Rayb wrote:

Sorry to sound rude but if there is a “power struggle” between Davies and Westwood we are in bigger trouble than we might of thought. Two of the most uninspiring individuals that have ever been in charge of Warwickshire CCC, in my opinion, of course. Briggs will be missed in white ball cricket, as well. A far better cricketing brain than the captain.

Totally agree with all of this.

It is really clear the squad for T20 is simply not good enough. They are competent cricketers, but they don't as a team have that thing that makes you a winner, lack of belief. Last year I got suckered in that they had everything in place, but they bottled it (by the way never understand why we don't with home advantage really set things up with pitch location and condition of wicket to really suit our team). The team is out of balance, carrying players, out of form, not available etc this starts with the management (pathetic job again), it makes it so much worse when the opposition are so weak.

It is interesting to read comments over the last few days that are making points some of us have been making for the past two seasons, if not longer.

Some players are not been used correctly, we have to many "white ball mercaneries", who hardly play, and don't add value when they do. The captaincy is abysmal, both in style and decisions. We are also wasting too many overs using bowlers who are conceding about 15 runs per over, that is a sure way to lose the game.

The composition of the squad is poor, especially when Bethell and Woakes are on England duty. We have no viable batting alternatives, Yates has been dropped, as happens every year, Malik & Sheikh qould not improve the side. Yet again, we are dependent on Sam Hain & Ed Barnard to produce a match winning score. Good as they both are, it is not reasonable, and unfair, to expect them to produce 100% of the time.

We should allow Ian Westwood to appoint his choice of Captain and VC, and give him total control over the selection of the plaing side. Ian was appointed to his role so late in the off season that it was difficult to put his plans into place before the season started.

There is the core of a good squad, that should be competitive in all forms of the game, but a lot of rebuilding is needed, which should include making use of the loans market to strengthen the side for this season. It might also be an idea to send some players who aren't in the side out on loan, so they can get first team experience at D2 level.

Whitelightning - I think last year in the quarter final, we did have a plan and at the halfway stage, it was working but the batsmen made a huge mess of it. The playing area, like in recent matches, was large and we kept Gloucestershire down to 135 and whether or not our batsmen had been practicing to hit balls far and wide, I seriously doubt it as a lot of them were caught inside the ropes whilst trying to clear it. Instead of just knocking it about which was ideal. It did appear that we had a plan but the blokes with the heavy bats forgot to complete their side of the bargain. Usually when we fail in the QF's, it is usually the batting, Sussex many years ago not being able to chase 150, making the same v Hampshire a few years later and against Essex at home, not making more than 160+, not being able to chase Hampshire's 180+ 2 years ago. Last years debacle appears worse if you consider Gloucestershire have lost all 5 of their games and looked abysmal today in the first 10 overs looking as though they were playing for a draw in a CC game. I got chastised for saying that we shouldn't lose to sides like that but I stand by it, they were another of the 'We scraped through' brigade who went on to win it. We do have plenty of what we call 'T20 specialists', but if you win a lot of games in the group stages (Even accounting for losing in the QF) you are unlikely to drop a lot of them for other players. I think most of us on here could pick better sides and Benjamin was a case in point last year, we all knew Burgess would be a better option and it wouldn't surprise me if Lintott was in for the next game but is a passenger if he just bowls 1-2 overs and gets smashed. Same for Garton, if he's in, let him bowl from overs 7 onwards. Mousely and Briggs are now considered T20 players but whomever we pick, we cannot rely on the few to keep getting us out of trouble. Come on Westy, be bold, make some changes.

I agree with your points Paulbear, however, due to pathetic planning we literally have no options. That is why the team has been unchanged. Guess the only one we could consider bringing in is Yates. Hoping Gleeson comes back in soon. We are terribly unbalanced and lacking in belief. Carrying Latham (not a T20 player), Mo (scratching around, desire?) Garton (bowls one over?), Smith (poor kid comes in 8), Lintott (form? not actually very good?).

Yes, a case of 'Stuck with what we've got' as the saying goes. Latham, even though he did score very quickly on Saturday once he got going, his scoring before the 8th over was very slow. That is fine 'IF' you go on to make a good score but if you suddenly get out for 25 and it's taken 25 balls, that is a waste and looks as though you haven't taken advantage of the powerplay. Gooch used to do the same, great if he batted through 80% of the innings but if he got out 30-40% of the way through, it put pressure on his team mates who couldn't accelerate like him. It might be a case of 'Trying to muddle through' and hoping to get to the quarter-finals and from then on, one-off games, anything can happen. Plenty of sides have done this, us to a certain extent in 2014.

It could be argued in the last few years we've peaked far too soon so end up out of sorts by the knock outs. Maybe this year we will time our run better. However as per usual the south group looks a lot stronger to me.

As a fan, I’m sitting here thinking on the positive side, we might peak at the right time, we do have talent, and the changes regarding strategy and plans can be rectified very quickly.

The pessimist in me sees the following though:
1) Poor appointment timing of Westwood, had no time to really put his own stamp on the side regarding recruitment or captaincy.
2) A lack of preparation, as noted before Northants had clear plans and tactics, which the captain altered as necessary based on the game situation. This might partly be due to the late appointment of Westwood and that the T20 captain plays all formats so had no time either.
3) Poor captaincy, not inspirational (so far), lacks a calm head, tactically lacking.
4) Talent is underperforming or incorrectly used. Moeen turns up once every 4 or 5 matches. Davies similarly. Lintott has been very poor. Barnard is not a death bowler. Garton gets one over a match. Smith bats at 8 and doesn’t keep.
5) No depth of talent. There’s no viable replacements for underperforming players. We have a squad of only 13 basically, but that’s down to 12 because of Booths injury.
6) Bowling line up in all formats is getting old, just not good enough or underperforming consistently. Needs freshening up.
7) No replacement for Bethell, who we won’t be seeing much of anymore because of England and IPL. As a club we should have known that was coming, was pretty obvious from his performances for England at the back end of the summer and the winter.
8) We still accept what I call “Crawley-ism” far too easily. Continue with players who regularly underperform because they have the ability to produce 1 or 2 excellent performances a year. But in the blast and CC with 14 matches, that inconsistency is far more damaging than in 5 or 3 match series.

There’s the ability to turn it round this year. The talent is there, if they apply themselves. But the longer these issues persist without remedy, the harder it gets year on year.

On the subject of timing your "peak" it will be interesting to see how Northants progress - have they peaked too soon or have they the talent to just keep on performing.

I can see why they are loathe to bowl Garton at the death but when he has bowled good, either tight or threatening overs with the new ball, it seems madness to only give him one over and really stores up problems for us later in the innings. must be hell on his confidence to see other go at 15 and he only gets one over