Pre-Season Preview

[flanflinger]

I thought it would be good if the various fans of Counties were able to do a Pre-season Preview of the their counties Season.

The preview should include

1. Summary of Last Year
2. Change in Personnel - who's out who's in
3. Overseas players
4. Propects for the season
5. Player to watch

Below is a Template which all the Previews should use.

Would be great if we could get a Preview for every County... I am working on a Surrey one, will post later this evening.

[flanflinger]

County:-
Championship:-
Nat League:-
Captain:-
Coach :-
Overseas Players:-
In:-
Out:-
Last Year Review
This Year's Prospects
Player To Watch:-

[flanflinger]

County:- Surrey
Championship:- Div 1
Nat League:- Div 2
Captain:- Mark Butcher
Coach :- Steve Rixon
Overseas Players:- Azhar Mahmmood, Harbhajan Singh
In:- Mohammed Akram
Out:- Alex Tudor, Nadeem Shahid, Saqlain Mushtaq, Adam Hollioake
Last Year Review

Well as the Vauxhall end came crashing down, so did Surrey’s season. Starting off with a new coach and a new Captain. Change was in the air, but not sadly change for the better.

For many teams coming third in the Championship might have been considered a good season, but for much of the season Surrey were struggling in the relegation zone. We were really saved by Mark Ramprakash who had an amazing last half of the season. Scoring five of his six hundreds in just four games. It was this period that coincided with Surrey’s up-turn in fortunes.

Sadly with Bicknell, Tudor, Mushtaq and Salisbury injured for most of the season, the bowling was often very weak. Some matches Ormond and Mahmood looked the only players likely to take a wicket, but they received sporadic support. Murtagh so often look innocuous and achieved more success with the bat than the ball. Doshi looks a good spinning option, but with the signing of Singh, you get the feeling any progess he has made will not be continued into 2005.

The least said about the National League and the C&G cup the better, relegation and humiliation summarising the year. Losing to Ireland has to be the low point of what was a very poor year.

The Twenty20 cup almost made up for the rest of the season, a full house at Lords and then a big win in the Semi’s against Lancashire. But ultimately losing the final to worthy winners Leistershire.

This Year's Prospects

Simply it can't get any worse. New Skipper, Mark Butcher, and a very capable Vice-Captain in Mark Ramprakash, if he does get called up to the Tests, which is looking less likely. Plus halfway through the season the new Vauxhaul end will be revealed. It is exciting times.

I would hope that we can claw our way out of Division Two of the National League. If we can't then it will have been a very poor season.

My major fear is whether we have the bowling to make a real impact in the Championship. Bicknell cannot go on forever, and frankly we do not have someone of his calibre coming through, Mohammed Akram may fill the gap, but I am not wholly convinced. Newman and Ramprakash will probably again make the bulk of the runs. Clinton looked good, but since losing Ward we have really struggled to have a good opening partnership, however we could see a lot more of Butcher this year than we have in recent times.

Jon Batty can be left to work out his own game, and it may improve his performance. It must have been hard being the Captain, and being one of the few members of who had not played Test or ODI Cricket.

Habarjhan Singh is a great signing, and will seriously strengthen the bowling in the later half of the season. But I do wonder how effective he will be during the Cold and Damp early months, especially away from the Oval.

Without the remarkable efforts of Adam Hollioake the Twenty-20 cup will be a different proposition for Surrey. However, the carrot of an Oval final may hopefully encourage many of them to raise their games.

I am hopeful, but enter the season more cautious than any season before, I still feel we are a quality bowler short to really achieve anything this season.

Player To Watch:- Scott Newman

[Andy Mellon]

County:- Essex
Championship:- Division 2
Nat League:- Division 1
Captain:- Big Ronnie Irani
Coach :- Graham Gooch
Overseas Players:- Danish Kaneria, Andre Adams
In:- Andre Adams, Grant Flower
Out:- Scott Brant(unattached), Zobi Sharif(unattached), Adrian McCoubrey (unattached), Aftab Habib (Leics)
Last Year Review: Essex endured a mixed bag of a season last year. At the start of the season, the expectation was for a quick promotion back to CC1, but a struggle to make much of an impact in the National League. Whilst the latter held fairly true, the former was sadly not the case.

