Very welcome. Experienced; capable; really helps to balance the side. Excellent news.

Remember when people on here wanted him dropped from the 4day side

Congratulations to Ed - the PCA MVP for 2025:
https://www.thepca.co.uk/domestic-men-mvp-2025/
Note Ethan Brookes in third place.

A very talented, and very responsible, cricketer.

Ed Barnard is the speaker at the Cricket Society event at Edgbaston tomorrow afternoon. It will be interesting to hear what he says about cricketer workload, bearing in mind that he played all 14 four-day games plus 15 T20 and eight 50 over matches this year.

Wow - so just to clarify that is every single game? Including games opening the batting, bowling and games as captain?

GerryShedd wrote:

Ed Barnard is the speaker at the Cricket Society event at Edgbaston tomorrow afternoon. It will be interesting to hear what he says about cricketer workload, bearing in mind that he played all 14 four-day games plus 15 T20 and eight 50 over matches this year.

Yes, he had a busy summer.
He had some interesting things to say. Firstly, he said he was glad that the 14 match Championship season is being retained, though he did acknowledge that there may be quicker bowlers than him who take more out of themselves who struggle a bit more with the amount of cricket; and some of the juxtapositions of fixtures are problematic.
He spoke highly of Alex Davies as captain (sorry, guys, but he did!)
He also said that he would really like to play in The Hundred and was disappointed not to be picked for one of the teams. He saw this as a chance to play against some of the best players in the world and that it might open the door for him to get some overseas franchise opportunities. He did think, though, that it should be changed into a T20 competition.
He said that he still has nightmares about the last over of the Blast match against Somerset.
Plenty more; and he came across as a very sincere and likeable character.

Yeah that certainly seemed like some well-balanced and nuanced points, fair dos for putting it out there. If him and Davies are an effective and complementary pair of co-captains that will probably get the most out of the group. They need to respect each other for that...

They will never take to the field as a team; but Ed has been selected as captain of the PCA MVP team of the season:
https://edgbaston.com/news/ed-barnard-is-selected-as-the-captain-of-pca-team-of-the-season/

GerryShedd wrote:

> He spoke highly of Alex Davies as captain (sorry, guys, but he did!)
i didn't think St Ed could possibly do anything to lose the crowd on here, but there it is!

> He also said that he would really like to play in The Hundred and was disappointed not to be picked for one of the teams. He saw this as a chance to play against some of the best players in the world and that it might open the door for him to get some overseas franchise opportunities. He did think, though, that it should be changed into a T20 competition.

he was a little unlucky not to, IMO

> Plenty more; and he came across as a very sincere and likeable character.
somehow that is no surprise at all. I have no idea how i might have arrived at the conclusion but somehow the way he carries himself around the field just seems like he must be a very nice man. Woakes was the same, except i saw him at close quarters so i knew how polite and pleasant he was

Sometimes in life people have to follow the "party line" even if it isn't what they truly believe.

Like last years choice of "players player", election results are not always accurate or honest.

I agree that Ed could hardly have said that AD is a rubbish captain and nobody likes him. But he did seem to speak sincerely. As the great George Burns said: “The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made.”