Think he's a better bowler than Barnard but Barnard a better batter.

Is rejoining Sussex

We've made him a 'sizeable' offer apparently...

Lovely weather for it...

BristolBear wrote:

GerryShedd wrote:

I fully agree with the criticism that the Club should not have allowed him to get away from us but that's a different issue.

This has become a bit of a trend. Overly willing to sign players on trial or from elsewhere, than to persist with our own youth.
We seem to still have an attitude from 20 years ago. That players have to spend at least a couple of years playing 2’s on their first contract.
But young players these days are happy to leave to get game time. Also you look how the likes of Surrey, Sussex (slightly different reasoning), Essex, Durham and some others have gone about it, they identify high potential players, then back them young and get them in the side even if they’re not quite as good as an external player they could sign. They give them time in the team to reach that level. Then only sign “marquee” players who really improve a side or who cover a specific gap.
The talent is there, but there’s a clear gap between academy and first team at the moment.

This is true I'm afraid. We've never really backed our own academy talent as much as the club likes to think. I mean we signed Vaansh Jani (im not knocking him at all) to a rookie contract off the back of a good 4-6 weeks at the start of the season but Isaac Mohammed was going to have to wait til the end of the season despite having an excellent 2024, a strong start to 2025 and an ability to bowl serviceable seam.

The bowling side of things, we contracted Adam Sylvester and put him straight into the side when we had an academy product in Ben Blakemore (who actually has a rookie contract) playing in the 2's.

Somethings not quite right.

Honestly the crying on here sometimes...I'd understand it after the game but during the game...

Great lower order hitting, interesting to see how the 2nd half goes here as this is another difficult ground to defend on...hopefully we've developed and improved since Notts away...

Just bring the same energy when we're doing well...

Some people only post on here when we're struggling I swear...

Anyway, lovely little cameo from Garton here, he can bat...

Totally agree. You see we're quick enough to offer contracts to players from outside of the pathway off the back of a decent couple of months but we don't seem to offer contracts to players who have been part of our own pathway for a number of seasons anywhere near as readily.

Good test tonight against a team that has a history of starting strongly before falling away...

Yes I was watching that game, looked terrible.

I don't really think 2's form has much bearing on first team readiness at all. There's been numerous examples, not just recently, of a player being almost non existent in the 2nd team then getting a 1st team chance and doing well. Look at Zen Malik, no runs whatsoever in the 2's, hits the ground running in the 1's.

Feel like Garton was still a little wayward, he can definitely bat though, I've said this previously. He has good technique and times the ball.

I actually thinks Mousley looks in good nick, nature of his dismissals looks a tad unlucky. However, and I've said this for a while, he's nowhere near as good on the sweep as he maybe thinks he is. Its a good option to score but he makes his best scores when he plays a bit straighter.

Moeen Ali's timing looked way off then all of a sudden he'd absolutely lace one over long on. Class.

Extremely strong win today, much better than Friday when I felt it looked like 2 poor teams playing, we were good today, in all aspects of the game.

Overpowering them here

Fairly strong Derbyshire side, on paper atleast...

Watching him with bat, ball and in the field tonight for Worcestershire and hearing how the commentators are talking about him. Such a handy cricketer, we could do a lot worse than try to bring him back!

From memory, Notts at home and Hampshire at home from last season showed he can guts it out and play the longer innings under game situation pressure. It's a small sample size I know. The season prior I felt he was a little loose outside his off stump (I think it was 2023), he might still be. I appreciate him wanting to go the IPL, I still think at his age and career development he'd have benefited more from playing the County Championship for us though this year. The IPL, and other franchise comps, will always be there for him in the future.

Mousley and Hasan are back

Yeah its a decent article that, quite revealing.

It's all a great shame, seeing an excellent prospect leave our own academy like this. A top order batter who can bowl seam, they don't come along often. We have no problem offering contracts to players from outside the Warwickshire pathway. But when it's 'one of own' we seem so reluctant.

We don't always fully commit to backing locally produced homegrown talent anywhere near as much as we like to think.

I like Farrel.

The_Lickey_Banker wrote:

Andy wrote:

Some of the individual performances from younger players in the 2's have been encouraging this season.

Yes, Jani looks a real find - I wonder whether signing him on a 1 year contract, might have precipitated Isaac to look elsewhere. Though, more likely, it was only us offering 1 year contracts to our youngsters (Worcester gave IM a 3 year).
Similarly, Sylvester has done well for the SECONDS, obviously way short of 1st team quality at the moment. On the other side of the coin, Simmons has had a poor year for the 2nds, but seems to turn it on when playing for the First team.
One to look out for, if he gets more opportunities for us, is Thilan Walallawita. An off spinner, ex-Middlesex 1st team, who has shown a fair bit of potential. He also turns out for the South Asian team.
We all know Dandy & Blakemore have shown a lot of promise and are quite likely to join last year's recruits from the 2nds - Shaikh, Booth, Malik, Kai Smith & Taz Ali, but Theo Wylie hasn't done much this season.

There is something in this from what I'm hearing. People from outside the pathway are been given pro deals off the back of a good month or so in the 2's whereas lads from the pathway feel as though they're having a good couple of seasons (or more) but not necessarily getting the same encouragement/incentive.

Is Theo Wylie injured?