Dominic Cork Was He To Blame?.>

[Ernest]

At the beging of last season Lancashire were hot favourites to win the County chamopnship, and I have long wondered what went so badly wrong Lancashire were relegated to Div 2.

I have just been reading one possible cause was Dominic cork.
I read he was a bad player to have in the dressing room, he thought he was bigger than the club.

If this is the case, why did Lancashire sign him, they must have known he had an over inflated ego, what was worse, he never really asserted himself on the pitch.

I don't know the truth in all this, but I was not best pleased when I found that Lancashire had signed him.

I expect Lancashire and Derbishire supporters, will be able to shed some more light on Dominic Cork.

[Statto]

Performance wise I didnt think he did too badly. He was one of 3 bowlers to look threatening (with Keedy and Anderson) and he scored a few runs (but not as many as Chapple I think). The rest of the bowlers (Mahmood, Chapple etc) didnt have a great season but the top order also seemed unreliable for the most part. I dont have the stats at the moment but I think only Loye got 1000 runs. The rest (Sutcliffe, Chilton, Hooper, Crook) didnt do a great amount and Law was injured for a while. I think the reason they went down was just down to a collective poor performance through the whole season. Maybe Cork was disruptive in the dressing room but I havent heard anything about this so I cant comment on that.

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Look at Derbyshire in the early 90s. Won a one day final, maybe the best seam attack on the circuit on a good day couple of good couty bats (Adams is a good example). Then Cork decided he was the best thing since sliced bread so every one left. The rest is history.

[Peter Lanky]

I don't think there was any single reason why Lancs preformed so badly, just an all-round poor display. I watched the first match of the season - a friendly against Yorkshire, and I saw nothing to suggest that we were not going to take the title. Unfortunately that was the high point of the season. By 2/3 of the way through the campaign, the players seemed to have given up. We could not even blame the weather, as everybody suffered from the rain, although judging by the state of my garage on many mornings, this was the wettest summer in recent memory.

Cork could certainly have been one of the reasons, but who really knows? It did seem odd to sign a pace bowler when there was (on paper) already enough in this department. Digger Martin will be missed in 2005.

[freddie flintoff 142]

another burnley game called off due the bloody rain!!!


i heard that about cork, steven crook used to pro in our league and andy, his brother (and much better player) who has signed up saided that cork "hadn't lived upto expectations in more ways than one", then being an aussie he went on to how overrated cork is and was (i kinda feel the same). but lancs needed that "personality" in the dressing room after the loss off people like freddie, athers and ian austin. obviously they found one with too much of one.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Peter Lancashire

Cork could certainly have been one of the reasons, but who really knows? It did seem odd to sign a pace bowler when there was (on paper) already enough in this department. Digger Martin will be missed in 2005.

Did Lancashire not win their first game Peter?,BTW, nice to see your post.
You could tell by the middle of the season, that Lanc's were looking incapable of winning a game, word is though, that Cork is a downer in the dressing room, they sure must have enough class to bounce back!!

Originally Posted by freddie flintoff 142 32451

another burnley game called off due the bloody rain!!! but lancs needed that "personality" in the dressing room after the loss off people like freddie, athers and ian austin. obviously they found one with too much of one.

Hi freddie, was thinking about you when it was said on talkSPORT, there was going to be a pitch inspection, we may need a personality, but we are not that hard up.
Truth is, if Anderson finds himself back playing for Lancs this season, with Cork there, we will have to many seamers.

Could be Anderson has carried the drinks for England for a year,or more, only to find he is the tea boy at Lancs.

[freddie flintoff 142]

personally my thoughts of cork of the time we signed him was that it was an unnessary step. in the end we needed him because people i thought he'd keep out (hogg, schoie and couple of other youngsters) were injured or out of form. i still think he a member of the squad and not an outright 1st team player which i think he thinks he is.


his stats for last season

PHP Code:

M  I  NO R   HS  AVE   100 50 Ct
14 20 2  437 109 24.27 1   2  17 


PHP Code:

balls m  r    w    b/b   ave   5w/i 10w/m
1997  59 1144 38   7-120 30.10 3    0 


batting was ok, consindering he was promoted to 6/7 most of the season, for a late order slugger he did fine, and that 109 was off 70 odd balls i think.

bowling tho, surely he is a 45-50 wicket man AT LEAST if he's not off with england, which he wasnt. ave of 30 seems high, and its not like it was a summer that didnt help the bowlers.

cant say i dont like the bloke, loved him playin for england an as a player you'd rather have him on your team than play against but then again has he still got the stuff to back up the growling and stupid sunscreen?

hope he prooves me wrong but im sure i'd rather have hogg (wen fit) and the improving crook brothers in before him this season.

[Paoli]

I was quite surprised when I saw his stats and that he'd made a first class 200

Hardly any bowlers in Australia make hundreds, let alone doubles...How they perform in the Domestic Arena is similar to the Intl. Arena...i guess it just shows the golf between the Sheffield Shield and the County Championship.

[Peter Lanky]

Originally Posted by Paoli69

I was quite surprised when I saw his stats and that he'd made a first class 200

In a way, he was rather like Wasim Akram with the bat, capable of great things yet rarely achieving them. Ironically, some of his best batting performances were against Lancashire prior to joining. Akram also provided some destructive innings when he knew he was about to be dispensed with at Lancs, so the moral of the story is that with both of them, if you get them annoyed, they perform better with the bat. I wonder who wound Akram up when he got 257 in a test?