Yeah he's done an interesting interview on the Kent website today. Sounds as though he could have carried but he's lost a bit of hunger and desire for the game so he's knocking it on the head. Very much leaving the game on his own terms.

Has confirmed his retirement from international cricket.

Totally. It's not just players either, it's coaches and backroom staff etc. We've never been the best with contract renewals re. players (i think we maybe improving slightly, couldnt really get worse). And we don't seem to well with recruiting coaches and staff. There's been numerous instances in the past couple or so years of positions being vacant for absolutely months on end.

A very talented, and very responsible, cricketer.

Notts openers put up similar numbers in 2024 and they finished beneath us though? Alex Davies was the 2nd highest run scorer in the division that year. We were 7th, they were 8th.

Ben Slater and Haseeb Hameed are extremely good openers and have had a couple of good years I think this Notts team is excellent all round though, a strong battery of seam bowlers, some of whom have genuine pace. And they're young. In Liam Patterson White they have a solid spinner who can make big runs with the bat from number 8. Farhan Ahmed coming through aswell to give a further spin option. Lyndon James a seam bowling all rounder. Notts recruit heavily but 3 aforementioned are all homegrown, credit to them. They've lots of players who are really good but probably won't get called up by England, that's key. A middle order who convert starts.

I think they're a lot better balanced outfit than Surrey ever were lately. Surrey always seemed to be 100-5 before the tail would get them upto 330, somebody from 8 to 11 always made runs be it Clark, Joverton, Atkinson or whoever, and then the seamers took over. Generally relied of part time spin. Won 3 County Championships.

Just think Notts are a good all round team who have recruited heavily but also seem to have got their own academy working. Core of the squad has been together quite a while too. Patterson White, James, Hutton, Slater, Hameed, Joe Clarke have all been together quite a few years now, 6 or so I'd say. Steven Mullaney and Paul Franks as ex players now coaches obviously know the club inside out. Mick Newell too. They've stuck by Peter Moores through some pretty average times, some not so long ago. He's been head coach since 2016, with Newell as DoC, just think of all the change and upheaval we've had in that time.

Our issue is, and I've said it before, is that we seem to have too large a turnover in staff (players and coaches) every 2 or 3 years. Different bowling coaches, different bowlers, different head coaches, different Director of cricket (we're on our third one since 2021) etc...only Yates, Hain and Woakes remain from the side that won the Championship in 2021. We've just got no continuity and until we do we'll always feel like we're in a transitional phase.

Dry yer eyes Will Rhodes. And mind the gap.

Goodness me what a bottlejob that is.

We don't tend to add many runs from the tail either, we're a bit 6 or 7 out, all out still. Thompson should improve this. And Barker actually.

Exiled Bear wrote:

Weirdly enough, despite the batting collapses this season, I actually think that if we’d had a bowling attack capable of taking 20 wickets consistently that we’d have been competing right up near the top. We got ourselves into good positions in quite a few games (most of them, really) but it was generally our inability to bowl sides out that really cost us I think. Convert even only a couple of those 9 drawn games to wins and the table starts to look a lot different.

Agreed, we've batted alright, about 4 batters have averaged over 50. And the likes of Zen Malik and Mousley have shown theu can contribute. We've been powder puff with the ball though.

Westwood’s an obvious step up on Robinson, we've atleast shown a bit of fight in a lot more games and taken some games a lot deeper. He's also a bit more open to giving younger players some game time. Deserves a full pre season. Like Highveld has said, he wasn't til 7 or 8 weeks before the first game.

Big picture we haven't had the bowling attack to compete game in game out. Next season with Thompson, more Gilchrist, some Keith Barker and maybe a bit of Woakes hopefully that improves.

Lewis McManus is captaining/keeping/opening for Northants, it's becoming the latest 'thing'!

Highveld wrote:

Young is an opener, Mousley and Malik have opened at 2nd team Level, Bethel has opened in International cricket (U19), I think Kai may have too when he played for UAE.

Also, were we not told when Davies originally signed his hands had long term injuries that prevented him keeping in red ball games?

This is what Alex Davies and Glen Chapple fell out over apparently. England wanted to call up AD to it's white ball squads as keeper/batter in 2021, GC informed Eng that AD's fingers were knackered and he couldn't keep. AD disagreed. John Simpson got the call up instead. AD signed with us for 2022.

I don't understand why Will Young didn't open in this game and Davies, if he must keep, not drop down to 5/6.

GerryShedd wrote:

Andy wrote:

OHD so broken by it all he can't even bring himself to play today!

I don't want to pile in on OHD too strongly because I know he has to represent the views of his members. But his own season's workload has hardly been burdensome. He has played ten four day games plus six one dayers and one t20 (max 47 days). He has bowled 334 overs in the season. Taking a year from the past at random - say, 1951 when Warwickshire won the Championship - Derek Shackleton of Hampshire, a bowler of fairly similar pace to OH-D, played 31 three day matches (max 93 days) and bowled 1171 overs.
Quite a difference!

Thing is OHD has played for Harborne CC about 6 times this season on Saturdays, but yet he's out here saying he and his members are playing too much county cricket and they need more rest and recovery time? He's give himself 6 extra days of cricket this year. Lovely lad but he might not be the brightest...

That last little mini session was all a bit predictable. Notts rampant.

Yes, good team. They only won 2 games last season, quite the turnaround. Feel like Hameed always scores big runs against us.

LeicesterExile wrote:

Plus Woakes comes across as someone who does not think they play too much cricket which might be an example to young ones coming through.

I love the lad but he literally did an interview early this season backing the calls for a reduced county cricket schedule.

Jack Haynes didn't like that decision then...

GerryShedd wrote:

Considering his heroism in batting with his shoulder dislocated and his arm in a sling plus his overall record for England, I think that Chris Woakes deserved better than to be on the receiving end of Rob Key's dismissive remarks. As I understand it, he really needed an operation on his shoulder in order to have a permanent solution; but he opted for physio and other treatment specifically to try to be fit for the Ashes. If he hasn't recovered enough to be fit for the Ashes, that's a shame. But I don't think Rob Key needed to say publicly that he wasn't in England's future plans. He could have said it privately and Chris might then have opted to announce his retirement from international cricket and gone with dignity.

By the way, George Dobell says that Chris might go back to county cricket or go down the franchise route; but he says that: "it is, perhaps, more likely that he moves into coaching and the media."

Yes he's obviously losing his central contract and I think he's out of contract with us so this may see him retire completely. I hope not though, I'd love to see him do another season with us.

When watching/listening to Rob Key doing this interview I don't think he came across very well at all, almost laughing at one point. Crass.