their squad. If half the squad are foreign that the county should only get half of the £1.3m.

[Collyisamackem]

Northants vs Leicestershire today...shouldn't this be held in Durban? The Kolpak situation needs to be sorted out, it's almost amazing how Panesar managed to get a game at Northants before his England call-up!

[Collyisamackem]

Does someone from the ECB read these forums?!
Cricinfo - ECB to review flood of Kolpaks

If so:

1) Don't rush Flintoff back, save him for SA and bat him at 6. Five bowlers, he'll be ruined if he's one of four.
2) Harmison: Make peace not war, if he bowls well give him another chance. And I know Mark Davies isn't the fastest, but 200 wickets at 22 - if Steve Kirby and Alan Richardson can play for the Lions, Davies can.
3) Mustard can play a long innings, I think, and stand up to anyone bowling under 88mph. He's your man! Just to give a nod, Ponting c Mustard b Onions is the future .
4) Bell, at 3, for years. Okay?
5) Hoggard plays.
6) Shah, Read, Key et al deserve looking at again, but only if people under-perform - Michael Vaughan, time to pull your socks up.
7) Ashes, or else.
8) Fun is allowed at test matches, though I'm not sure I'm up for that cross-dressing malarky I saw against Bangladesh at Durham. Beer snakes are fine.
9) Make Leicestershire and Northants join the SuperSport Series and decamp to Durban and Pretoria respectively. Tell them to leave their Englishmen, Paul Nixon apart, behind - they can join Somerset.
10) We need spin, and bounce, and grass on pitches, occasionally, i.e. a bit of a contest.
11) Twenty20 will happen, but give the Pro40 the boot instead of the CC.

That's all for now.

[Notts Exile]

Originally Posted by Collyisamackem

9) Make Leicestershire and Northants join the SuperSport Series and decamp to Durban and Pretoria respectively. Tell them to leave their Englishmen, Paul Nixon apart, behind - they can join Somerset.

Somerset: who are going down the Leicestershire route themselves with Kieswetter, Willoughby and De Bruyn.

Notts and Worcestershire seem to be those making the biggest stand against Kolpakers. (Notts have never fielded a Kolpak player, to my knowledge).

[Notts Exile]

Originally Posted by Collyisamackem

2) Harmison: Make peace not war, if he bowls well give him another chance. And I know Mark Davies isn't the fastest, but 200 wickets at 22 - if Steve Kirby and Alan Richardson can play for the Lions, Davies can.

Davies is surely worth a place ahead of Notts' Charlie Shreck?! Pace isn't everything, as Glenn McGrath showed for years. Davies evidently has something, that record is quite superb.

[Collyisamackem]

Originally Posted by Notts Exile

Somerset: who are going down the Leicestershire route themselves with Kieswetter, Willoughby and De Bruyn.

Notts and Worcestershire seem to be those making the biggest stand against Kolpakers. (Notts have never fielded a Kolpak player, to my knowledge).

Yes, Somerset are and that pains me - I have very close personal connections with Somerset now, particularly Yeovil, and I'd rather see them do well with English players than Kolpaks.

I think you're right on Worcestershire, and I think their signing of Simon Jones was a real coup if he can really build his fitness - he's playing today and last time I checked already had two wickets in addition to his FPT five-for at the weekend. I've never given them much of a chance in any season, but they are making the right moves and with the likes of Moore, Kabir Ali, Davies, Jones they look more impressive on paper this season. I'd certainly rate them above dead weight sides like Leicestershire, Gloucestershire, Glamorgan and a Panesar-less Northants.

Davies might be a drum I bang from time to time, however 'slow' he's seen as he has performed consistently at county level and barring injuries Moores is giving people like him (and Read) a chance now.

[pie_chucker]

Originally Posted by Notts Exile

Davies evidently has something, that record is quite superb.

I agree, his main problem apart from a percieved lack of pace is that he has had a terrible injury record.

Hopefully if he can stay fit for an entire season.....