The season started poorly, with the bowling in particular not firing on all cylinders. Several different bowling options were used to support Darren Gough and Graham Napier, including Scott Brant, Ryan ten Doeschate, Adrian McCoubrey and the injury-prone Ashley Cowan. The season began to turn around when Danish Kaneria became available after international duty. A recovery in the bowling happily coincided with a significant improvement in the batting, the highlight of which was a cracking performance against Leicestershire with a score of 708-9 including centuries by Will Jefferson and Alastair Cook, and a score of 212 off only 284 balls for James Foster. Unfortunately, the game petered out into a draw. Following a victory in the return fixture, and a 384 run win over Championship hopefuls, Hampshire - Essex started to crawl their way up the table. The loss of potential victories in rain hit matches against Championship whipping boys, Derbyshire and Durham counted against Essex in their push for promotion, however, it was looking possible for Essex to catch up with 3rd placed Hampshire.

However, the end of promotion ambitions came in a demoralising defeat against Glamorgan. Having scored 642 all out (centuries from Flower, Irani and Foster), Glamorgan were 286-7 until an inspiring Robert Croft and Matthew Maynard added 163, followed by another 138 runs between Croft and David Harrison. Harrison scoring a run-a-ball 88. Essex capitulated in the second innings - falling to 165 all out, before salvaging some pride taking 6 Glamorgan wickets before the runs were rattled off - Croft again coming to the rescue.

In the National League, early season struggles led to a push to preserve Division 1 status towards the end of a season, this status being preserved with a good victory against Glamorgan of all people! Essex scored 316 - 4 with Glamorgan falling to 153 all out. Irani scored 158 not out off 145 balls and Graham Napier scored 24 off 8 balls.

In the C&G, Essex progressed to the Quarter Finals with a crushing victory by a margin of 184 runs over Notts, with an opening stand of 248 between Jefferson and Flower before Napier ran through the Notts top order with a hat trick of Gallian, Hussey and Pietersen! In the quarters, however, Essex slid to defeat by 21 runs against Worcestershire.

This Year's Prospects: - This year, pretty much the same sort of season is expected, with hard hitting from Irani, Jefferson and Napier - coupled with one-day bowling specialists such as Gough and Napier - a decent performance in the one-day competitions is expected. The draw for the C&G looks tough, however, with Lancs as the first opponents.

Progression in the county championship looks unlikely, with the bowling line up looking a partnership breaking fast bowler short of taking 20 wickets. Much of the bowling will rely on Gough and Cowan remaining in one piece for the whole season, as well as Kaneria being available for the whole season.

However, it looks like other sides should struggle to bowl out Essex twice - with a line up of Jefferson, Cook, Flower, Flower, Irani, Foster, Middlebrook, Napier and Adams down to number 9 all having scored centuries; they are going to be a tough nut to crack.... And we all know how Warwickshire managed to win the CC1 last year, so who knows?

Player To Watch:- Will Jefferson

[Notts Exile]

County:- Nottinghamshire
Championship:- Div 1
Nat League:- Div 1
Captain:- Stephen Fleming
Coach :- Mike Newell
Overseas Players:- Stephen Fleming and David Hussey
In:- Graeme Swann, Stephen Fleming
Out:- Kevin Pietersen, Bilal Shafayat, Stuart MacGill, David Lucas, Richard Logan
Last Year Review
The aim at the start of the season was promotion in both Leagues and that was achieved. Champions in the four day version and third in the 50 over league.

David Hussey, called up as a replacement for the injured Damian Martyn showed the Australian strength in batting by being Notts' top man. He was closely followed by Pietersen and the rest of the batting line up. The entire Notts team contributed at some point. The signing of Mark Ealham was inspired, he really proved Kent wrong. Chris Read was sent back to work on his batting and responded by averaging over sixty - the top wicketkeeper/batsman in the country. Gallian, Bicknell and Warren all put in top performances along the way.

Paul Franks returned to form with the ball as well as putting in some top innings with the bat. Greg Smith, the newly signed Ryan Sidebottom and Charlie Shreck were a force to be reckoned with and MacGill played well every now and then.

The low point was the C&G defeat to Essex at Trent Bridge, less said. Twenty20 hasn't been Notts' strong point yet!

This Year's Prospects
The management are talking up our chances of getting a top three finish in the Championship. The rest of us will be happy with consolidation and survival. The loss of Pietersen should be compensated for with the arrival of Fleming (the best captain in world cricket) and Graeme Swann who will take over the spinning mantle as well as strengthening that batting. If Warwickshire could do it last year then why not Notts this year?!

Notts should do better in one day cricket, Paul Franks must be the best number nine in the country, so there's no lack of depth. The worry is the bowling, do they have the discipline in the limited over format?

Player To Watch:-
We'll be watching Pietersen's peformances at that batting paradise otherwise known as the Rose Bowl with great interest. Closer to home David Hussey should build on his first summer and Graeme Swann's arrival will be interesting to see.

