Always thought he had very limited ability. Seemed a nice lad though who always played when available no matter what whether it be 1st XI, 2's, club cricket, friendlies or whatever and for that I admired him. He never shied away. He'd play in the Blast on a Friday night then open the batting for Barnt Green on a Saturday afternoon.

I like Ol and I obviously understand his PCA role but he's put his above the parapet here on something totally ridiculous. I'll happily criticise Chis Woakes too for when he spoke out against the current schedule. He hasn't played county cricket anything like regularly for 9 or 10 years, he can't comment.

Piss taker ain't he

The irony of OHD playing this game as he campaigns for less county championship matches being played shouldnt be lost on anyone...

Gleeson is a Blast only deal I believe so is only contracted so is only paid during the Blast? Garton white ball only with a pay as you play option for red ball? You'd hope?But has never turned out for the 2's in the 2nd XI championship so...he has done sub fielder a few times for the 1's. Theres never be a time where time thought "we need Garton here" personally when watching the CC. Don't think either are anchoring the club with exorbitant salaries. Could be wrong.

Interesting debate, enjoying all views and opinions. Ah Gsscoigne, how clueless was he, he just didn't 'get' county cricket at all.

BosworthBear wrote:

Plenty of space and room at Nuneaton CC and Cov and North Warwick but I suspect the Club will look for a Birmingham ground to pacify the vocal people.

There seems a sudden shift away from County. Championship at Edgbaston. Our Chair led calls for reduction of matches. Our CEO told the members forum we lose 60k on every county game played at Edgbaston.

Looks like they will do everything they can to keep Edgbaston for internationals, Hundreds and subsidised womens games.

I’m normally passionate about playing games around the County but I’m suspicious about what’s going on here.

I love games at Edgbaston as much as anyone else I just want some games around the county and us to retain our identity.

Edgbaston is starting to get a life of its own separate to the Club.

Agreed, very worrying. Similar sort of thing to what Lancs are doing with the site in Preston by the sounds of it.

Highveld wrote:

I just considered the use of the Birmingham title as been similar to having a title sponsor on other sports, eg Mclaren Mastercard F1 team or Petronas AMG Mercedes in F1., or Newcastle Red Bull in Rugby Union or RB Leipzig in football.

The club is Warwickshire County Cricket Club, the players and staff get paid by Warwicksshire CCC Ltd, so the use of the title sponsor was temporary and was a neccessary evil to obtain the funding needed to safeguard the stadium's Elite ground status, and untimately the long term survival of the club

Fair point

paulbear wrote:

I tend to think that having a 'City' name doesn't always sit well if you have members who are also football fans and don't want to associate with elements of having to shout out "Come on Birmingham". This was an argument for not not putting out a team called 'Manchester Originals' in that OTHER inferior competition as certain Lancashire fans pointed out that they were form other parts of the county and didn't want to be associated with a team with Manchester in the title. I can quite understand. Did being called 'Birmingham Bears' drive away a few fans from supporting the team as they didn't want to be associated with Birmingham. I have no idea if this was the case but I could understand certain people being against it.

I think it's a bit deeper, Paul. Those people don't want to be associated with Birmingham full stop and I completely understand that especially if yer not from Brum but yet some of these people support Birmingham City or Aston Villa, its bizarre.

Great post ITE7376, so many good points. The numbers would suggest the batters have batted well this comp, most strike rates there look good.

But no you have to pick a side and be staunch over it. If you don't hate Alex Davies and criticise him at every available opportunity you won't get on on here. Pick your favourites and stick to them. Don't do in depth discussion and debate.

I'm a Birmingham based member and I was gutted when they changed the name of the T20 side to Birmingham Bears. I found it embarrassing. I completely understood we had to bend to the council though. And personally I was never not going to support the players in every comp at all levels.

Not sure it had an adverse effect (affect?) on attendances though. Those from areas with the CV postcode often seem to be the more casual supporters whereas those from Brum, Lichfield areas (we have good number of supporters from here and it often gets overlooked) aswell as the Black Country (lot of Pears there too) seem to be the more match going supporters. Those from Cov, Nuneaton etc seem to be the ones pedalling the anti Birmingham rhetoric too that seems to have crept in lately. Curiously lots of these proud Warwickshire types support Birmingham City or particularly Aston Villa in football as far as i can tell...

To revert back to being Warwickshire Bears would be a huge win though.

