Sheikh was offered a new contract and chose to decline the contract and seek employment elsewhere, as anyone is able to do.

His performances in the Warwickshire first team were not very impressive.

Very good point. No one does appear accountable. Westwood is not the problem, the people who gave him the job are, a soft, cheap, easy passing of the baton. Seasons simply pass by at the moment, if we do find players we seem unable to bring them to their potential and many choose to move on, even if they do make pleasant noises about the club as they wave goodbye. How long will Kai Smith remain happy watching Davies keep the gloves, he’s already made clear his ambitions.

Why do people's bats keep snapping in half?! Jani now Taylor lol

Sums us up

We go to defeat, as T. S. Eliot said, "not with a bang but a whimper."

Tough watch isn't it? Gave up a number of hours ago, come back, watched a four heaved over cow, a scurried two then a catch in the ring. Lintott batting but shouldn't be on him.

One difference between this and the Notts game, from what I've seen, is they've mentally lost it as well. What occured to me earlier today is there are just too many unnatural white ball players in the team to look like they have a game plan. I remember Eddie Jones, ex England rugby coach, saying that you need a third season to get the squad you want (first season is effectively just continuing the prior regime). On that basis next year is judgment time on all squad's format. There's been some criticism of Jani and Malik, rightly, but both were recruited as 2nd XI batsmen so there must have been acknowledgement they wouldn't be able to be effective at the top level.

Whether that's the fault of recruitment or the academy I don't know but we do seem to struggle to bring batsmen along and to make them better.

We were very poor today in comparison with a weak Somerset XI. With no experienced batters or fit bowlers in reserve, it's hard to see it getting any better.

I looked at the Somerset line-up and though that we had a good chance. After such an inept struggle, I really think we will lose all our games.

paulbear wrote:

I looked at the Somerset line-up and though that we had a good chance. After such an inept struggle, I really think we will lose all our games.

Ok did you look at our line up?!

Averages after 3 games

https://countycrickethub.net/team-averages.html?teamid=16&comp=2&year=2026

...and after three matches, Hamza Shaikh averages 114 for Leicestershire.

Andy wrote:

paulbear wrote:

I looked at the Somerset line-up and though that we had a good chance. After such an inept struggle, I really think we will lose all our games.

Ok did you look at our line up?!

Yes I did look at ours but there were a few names in theirs I didn't recognise so I thought that maybe we had a slight chance. Unfortunately for us it was 2 of the names I DID recognise that scored the bulk of their runs.

It’s just not very appealling to watch now is it. The lack of bowling depth is very obvious and barring that opening spell of 10 yesterday, both OHD and Bamber haven’t been at their best with the ball. Besides that, Alex Davies has been nowhere near his best. If you want an inexperienced side to compete, you need your experienced players to guide the way.

Having a Sam Hain available, or a Keith Barker to be a soundboard for these guys would do a world of good. We have so many players currently who look incapable of building a 50 over innings.

For what it’s worth, Charlie Taylor bowled a lot better than his figures suggest and it’s encouraging to see one of our own come in at such an early age and look right at home in the battle.

As a famous NFL coach once said, part of been good enough to play is being available to play.

Too many of our bowlers fail the being available part.

I'd suggest that, unless there are exceptional mitigating circumstances, any out of contract player who was unavailable for 50% of the season is released.

The club also needs to move away from allowing players to fail consistantly with no consequences, I'd suggest we need to look for two or three batsmen to replace our current back up batsmen.

We may need to spend the rest of the season and winter examining what options are available from free agents, and selecting a good fast bowler or all rounder from Aus, NZ or SA.

Highveld wrote:

As a famous NFL coach once said, part of been good enough to play is being available to play.

Too many of our bowlers fail the being available part.

I'd suggest that, unless there are exceptional mitigating circumstances, any out of contract player who was unavailable for 50% of the season is released.

The club also needs to move away from allowing players to fail consistantly with no consequences, I'd suggest we need to look for two or three batsmen to replace our current back up batsmen.

We may need to spend the rest of the season and winter examining what options are available from free agents, and selecting a good fast bowler or all rounder from Aus, NZ or SA.

An overhaul does sound like the best option. Every season we have too many bowlers out injured for a good chunk of the season and too many batsman who simply do not perform to the standard required

We should be pushing for titles every season, competing at least. In reality, it feels like were meandering along without the sense that we have a crop of youngsters who are really going to push us forward in combination with seasoned pros.

Doesn’t help that the batting coach will have his mind on other things and the bowling coach is away with the 16.4.

I'm warming up to my Eddie Jones / 3rd season theory a bit more now. Seems white ball has barely been thought about this year, there has definitely not been a discernable change in approach or an improvement of approach. Could be the case they just prioritised it behind the County Championship. If we place well in the CC (I don't think we are realistic winners), then I think I can take one poor season of white balls if it does bring about some sort of change the next season. Then it's time for a judgment on Westwood as a whole - I get the argument he's an insider and only really continuing the work of the year's before right now.

The red ball improvement under Westwood has been has been great. And he's only really had 1 full pre season. I think people forget how bad we were under Robinson in the CC, and we were getting worse with some proper blow out defeats.

Im starting to question James Thomas a bit more, he's meant to be in charge of recruitment etc, why have we no overseas in for the ODC? Particularly with the injuries we have.

Being wise after the event is rather easy.

This season we had one of best T20 squads in years - the team could have been:
Davis; Bethell; Webster; Hain; Mousley; Barnard; Garton; Woakes; Thomson; Gleeson; Tariq.

Unfortunately Davis’ form fell off a cliff, Garton was injured and Bethell/ Mousley/ Gleeson were playing elsewhere through little fault of our own.

I know there are names in the team that various posters dislike, but the simple fact is that they are (or have been) regular participants in international or national T20 competitions.

With regard to the 50 over competition the loss of Barnard and Hain in the batting and Booth and Gilchrist in the bowling has knocked a big hole in the team, along with Taz losing his form. However, letting Hamzha leave early seems a bit of an own goal, as does the failure to recruit an overseas, knowing that Booth was injured.

I join the despair at the lack of information from the club regarding availability of players - who knows the fitness status of half a dozen of our players? When will Garton be able to bowl? What has happened to Barker? When will Booth, Gilchrist and Simmons be fit? Are Lintott and Wylie dropped or playing? Who knows…….

We need to be careful and not put the blame on the wrong person.

It is not the fault of a coach if a player failed to perform by bowling totally the wrong line and length that was discussed in the pre game meetings, or a batsman consistantly gets out by playing totally inappropriate shots for the ball faced and the game situation.

Players have to take responsibility for their actions, and take onboard guidance from their coaches.

I'd suggest there needs to be a cleaar out at the end of the season, only keeping players who are a established first team players, or have the potential to develop into a regular first team player. This included taking into account the age of the player and their availability.

If you look at counties like somerset and Worcestershire, they have a squad filled with younger players and very few over 30, that is not the case with Warwicks.

there are a small number of exceptions, but if a player is in their mid 20's and they have failed to establish themself as a regular first team player, especially when they have been involved in pro cricket for 8-10 years, you have to ask if it is ever likely to happen.