[cantplaycantalk]

County:-Durham
Championship:-Division 2
Nat League:-Division 2
Captain:-M Hussey
Coach :-M Moxon
Overseas Players:-M Hussey (Aus), A Nofke (Aus) +(C Thorp (Aus) , D Benkenstein (SA) , G Breese (WI) Kolpaks)
In:- M Hussey (Aus), A Nofke (Aus), (C Thorp (Aus) , D Benkenstein (SA) Kolpak)
Out:-Marcus North (Aus), Ian Pattison, Shaun Tait (Aus), Pallav Kumar
Last Year Review With serious injury problems and the failure of both overseas stars (Gibbs didn't turn up and was replaced by Marcus North who largely didn't turn up either!, Shoaib was either injured or just couldn't be bothered and his replaicements were laughable) plus the loss of Harmison to international duties to much pressure was put on the youngsters. Overall a poor season which turned on a number of nearly matches. In the end we almost pulled a promotion out of the bag in the NL even so, falling at the last hurdle in a very tight race for the 3rd promotion place in NL2.
Mark Davies came through to star with the ball in a depleted attack picking up 50 wickets at a good average before breaking down and missing the end of the season with injury
This Year's Prospects An influx of Kolpaks and M Hussey to bolster the batting should take some pressure off Collingwood, Lewis , and the youngsters, and this year would seem to promise much improvement. Mark Davies and Liam Plunkett should have some able help from Noffke in the bowling department, however if anything this could be the weak point of a much more balanced Durham side for 2005. In conclusion Durham are a much stronger side for 2005 and will be looking for promotion in at least one of the two competitions.
Player To Watch:-M Hussey (and of course Steve Harmison)

[darren cook]

How big a blow do you think this will be to Notts.

Any idea who they might bring in as a replacement.

[Notts Exile]

Originally Posted by darren cook

How big a blow do you think this will be to Notts.

Any idea who they might bring in as a replacement.

I hadn't heard this one, Darren. An attack of Smith, Sidebottom, Franks, Ealham and Swann wouldn't be too bad. And Andrew Harris played a little towards the end of last summer too. I'll be interested to see what they come up with, Mick Newell has made good signings so far, he obviously has a good eye for a player.

[Zainub]

I just wanted to say that I think this is an excellent thread, especially for some one like me, who is not as acquainted to the English Domesitc game as some of you are. Very informative this thread. Very useful as well. Hopefully more previews for me to read soon.

[Paoli]

County:-Derbyshire
Championship:-Div 2
Nat League:-Div 2
Captain:-Luke Sutton
Coach:-David Houghton
Overseas Players:- Michael DiVenuto (Australia), Travis Friend (Zimbabwe)
In:- Travis Friend
Out:- Mohammad Ali, Neil Gunter, Steve Selwood, Rawait Khan, Andrew Gait, Nathan Dumelow

2005 Preview:- The feel at the County Ground after last county season was the eerie one that Derby fans have come to know, leaving 2004 as a season that all Derbyshire fans would rather to forget quite soon. Without their star run machine in Michael DiVenuto for a majority of the season, Derby knew that 2004 would not be easy, but Pakistani import Hassan Adnan played consistently for 1380 runs @ 51 for the season.

But that was about where it stopped for Derby; yielding only one win in Division Two of the County Championship. It only got worse for Derby when IT Manager John Grainger was jailed for having child pornography images on his computer, and the possible Limited Overs team name change, from Scorpions to Phantoms, dossier was leaked. And CEO John Smedley left by "mutual consent" after a period of stress leave- most likely brought across by Derby's terrible performances. His hard work in trying to erase Derby's name as one of the shabbier counties must be admired though

On the cricketing front, the bowling was spearheaded by the ageing medium pacer Graeme Welch, who collected 45 wickets @ 33 in 16 first class matches. He was supported by Mohammad Sheikh, who took 26 wickets @ 36. Australian Chris Rogers was a find on the batting front and made invaluable runs during his short stint.

This years prospects:-Alot of the hopes this year, especially on the bowling front, lie with precocious young Zimbabwean all-rounder Travis Friend, who can bowl with genuine speed, as well as being quite a lusty hitter of the cricket ball. He will most likely be the spearhead, taking over from an ageing attack. Michael Di Venuto's presence at the crease will be there for all to see, as will the continuing form of Hassan Adnan, and a bit of Bassano brilliance

Players to Watch:-Young Travis Friend who hopes for an international comeback will be up for show, throwing a bit of life into a workhorse-like attack. M Di Venuto of course, Hassan Adnan, Captain Luke Sutton should display his poise, and Graeme Welch to continue trying his best year in year out, as Derbyshire fans hope that they can start working their way up the table, and possibly, in a few years time, go back where they belong; Division One.