So they wanna reduce the amount of county cricket played anyway and on top of that they're looking to reduce the amount of cricket played at Edgbaston?

Ross Whiteley.

2010, we won the CB40, 2012 we lost, absolutely gut wrenching defeat.

No, can only play overseas who have played in the group phases? It's just bad luck Latham got injured otherwise he'd have been coming back.

Not really the area I'd have looked to strengthen. Desperately need a pace bowler in the CC. Suppose Booth helps here.

Interesting.

Feel like he'll take Mousley's place at 3 which is probably a little bit harsh after making 69 and 75 in his 2 most recent CC innings.

Maybe he opens.

Not played a huge amount of cricket this year...

Agreed, I'm a huge fan of Kai, he's a much better keeper now than he was in April May but he's still got a way to go. Tuesday showed that, he was particularly untidy though he did take a good catch to dismiss Ibrahim. He'll get there.

ITE7376 wrote:

I'm going to throw a bit of a hand grenade in here but I can't help noticing the double standards regarding Davies and Barnard

Davies gets a T20 team to the knockout stage for the 2nd consecutive year and gets a dog's abuse for it- and he got us to the knockout stage last year with a basically unbeaten record in his tenure as captain, recovering the team after a terrible start after we looked appalling losing (i think) every game (or virtually every game) under the lacklustre 'guidance' of Moeen.

He visibly injected energy and purpose into that dismally failing T20 team last year, until the usual QF bottle job which has roots deeper and wider and longer than Davies has been at the club to be blamed for. (for a start, and I'll throw another hand grenade in, our best batsman by far Sam Hain is a big-game bottler who has only once made a contribution in I think 8 T20 knockout games it is now. I say this as someone who near-worships Hain, but facts are facts, he has a horrendous record in knockout T20, just the 2017 final knock against Notts to his name amidst a series of limp, anxious failures).

(I also recall distinctly Davies getting 1000 CC runs last year and it scarcely causing a ripple of recognition on here.)

And St Ed of Barnard, forum darling, his team snatches competition failure from the jaws of success, to seemingly near-universal acclaim.

Look, I love Ed and he's had another good year in this comp but not nearly up to previous standards, and until the ton at the weekend was having a pretty mediocre competition with the bat. He also got out especially early in the comp playing shots certain other players (mentioning no names) would be taking abuse for playing.

I think there are a couple of factors specific to T20 in play here, not least that nowadays we go into the QFs with our best two batsmen robbed of time at the crease and form and touch by the 100, not Davies's fault.

I also think that on here and among members particularly, T20 (for various reasons in my opinion, some pretty churlish) is willfully downgraded as the least important comp, so I suppose i can see why not getting to the knockout stage in 50ov can be counted equivalent to doing so twice in T20. In fact, not just equivalent but better, just about everyone praising St Ed's captaincy and looking forward to the next campaign after what was ultimately an unsuccessful debut as captain, nobody doing the same for Davies for getting to 2 QFs.

I'm being both a little facetious and exaggerating just a little for effect. But only a little, 'well done Ed, credit for the this campaign!', I see above; credit for what? having his worst 50ov tournament with the bat in 3 years (pretty sure his wickets were down too), and captaining a team that failed to get to the knockout stage?

Imagine the reaction if he'd got us to 2 consecutive knockout stages.

I'll leave the mini-rant on this thought, Barnard and Davies have exactly the same number of match-winning centuries in the 50ovs this year. The reaction to those centuries was a comical study in contrasts. Its not a complement to say the seemingly constant need for club supporters (of any sport) to find a whipping boy makes the club supporters concerned look just like football fans. If there is a club, and a forum, there will be a whipping boy, and there will be a darling. Its like BBC 5live on Saturday at 6pm on here half the time, which really, really isn't a complement.

Great post.

UrsaMinor wrote:

paulbear wrote:

Well, we need a strong side and as we will have our players back from The Hundread so we should be alright to put out a full strength side.

I'd have Sam Hain and Danny Briggs back but Bethell will be with England and I'm not sure that Mousley merits a place ahead of, say, Shaikh. Who's available from the Overseas players?

For the Blast quarter final? Mousley is way ahead of Shaikh.

We'd have been at home Thursday had we have won. Ageas Bowl unavailable due to the Hundread apparently. Middlesex v Hampshire at Radlett on Thurs.